Tag: Scott A. Makuakane

‘Test Drive’ Your Estate Plan

Kingdom Advisors founder Ron Blue takes an interesting approach to estate planning. He advocates lifetime giving as a way to assure that the objects of your bounty are worthy recipients of your wealth. This could play out a couple of different ways.

As Blue points out, there are three places your “stuff” can go after you die:

• Government, attorneys and other professional advisors by way of taxes and administration expenses;
• Loved ones
• Charity

A good estate plan will minimize the amount that is bled away in the first category. A really good estate plan will help to make sure that your intentions regarding your loved ones and your favorite charities are carried out, as well.

Giving assets outright to your loved ones is a way to give them full control over and responsibility for those assets. However, one of your intended beneficiaries could easily lose his or her inheritance as a result of a divorce, vehicle accident or bad business deal. And this could happen due to no personal fault of the beneficiary. For this reason, many estate plans include ongoing trusts that allow the beneficiaries to have as much control as they are able to handle, while at the same time insulating the trust assets from creditors and predators who might try to take those assets away.

The thing about leaving assets to your loved ones after you are gone is that you will have no idea how each of them will handle his or her inheritance. Your best guess during your lifetime could turn out to be wrong. So what about making gifts during your lifetime that will enable you to see how your intended beneficiaries handle their new-found wealth? This could be a great way to “test drive” your estate plan and determine how well it works while you are still able to make adjustments to it. If one beneficiary turns out to be a poor steward of your wealth, you can always redirect assets in your final estate plan to other beneficiaries, or provide greater restrictions on a spendthrift beneficiary’s control over your wealth.

The same principles apply to charitable gifts. Your favorite charity could turn out to be a poor manager of donated assets. It would be far better to find that out during your lifetime than to leave your loved ones regretting your philanthropic choices. If a charity does what you hope it will do with your gift, you can add to it upon your death. Not only that, but your gift may have far greater impact the earlier you make it. If, for example, you want to provide funding for scholarships so underprivileged children can go to college, the sooner you make your gift, the sooner a scholarship recipient will graduate from college, get launched in a career and turn around and “pay it forward,” as you have done.

As Ron Blue would say, you should consider “giving while you’re living so you’re knowing where it’s going.” It’s sound advice for anyone who prefers to test the water before diving in head first.

SCOTT MAKUAKANE, Counselor at Law
Focusing exclusively on estate planning and trust law.
Watch Scott’s TV show, Malama Kupuna
Sundays at 8:30 pm on KWHE, Oceanic Channel 11
www.est8planning.com
O‘ahu: 808-587-8227 | maku@est8planning.com

Kingdom Advisors founder Ron Blue takes an interesting approach to estate planning. He advocates lifetime giving as a way to assure that the objects of your bounty are worthy recipients of your wealth. This could play out a couple of different ways. As Blue points out, there are three places your “stuff” can go after…
Keeping Peace in the Family

In May of last year, Reuters reported that a Georgia judge had agreed to appoint a mediator to help the family of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. decide whether to sell Dr. King’s Nobel Peace Prize and his personal Bible.

Dr. King carried the Bible during the historic marches and rallies of the 1960s, and President Barack Obama placed his hand on it when he took the oath of office at his second inauguration.

According to the article, the “fight pits the slain civil rights leader’s sons — Martin Luther King III and Dexter King, who want to sell the medal and Bible — against King’s surviving daughter, Bernice King, who opposes the sale of items she calls ‘sacred’ to the family.”

This family drama illustrates two important principles. The first is that a well-thought-out and thoroughly implemented estate plan will give your family priceless guidance.

The second principle is that there are better ways to resolve conflict than in the courtroom.

The Benefits of Good Planning
Putting the time and effort into devising a plan and taking care of all of the details that will make it work effectively will pay enormous dividends.

You may not see the benefits during your lifetime, but your loved ones certainly will.

Putting the right managers in place and taking the guesswork out of determining your wishes will enable your family to focus on honoring your memory and moving on with their lives.

And remember that your estate plan needs to be reviewed and updated from time to time if you want it to be effective.

Conditions change constantly and sometimes rapidly, and failing to make necessary adjust-ments will cause your plan to fall short and diminish the effectiveness of your legacy.

