While I was in Houston over the Holidays, I read an article in the Houston Chronicle that illustrates the unintended consequences of not having a will.

It was about a man named Timothy Cole, whose father had not been a part of his life since he was seven years old. Timothy Cole died in the Texas Prison System. He had been convicted of a rape he didn’t commit. Despite the fact that the actual rapist confessed 1995, and the victim admitted that she mistakenly identified him, he remained in prison until 1999, when he died at the age of 39 of an asthma attack.

Convinced of his innocence, Timothy Cole’s mother and siblings, through the Innocence Project of Texas worked tirelessly to clear his name. On February 6, 2009, he was posthumously cleared of any wrongdoing and his record was expunged.

As compensation for his wrongful imprisonment, his estate was awarded over $1 million. That’s when Timothy Cole’s deadbeat dad reappeared. You see, it appears that Timothy Cole did not have a will, which means that his estate will pass according to the Texas intestacy statutes.

According to these intestacy rules, if a single person dies without a will in Texas, his estate will pass equally to his parents if both are living, as in this case. So Timothy Cole’s dad, despite having not been a part of his son’s life for 32 years, stands to inherit more than half a million dollars from his estate. I doubt Timothy Cole would have wanted that.

You can read “Poster Child of a Deadbeat Dad” by following the link.

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It’s hard to believe that another year has come to an end! If you’re like me, you’re scratching your head wondering where all the time has gone.

As I look back on the year, I feel very blessed to have had the opportunity to work with so many of you! So rather than writing about about an estate planning issue this week, I decided to take this opportunity to just say thanks.

1. Thanks to my wonderful friends and family who have supported and encouraged me the past two years as and who’ve cheered the loudest with every success.
2. Thanks to my colleagues and so many others in the blogging community who so generously share their experience and knowledge.
3. And thanks to my clients for not only allowing me to be a part of your lives and entrusting me with the privilege of preparing the legal documents necessary to protect your loved ones, but also for referring their friends and family to me. I can’t even begin to tell you how honored I feel when a new client calls and tells me they were referred by one of you. It’s the nicest compliment you can give!

Warmest thoughts and best wishes for a wonderful holiday and a happy and prosperous new year!

All my best,

Rania

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Not too long ago, my book club read a highly acclaimed book titled “The Art of Racing in the Rain.” I couldn’t finish it. In fact, I couldn’t get past the first chapter.

Everyone who read the book loved it, but it hit too close to home for me. It is written from the perspective of an old dog, Enzo, on the eve of his death. He’s trying to find a way to tell his owner that it’s time to put him down.  He explains he’s arthritic, has cataracts, and has lost bladder control, but his owner is not willing to let go:

“He would do it out of love, of course. I’m sure he would keep me alive as long as he possibly could, my body deteriorating, disintegrating around me, dissolving until there’s nothing left but my brain floating in a glass jar with clear liquid…But I don’t want to be kept alive.”

When I started to read the book, I thought of my dog, Elway, who is pictured above. Elway joined our family as a puppy. I still remember seeing him bound out of a barn on the farm where we adopted him. He has been a part of our lives for fourteen and a half years. Letting him go was not something I was ready to consider.

But I sit here today with that decision weighing heavily on my heart. He’s not been well. Like Enzo, arthritis is causing his back legs to fail him, his cataracts have clouded his vision, and he’s lost bladder control. Blood work last week revealed high liver enzymes, signaling a serious illness. The veterinarian has suggested euthanasia as a compassionate course of action.

Still, I’m struggling. How do I know I’m making the right decision? Would he want to fight, or like Enzo, is he ready to die? What gives me the right to decide when that should happen? Elway is a dog, not a human being, but having struggled with this decision, I can’t even begin to imagine the stress and grief associated with deciding to terminate life support for a person who’s incapacitated and has not made his or her wishes known.

I’ve written before about how sharing your healthcare wishes and explaining your reasoning can relieve your loved ones of a lot of stress they may feel in making these decisions without your guidance. The veterinarian assures me that euthanizing him is a loving choice, but I wish Elway could tell me what he wants me to do. It would relieve some of the guilt I feel about making the decision to end his life.

When I look into Elway’s eyes, they look tired. His breathing is labored. His quality of life has deteriorated. I will be by his side today as he goes to sleep for the last time. I hope he feels loved. I hope I’m doing what he would have wanted.

In Memory of Elway – April 15, 1997 to November 29, 2011

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With the passage of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act which Congress passed last December, many believed that we’d have some certainty about the estate and gift tax for at least a couple of years.

The new law set the estate tax at 35 percent for individual estates valued at over $5 million and also:

1. Set a $5 million generation-skipping transfer tax exemption and a zero percent rate for those dying in 2010.
2. Reunified the federal estate and gift taxes for gifts made after December 31, 2010 so that the gift tax exemption and maximum tax rate is equal to the estate tax exemption and maximum estate tax rate.
3. Allowed portability of the estate tax exemption between spouses.

But the state of the economy may cause this new law to be more temporary than we had anticipated.

Recently, there have been rumors that the congressional “super committee” tasked with creating a plan to reduce the national debt over the next 10 years, may recommend reducing the $5 million estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer tax exemption in an effort to raise revenue.

These rumors are unsubstantiated, but we’ll learn if there’s any truth to them soon enough. The super committee’s report is due to Congress on November 23, 2011.

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