Mediate Rather Than Litigate
Mediation is a way of getting disagreeing parties together, helping to find their common ground, and then working toward solutions that may not make everybody happy, but that will help satisfy their shared goals and values.

If you know that your loved ones are at odds, you can engage a skilled mediator during your lifetime to assure that the eventual settling of your estate will be done peaceably.

If you find yourself in conflict after the death of a loved one or family member, one of the best things you can do is propose that your differences be mediated privately rather than battled out in open court.

Mediation will save time and money in the long run. You may also find that it can open the doors to healing broken relationships.

Even if you don’t have a Nobel Medal or a historic Bible among your personal effects, you can appreciate the value of not having your loved ones hash it out in court over “who gets what” or whether a prized heirloom should be sold.

You may not be able to make everybody happy with your estate plan or with the assistance of mediation, but you can head off or minimize problems that may tear your family apart and tarnish your legacy.

SCOTT MAKUAKANE, Counselor at Law
Focusing exclusively on estate planning and trust law.
Watch Scott’s TV show, Malama Kupuna
Sundays at 8:30 pm on KWHE, Oceanic Channel 11
www.est8planning.com
O‘ahu: 808-587-8227 | maku@est8planning.com

In May of last year, Reuters reported that a Georgia judge had agreed to appoint a mediator to help the family of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. decide whether to sell Dr. King’s Nobel Peace Prize and his personal Bible. Dr. King carried the Bible during the historic marches and rallies of the…
Secret Money for Veterans

Many veterans believe that they have to have suffered an in-service disability to qualify for U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ monetary benefits. This is a common misconception.

Depending on their health status, income and assets, many senior veterans and their dependents or surviving spouse can qualify for not only basic “Improved Pensions” based on low income, but also for supplemental benefits. The supplemental benefits are called “Housebound Benefits” and “Aid & Attendance Benefits.”

PENSION BENEFITS

To qualify for any of these pension benefits, the veteran (or surviving spouse, based on the veteran’s military service record) must satisfy the following general criteria:

• The veteran must have served at least 90 days of active duty.

• At least one of the 90 days of active duty must have been during wartime. Dates have been officially defined for the beginning and end of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam conflict. The Gulf War, which began Aug. 2, 1990, is not concluded yet.

• The veteran must have received a discharge other than dishonorable.

• The claimant and household must have limited income and assets.

• The claimant must have a permanent and total disability at the time of application (note that a surviving spouse can qualify for a basic low-income pension without being disabled, but the veteran must be disabled — although the disability does not have to be related to wartime or military service).

• The disability must have been caused without the willful misconduct of the claimant and must not have been due to alcohol or drug abuse.

HOUSEBOUND & A&A BENEFITS

As the name implies, Housebound Benefits are payable when the claimant is substantially confined to his or her home because of permanent disability. To qualify for Aid & Attendance Benefits, the claimant must:

• Require the aid of another person in order to perform personal functions for everyday living  (such as bathing, eating, dressing, toileting, transferring from bed to a wheelchair or dealing with incontinence), OR

• Be bedridden, in that he or she must remain in bed apart from any prescribed course of convalescence or treatment, OR

• Be a patient in a nursing home due to mental or physical incapacity, OR

• Be blind or have very poor vision.

Applying for these supplemental benefits is not a quick or simple process, and you may want to enlist the help of a veterans’ assistance organization or a specially-trained individual. Note that whoever assists with the application cannot charge a fee for that service. However, if the individual or organization performs other services, fees may be incurred.

SCOTT MAKUAKANE, Counselor at Law
Focusing exclusively on estate planning and trust law.
www.est8planning.com
O‘ahu: 808-587-8227 | maku@est8planning.com

Secret Money for Veterans by Scott A. Makuakane, Counselor at Law, Est8Planning Counsel LLLC from the Oct-Nov 2016 issue of Generations Magazine, Hawai‘i’s Resource for Life
Endowment Gift Keeps on Giving

The very lifeblood of your favorite charity is the annual donations that come from regular donors. When a regular donor passes away or stops giving, it may be difficult for the charity to replace the needed income stream. One way to avoid this is for faithful donors to create lifetime endowments or to leave endowments in their estate plans. It doesn’t take an unusually large gift to make a difference.

If you annually contribute $100, then putting $2,000 in an endowment is enough for that level of annual giving to continue in perpetuity. This ratio holds up no matter how much you give each year. An endowment of 20 times an annual gift should allow for the same contribution to continue each year for long after you pass away or stop giving.

Contact your favorite charity for ideas about how to multiply the benefits of your gift — both for you at tax time and for the charity. If the charity is not geared up to manage endowments, you can create an endowment quickly and easily, with very few administration fees. Organizations like the Hawai‘i Community Foundation (which has offices in Honolulu, Waimea, Hilo, Li¯hue and Kahului, and can be found online at www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org) or the Hawai‘i chapter of the National Christian Foundation (808-524-5678) will assist you.

Creating an endowment fund through an established charitable foundation can also enable you to make gifts to multiple charities. When you create your endowment fund, your gift is immediately tax-deductible (within limits prescribed by the Internal Revenue Code) because the foundation is itself a tax-exempt entity. You can then direct the foundation to send checks to all or any of the charities you support. You can tell the foundation to let the charities know that the gifts came from you or to issue your gifts anonymously.

Moreover, your endowment gift does not have to be cash. If you have stock or real estate that you are considering selling in order to make charitable gifts, you can put those assets directly into your endowment fund and let the foundation sell them. If you sell the assets yourself before you make your gift, you may have to report capital gains and pay taxes on those gains. Your net gift will be the amount of your sales proceeds minus sales costs and taxes.

On the other hand, if you give the assets to the foundation, the foundation can sell them and put the net proceeds into your endowment fund (with no taxes on capital gains), and your potential deduction will be the full fair market value of the gifted assets. If you give more than the law allows you to deduct in any one year, you can “carry forward” your gift and deduct a portion of it over each of the next five years or until you have fully deducted your gift, whichever comes first.

SCOTT MAKUAKANE, Counselor at Law Focusing exclusively on estate planning and trust law.
Watch Scott’s TV show, Malama Kupuna Sundays at 8:30pm on KWHE, Oceanic Channel 11
www.est8planning.com  | O‘ahu: 808-587-8227 | maku@est8planning.com

Endowment Gift Keeps on Giving by Scott A. Makuakane, Counselor at Law, Est8Planning Counsel LLLC from the June-May 2016 issue of Generations Magazine, Hawai‘i’s Resource for Life
What is a POLST And Do I Need One?

If you were to collapse unexpectedly, how aggressively would you want emergency medical personnel to act in trying to keep you alive? If you were a typical, healthy, individual, you would probably say, “do whatever it takes to keep me going, even if you have break a few ribs to do it!” (This can happen during CPR — cardiopulmonary resuscitation.) However, if you were in the end stage of a terminal disease, such as a cancer that had spread throughout your body, and you knew your death were imminent, you may say, “keep me comfortable, but if my heart should stop, please let me go. Don’t try to resuscitate me.” That is where a Provider Order regarding Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) comes in.

A POLST is a special document that you and your doctor (or nurse practitioner) discuss, fill out, and sign to state your wishes about the measures that should be taken to keep you alive. It is different from an Advance Directive in that emergency personnel will follow it, provided that they are aware of its existence. Emergency medical technicians (EMTs) are required to do whatever they can do to restore and stabilize your heartbeat and breathing and take you to an appropriate facility for treatment. They will not take the time to read your Advance Directive and try to figure out how it might apply to your situation. But you can see how in some cases, resuscitation procedures may not be appropriate or wanted. A POLST, being a medical provider’s order, will be followed by the EMTs. Your Advance Directive will not come into play until you are in the hospital, and at that point, the EMTs may not have done you any favors by keeping your heart beating.

Emergency first responders will follow a POLST from your doctor.

Almost all 50 states have some version of the POLST, but some call it by other names. In New York, it is called MOLST, and in West Virginia, it is MOST. VA medical centers have their own term, SAPO, which stands for State Authorized Portable Order. Whatever the alphabet soup used to name the document, all of the orders generally work the same way.

In Hawai‘i, if you have a POLST, we recommend that you print it on lime green paper so it will be recognizable immediately. The trick is to have your POLST nearby and in a conspicuous place in case you should need it. EMTs are trained to look for the green form and follow the POLST order. You can post a copy near your bed, and you can carry it with you when you leave the house. Just make sure your loved ones know where to find it if an emergency occurs.

Note that the POLST does not have to say “don’t resuscitate me.” It can say the exact opposite if that is your wish. Either way, most people do not need a POLST. However, for someone whose death is imminent and who doesn’t want to risk being kept alive artificially against his or her wishes, a POLST is essential.

SCOTT MAKUAKANE, COUNSELOR AT LAW Focusing exclusively on estate planning and trust law. Watch Scott’s TV show, Malama Kupuna Sundays at 8:30 pm on KWHE, Oceanic channel 11
www.est8planning.com
O‘ahu: 808-587-8227 | maku@est8planning.co

If you were to collapse unexpectedly, how aggressively would you want emergency medical personnel to act in trying to keep you alive? If you were a typical, healthy, individual, you would probably say, “do whatever it takes to keep me going, even if you have break a few ribs to do it!” (This can happen…
Qualifying for Medicaid is Unpatriotic?

Some people question whether Medicaid planning might be unpatriotic. After all, Medicaid is a “welfare” benefit funded by our tax dollars. Is it “wrong” to put yourself in the position to have the taxpayers pay for your long-term care? Let us begin by considering what it means to be a taxpayer.

Everyone knows that it is immoral and illegal (and unpatriotic) to cheat on your income taxes. But does that mean any of us has an obligation to pay more taxes than the law requires? Of course not. The Internal Revenue Code allows us to take various kinds of deductions when we file our annual income tax returns. As long as we deduct no more than the law allows, we are engaging in the noble practice of tax avoidance. However, if we knowingly take a tax deduction in an amount or of a kind that we are not entitled to take, the terminology changes to tax evasion. For tax avoidance, a person is praised, for tax evasion, a person goes to jail.

In the 1916 U.S. Supreme Court case of Bullen v. Wisconsin, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote “when the law draws a line, a case is on one side of it or the other, and if on the safe side is none the worse legally that a party has availed himself to the full of what the law permits. When an act is condemned as an evasion, what is meant is that it is on the wrong side of the line.” Taking economic advantage of what our law allows—staying on the “safe” side of the line—is both legal and patriotic.

Justice Louis Brandeis, whose tenure on the U.S. Supreme Court overlapped that of Justice Holmes, famously stated this same principle another way: I live in Alexandria, Virginia. Near the Supreme Court chambers is a toll bridge across the Potomac. When in a rush, I pay the dollar toll and get home early. However, I usually drive outside the downtown section of the city and cross the Potomac on a free bridge. If I went over the toll bridge and through the barrier without paying the toll, I would be committing tax evasion. If, I drive the extra mile and drive outside the city of Washington to the free bridge, I am using a legitimate, logical and suitable method of tax avoidance. For my tax evasion, I should be punished. For my tax avoidance, I should be commended.

Knowing the alternatives that are available to you is the essence of wise planning. You cannot make a choice that you do not know you have. So if paying for long-term care is an issue for your family, learn about Medicaid qualification so you can plan your and family’s financial future wisely. Availing yourself of a benefit that the law allows and intends cannot be unpatriotic.

Scott Makuakane, Counselor at Law
Focusing exclusively on estate planning and trust law.
Watch Scott’s TV show, Malama Kupuna
Sundays at 8:30 p.m. on KWHE, Oceanic channel 11
www.est8planning.com
O‘ahu: 808-587-8227
Email: maku@est8planning.com

Some people question whether Medicaid planning might be unpatriotic. After all, Medicaid is a “welfare” benefit funded by our tax dollars. Is it “wrong” to put yourself in the position to have the taxpayers pay for your long-term care? Let us begin by considering what it means to be a taxpayer. Everyone knows that it…
Legal: Do You Have Four-Legged Children?

While I was growing up, we almost always had a dog (or two) in the house, and they always became treasured family members. You may have had the same experience, and you would not be alone if you have pets today that you consider to be your “children.” I know people who claim to prefer their kitties over their kiddies.

So what happens to your four-legged family members if you become incapacitated, or if you die? Are you comfortable leaving their fate to chance, or do you want to take steps to provide for their well-being for the rest of their natural lives? Believe it or not, Hawai‘i law allows you to create trusts for your hairy household members.

Section 560:7-501 of the Hawai‘i Revised Statutes specifically allows you to create trusts “for the care of one or more domestic or pet animals.” You can even designate a human watchdog who will make sure that your intentions are carried out. In theory, there would be nothing to prevent your terrier’s trustee from making a quick stop at the local dog pound and then pocketing the trust assets that you had intended to be used for your poor pet. However, your watchdog could whisk the trustee in front of a judge and make sure the trustee is held accountable for failing to honor your wishes. Of course, if you choose the right caretaker in the first place, none of this will be an issue.

But what if your two-legged children get jealous of your basset hound’s bequest? Is there a way for them to attack your trust? The short answer is “yes,” and if they can convince a judge that you have left “too much” for your toucan, the judge can reduce the amount in the trust to whatever amount is “enough” to provide adequately for the care, maintenance, health and appearance of the designated critter. In any event, if there is anything left when your pooch passes the pearly gates, you get to say where it goes.

Some pets have very long lifespans, such as certain birds, reptiles and fish. Your pet trust will not be subject to the rules that limit the lifespans of conventional trusts, so you can be sure that, as long as the trust assets hold out, there will be provisions for your pet.

Another consideration that should go into your zoological estate plan is choosing who will provide the day-to-day care for your pets. Some animals bond closely with one human and are extremely persnickety about whose company they keep. When you are gone, someone could end up with a very irritable iguana. Hopefully, you have someone waiting in the wings to become the manager of your menagerie. Your passing is not a matter of “if” but “when,” and you should be brutally honest with yourself when choosing to bring a pet into your home and evaluating the future implications of that choice.

Scott Makuakane, Counselor at Law
Focusing exclusively on estate planning and trust law.
Watch Scott’s TV show, Malama Kupuna
Sundays at 8:30 p.m. on KWHE, Oceanic channel 11
www.est8planning.com
O‘ahu: 808-587-8227
Email: maku@est8planning.com

While I was growing up, we almost always had a dog (or two) in the house, and they always became treasured family members. You may have had the same experience, and you would not be alone if you have pets today that you consider to be your “children.” I know people who claim to prefer…
Is Physician-Assisted Suicide Legal in Hawaii?
A large, well-funded national organization has been taking out print ads and airing TV commercials that claim that doctors in Hawai‘i are providing lethal doses of medication to individuals who desire “aid in dying.” According to the ads and commercials, this is perfectly legal because of a newly discovered loophole inHawai‘i law.

As it turns out, however, the ads and commercials ignore what Hawai‘i’s chief law enforcement officer, attorney general David Louie, has said about this topic. In an opinion letter dated December 8, 2011, Louie addresses:

whether section 453-1 of the Hawai‘i Revised Statutes (the supposed newly discovered loophole) authorizes a physician to assist a terminally ill patient with dying

whether any criminal laws prohibit “aid in dying”

Louie opines that the loophole being touted in favor of physician-assisted suicide simply allows doctors to prescribe unconventional “remedial agents or measures” (i.e. medication or treatment intended to make the patient better — or at least to provide pain relief and comfort), not cause the patient’s death. In the attorney general’s view, the law clearly does not allow doctors to prescribe lethal doses of medication.

As to the second question, Louie opines that physician-assisted suicide would constitute the crime of manslaughter. However, proving that the crime had been committed would involve convincing a jury that the physician intended for the patient to commit suicide, and that the lethal medication prescribed by the physician accomplished its intended task. As we all know, proving that a crime has been committed is not necessarily an easy task. But the fact that a crime is difficult to prove does not mean that no crime was committed. Obviously, any physician who follows interpretation of Hawai‘i law urged in the current advertising blitz could be in for serious trouble.

So don’t be fooled by the commercials and ads. Our existing hospice and palliative care (alleviating pain) physicians and services do a wonderful job of assisting the terminally ill and their families face death. There are legitimate and compassionate ways of dealing with end of life issues that do not involve suicide or raise the prospect of euthanasia.

For more information, or if you would like a copy of the Attorney General’s opinion, email info@est8planning.com.

Scott Makuakane, Counselor at Law
Focusing exclusively on estate planning and trust law.
Watch Scott’s TV show, Malama Kupuna
Sundays at 8:30 p.m. on KWHE, Oceanic channel 11
www.est8planning.com
O‘ahu: 808-587-8227
Email: maku@est8planning.com
A large, well-funded national organization has been taking out print ads and airing TV commercials that claim that doctors in Hawai‘i are providing lethal doses of medication to individuals who desire “aid in dying.” According to the ads and commercials, this is perfectly legal because of a newly discovered loophole inHawai‘i law. As it turns…
Secret Money for Senior Veterans
Many Veterans believe that they have to have suffered an in-service disability to qualify for monetary benefits from the Veterans Administration. This is a common misconception. Depending on health, income and assets, many senior Veterans (and their dependent or surviving spouses) can qualify for not only basic “Improved Pensions” based on low income, but also supplemental benefits of up to $2,053 per month as of 2013. The supplemental benefits are called “Housebound Benefits” and “Aid & Attendance Benefits.”

In order to qualify for any of these pension benefits, the Veteran (or surviving spouse, based on the Veteran’s military service record), must satisfy the following general criteria:

The Veteran must have served at least 90 days of active duty.

At least one day out of the 90 days of active duty must have been during war time (there are defined dates for the beginning and end of World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam Conflict; and the Gulf War, which began on August 2, 1990, is not concluded yet, and its ending date will be set by Presidential Proclamation at the appropriate time).

The Veteran must have received a discharge other than dishonorable.

The claimant and household must have limited income and assets.

The claimant must have a permanent and total disability at the time of application (note that a surviving spouse can qualify for a basic low income pension without being disabled, but the Veteran must be disabled—although the disability does not have to be related to war time or military service).

The disability must have been caused without the willful misconduct of the claimant and must not have been due to the abuse of alcohol or drugs.

As the name implies, Housebound Benefits are payable where the claimant is substantially confined to his or her home because of permanent disability. In order to qualify for Aid & Attendance benefits, the claimant must:

Require the aid of another person in order to perform personal functions required for everyday living (such as bathing, feeding, dressing, toileting, transferring from bed to a wheelchair, or dealing with incontinence) OR

Be bedridden, in that he or she must remain in bed apart from any prescribed course of convalescence or treatment OR

Be a patient in a nursing home due to mental or physical capacity OR

Be blind or have very poor vision.

Applying for these supplemental benefits is not a quick or simple process, and if you decide to apply, you may want to enlist the help of a Veterans’ assistance organization or a specially-trained individual. Note that whoever assists with the application cannot charge a fee for that service. However, other services by the individual or organization may be chargeable.

Scott Makuakane, Attorney at Law
Specializing in estate planning and trust law.

Watch Scott’s TV show, Malama Kupuna
Sundays at 8:30pm on KWHE, Oceanic channel 11

www.est8planning.com
O‘ahu: 808-587-8227, Maui: 808-891-8881
Email: maku@est8planning.com
Many Veterans believe that they have to have suffered an in-service disability to qualify for monetary benefits from the Veterans Administration. This is a common misconception. Depending on health, income and assets, many senior Veterans (and their dependent or surviving spouses) can qualify for not only basic “Improved Pensions” based on low income, but also…
They Are Out to Get You!

There are several scams targeting our kupuna that you need to know about.

Scam 1: The first is a nationwide scheme where new real estate owners and individuals who have recently transferred their homes into their revocable living trusts receive letters from a company calling itself “Property Transfer Services.” The letters warn the recipients of the importance of having copies of deeds to their real estate, and they give the recipients a deadline to send in $83 for a copy of their deeds. The letters are official-looking enough to fool people into spending money on documents that they can get for free or for far less than $83.

If you receive one of these letters, you can safely ignore it. Nothing bad will happen to you or your home if you do not send in the $83. What Property Transfer Services is doing is not necessarily illegal, but it has deceived some people thinking they had to get a check in the mail right away.

Scam 2: A second scam comes in the form of an email from the IRS telling you need to contact them in order to claim a refund that you are due. What the sender of the message really wants is information about you so he or she can rip you off. First of all, the IRS never emails. They always snail mail. If you receive an email from somebody claiming to be from the IRS, you can safely ignore it.

Scam 3: A third scam involves somebody calling you on the phone telling you it’s time to update your estate planning documents, and trying to get you to make an appointment to meet with someone from their organization. Best, is to hang up and then call your own estate planning attorney. Find out whether the call came from that office. You will probably find that it did not. Periodically updating your estate plan is a good idea, but it should be by your chosen advisors, and not by somebody who may not be looking out for your best interests. Your estate plan involves a lot of confidential and sensitive information that you don’t want it to fall into the wrong hands.

Beware of anyone asking you questions of a personal nature unless you know exactly who they are and why they need the information. Better to be safe than sorry. If you are contacted by a stranger asking nosy questions, hang up and call your own trusted advisors. You can also contact your local office of consumer protection. In Hawaii, the URL for the State Office of Consumer Protection is http://cca.hawaii.gov/ocp/, and the phone number is 808-587-4272. Be careful out there!

Scott Makuakane, Attorney at Law
Specializing in estate planning and trust law.

Scott’s TV’s show on KWHE, Oceanic channel 11: Malama Kupuna airs Sundays at 8:30pm

www.est8planning.com
O‘ahu: 808-587-8227, Maui: 808-891-8881
Email: maku@est8planning.com

There are several scams targeting our kupuna that you need to know about. Scam 1: The first is a nationwide scheme where new real estate owners and individuals who have recently transferred their homes into their revocable living trusts receive letters from a company calling itself “Property Transfer Services.” The letters warn the recipients of…
Update: Queen’s Medical Center vs. Koga
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser has featured several stories about Karen Okada, a 95-year-old woman who signed a “Death with Dignity Declaration” and a “Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care Instructions” back in 1998. Both documents purport to control “in all circumstances.”

In mid-2012, shortly after Karen was admitted to The Queen’s Medical Center for treatment for pneumonia, the doctors at Queen’s determined that Karen was essentially brain dead, or, in any event, had “permanently” lost the ability to participate in medical treatment decisions. Accordingly, Queen’s wanted to enforce the provisions of her Death with Dignity Declaration and withdraw the feeding tube that had been surgically placed in Karen’s side more than six months before she was admitted to Queen’s.

On the other hand, Karen’s health-care agent (her brother), in consultation with doctors who are not associated with Queen’s, disagreed with the conclusions reached by the Queen’s physicians. What Karen’s agent knew, and the Queen’s physicians did not find relevant, was that shortly before she came down with pneumonia, Karen was conscious and able to interact meaningfully with her family and caregivers. During the time she was at Queen’s, Karen was unresponsive when doctors examined her, but she reportedly smiled at least twice at her adult grandchildren and nodded to her grandson when he asked her whether she was able to breathe freely.

Although Karen breathes on her own, she has to do so through a tube that was inserted into her windpipe. At some point in time, her family hopes the tube can be removed, which will enable Karen to eat normally. In the meantime, Karen has to be fed through a tube that goes through her side and into her stomach.

Because Queen’s policy is to give precedence to an advance health-care directive over a durable power of attorney in all events, and because Queen’s believed that the terms of the directive required removal of Karen’s feeding tube, Queen’s sued Karen’s brother in order to get a court to order that Karen’s feeding tube be removed.

After delays in the court process, Queen’s relented and to allowed Karen to be placed in another facility with her feeding tube intact. As subsequently reported in the Star-Advertiser, Karen’s condition improved to the point where she could once again interact meaningfully with her family members and caregivers.

In the meantime, Karen and her family experienced a drama that no one would want to repeat. So what are some steps that you can take to spare yourself and your family from being the characters in a similar story?

Get an advance health-care directive, and make sure your loved ones have them too.

Make sure your advance directive and power of attorney work together to express your wishes clearly.

Give your health-care providers permission to give your medical information to your trusted decision makers. Otherwise, privacy laws can restrict your doctor from talking with your health-care agent.

Have a way to get access to your advance directive. You never know when or where an emergency might occur.

Talk with your family about your wishes BEFORE a crisis arises. Make sure everybody is on the same page, or at least clearly understands your wishes.

Knowledge is power. Learn all you can about advance health-care directives, and put that knowledge into practice. You will make things much easier on yourself and your family when you do.

Scott Makuakane, Attorney at Law
Specializing in estate planning and trust law.

Scott’s TV’s show on KWHE, Oceanic channel 11: Malama Kupuna airs Sundays at 8:30pm

www.est8planning.com
O‘ahu: 808-587-8227, Maui: 808-891-8881
Email: maku@est8planning.com
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser has featured several stories about Karen Okada, a 95-year-old woman who signed a “Death with Dignity Declaration” and a “Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care Instructions” back in 1998. Both documents purport to control “in all circumstances.” In mid-2012, shortly after Karen was admitted to The Queen’s Medical Center for treatment…
Your Favorite Charity in Your Estate Plan
Charitable giving can be complicated, especially when it moves beyond cash or writing a check. A recent Forbes article provides some advice you may not have considered. The article is titled “Five Ways To Be Charitable Even If You Aren’t Bill Gates.” Take heart in knowing that even if you’re not Bill Gates, the “five ways” do not require the complexities of his estate plan.

Here are the Forbes tips (with some commentary by yours truly) for your consideration:

Give the gift of education and medical care. Have you thought about giving your children or grandchildren in the form of a 529 college savings plan or a direct gift to the college? Gifts by way of 529 plans use up your annual gift tax exclusion (which is $14,000 per recipient per year as of 2013), but they are a wonderful way to benefit your loved ones. You can also pay tuition directly to a private school or college and not have to treat that payment as a gift for gift tax purposes. A similar exclusion applies to payments made directly to doctors, dentists, orthodontists or other medical care providers. These latter kinds of gifts are called “qualified transfers” and are worth discussing with your financial and estate planning advisors.

Give your IRS distribution to charity. Since you have to take your required minimum distribution anyhow, send it directly to a charity instead. This is a no-brainer if you are taking RMDs from your traditional IRA and are also charitably inclined. You won’t get a deduction, but you won’t have to take the charitable gift into income either. The net result is a win for you and your favorite charity. This strategy may have a limited shelf life, as it is set to expire at the end of 2013. Hopefully, Congress will make it permanent at some point.

Name your charity as your beneficiary on your retirement account. This option is appropriate if you’ve decided that left over retirement funds should pass to charity instead of loved ones. Be sure to designate your charitable beneficiaries accordingly! Note: The full amount of your retirement account given to charity is income tax free. If left to a non-charity, then the full amount is taxable as ordinary income, AND your retirement account is includible in your estate for estate tax purposes. If you are charitably inclined and have substantial retirement plan assets, this is an opportunity to avoid some double taxation (income tax+estate tax).

Donor-advised funds. By giving to a donor advised fund, you can give today, take the charitable deduction in this year’s taxes, but decide which charities to benefit next year or beyond. They are easy to establish too. In Hawai‘i, you can work with the Hawai‘i Christian Foundation or the Hawai‘i Community Foundation.

Charitable gift annuity. Are you keen on the idea of receiving a guaranteed lifetime monthly income, especially as an assurance in old age? If you also want to benefit charity, then consider hitting two birds with one stone by opting for a charitable gift annuity. Not every charity will do this for you, but it’s worth asking if your favorite ones will. One Hawai‘i charity that will offer charitable gift annuities is the YMCA of Honolulu.

This is just an overview of the “five ways” featured by Forbes, so be sure to consult with your financial, tax and legal advisors regarding the appropriateness of each for your circumstances.

Another important point to remember is that paying estate tax (the tax on owning stuff when you die) is 100% optional. You can give your loved ones a decent inheritance, benefit one or more charities for a term of years, and then have whatever is left of your estate go to your descendants. This is a very powerful technique, called a Charitable Lead Trust. Again, talk with your trusted advisors about whether this might make sense for you and your ohana.

Scott Makuakane, Attorney at Law

Specializing in estate planning and trust law.

www.est8planning.com
O‘ahu: 808-587-8227, Maui: 808-891-8881
Email: maku@est8planning.com
Charitable giving can be complicated, especially when it moves beyond cash or writing a check. A recent Forbes article provides some advice you may not have considered. The article is titled “Five Ways To Be Charitable Even If You Aren’t Bill Gates.” Take heart in knowing that even if you’re not Bill Gates, the “five…

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