Tag: Estate Planning

Dementia is a type of cognitive difficulty that inflicts a person and affects their ability to perform everyday activities in an independent fashion. Mild cognitive impairment is a classification for individuals who may be showing early signs of dementia.

The statistics reveal that dementia is surprisingly pervasive. One in 10 older Americans suffer from dementia. According to 2022 research, by Columbia University (Irving Medical Center) about 22% of U.S. adults 65 years and older have dementia and another 22% have mild cognitive impairment.

As a country, the U.S. population is getting older, and fast. Consider this fact: by the next 30 years the population of individuals who are 65+ years old will increase by a whopping 70% (from 54 million people to 95 million people).

As our population ages, you can bet that the total number of people with dementia will increase by quite a lot and is likely to be 2 times more pervasive in 15 years than it has been thus far.

Concrete actions to safeguard loved ones.

One does not have to wait until signs of mild cognitive impairment or dementia start to become evident in order to take action. It is best to consider that it is mandatory for all adults in the U.S. who are 55+ to have a comprehensive set of estate plan documents in place. The importance and need is pronounced for individuals who are 65+ and do not (yet) have this important protection in place.

If a loved one is showing signs of cognitive decline or worse; there is much that will be needed to be done to support and care for the individual as the disease progresses. But, a critical action is to have certain (legal) estate planning documents in place to ensure that their wishes are recorded and will be fulfilled long after the cognitive impairment renders them unable to make their own decisions.

These documents are:

1. A Will (or a Revocable “Living” Trust)

This document expresses how the assets owned by the individual will be distributed among the heirs when they are gone. The will must be presented to a court so it can be validated and thereafter probated to ensure that the distribution is in accordance with the wishes contained in it. In the case of a “living” trust, a Trustee is appointed to ensure that the individual’s assets are used optimally for the benefit of the individual for as long as they are alive and then, distributed to the named heirs after they are gone.

2. Health Care Power of Attorney

This document names a specific person to serve as the representative of the individual when they are incapacitated and unable to make health care decisions for themselves. This is a particularly critical document in the case of a loved one afflicted with dementia. Having this document makes it easier for the healthcare representative to do what is needed to provide the best quality of life for the loved one.

3. Financial Power of Attorney

Much like the Healthcare Power of Attorney, this document names a specific person to serve as the representative of the individual to take financial decisions and handle such matters. Again, a particularly critical document in the case of a loved one afflicted with dementia. Having this document makes it easier for the financial representative to do what is needed to provide the best quality of life for the loved one.

The OneDigitalTrust™ platform is designed to help users to take concrete steps to safeguard loved ones who are showing signs of cognitive impairment or dementia. The service is designed to step a user through a simple experience to generate ALL THREE of the above documents – easily and effortlessly.

Ensure that no one can say that something is wrong with the documents

What makes this complex is that every state (court) in the U.S. maintains its own statutes (rules) regarding estate planning, and financial institutions as well as medical / hospital facilities maintain their own standards. Only a trusted platform like OneDigitalTrust™ can ensure that the details and nuances at the state level have been adhered to for each document such as – proper captioning and labeling, statute citations, references and correct notarization blocks. This level of precision ensures that when the document is presented, it will be recognized by local courts, financial institutions and medical facilities as bonafide, if the printed instructions (for each document) to execute the document are followed

The best part is that the service is available at a highly-affordable price of $199 for the first year and $39 each year thereafter (unlimited updates) and may be available from your financial institution for a lower price.

The OneDigitalTrust™ platform provides so much more than just legal documents. Users can catalog their assets and liabilities to ascertain their probate exposure to take specific action on certain assets, utilize the smart digital document vault, visualize how their estate will be distributed in graphical form, create a pet trust, bequeath items of sentimental value to loved ones and write bite-sized “memoirs” on the most important experiences of their lives for loved ones to read and draw inspiration from…and so much more.

To create an account:

https://app.onedigitaltrust.com/odt/intro/register

Or reach out to us for a demonstration to explore how we may augment your institution’s product & service offerings:

https://onedigitaltrust.com/connect/

There’s a huge number of your customers and clients who haven’t created a viable plan to distribute their wealth when they are gone. In fact, 65% of American adults have not created a viable plan to distribute their wealth. 

The bottom line: this number hasn’t changed much in 30 years, leaving a significant population that is unprotected. Here’s why we should not be okay with these numbers:

Creating a plan to distribute your wealth is like an insurance policy. It gives you both the security and peace of mind knowing that there is a plan for your wealth when you are gone. The unintended consequences that surviving loved ones suffer through are both emotionally painful and costly. The worst part is, that if a person passes without a plan in place (aka “intestate”), the assets are distributed based upon age-old guidelines set by each state, regardless of emotional relationships forged through the individual’s lifetime. Distribution must follow a formula for inheritance, set by the state, which in many cases may be over 50 years old and coupled with a highly bureaucratic process deemed obsolete in terms of applicability in today’s day and age (e.g. unmarried partners).  

So why have so many failed to plan for this eventuality?

#1 Procrastination Perfection

If there is one thing many of us are good at, it’s procrastinating. And clearly not just with our household chores we have no interest in doing–especially when there are so many other more exciting things to do! But the truth is, no one thinks that this will happen to them, or that when they do pass away, that it will be at a ripe old age and that there’s plenty of time to plan later. It’s like we believe we are invisible to death. Unfortunately for us, we don’t have a cloak of invisibility that hides us from death until we are in our 90s. 

#2 It’s Morbid

Planning for what happens with our assets after we die is morbid in and of itself. Who wants to think about death? It’s hard to not only think about death, but it’s difficult to also think about who will get a portion of your wealth when you are gone. Let’s just all be honest, and say that these topics are not necessarily fun and joyful things to consider. Your customers are feeling the same way! 

#3 Toss the Salt

Don’t cross a black cat, don’t walk under a ladder and don’t break a mirror. Many are flat out superstitious about the subject. Somehow we’ve told ourselves that even thinking about death and the future is like a self-fulfilling prophecy and that if we don’t think about our own passing, it won’t happen. But throwing salt over your shoulder isn’t going to dispel death from your future. There are two things certain in life: taxes and death. So until someone creates an elixir of life, planning ahead is important!

#4 Expenses List

We understand that many feel legacy planning is costly and requires hiring expensive professionals. Why pay money to plan for a future that you aren’t in? But is anything more important than the family left behind? That’s why OneDigitalTrust’s pricing model is really affordable and easy for institutions to bulk purchase and offer to their customers and employees. 

Remember, lives change and estate planning needs to change with it. Whether someone is getting married, welcoming a new baby into your life, is bequeathed an inheritance, or has another big life change, our pricing makes it affordable to change the plan when you need to. OneDigitalTrust’s periodic estate health check is designed to enable your employees and customers ensure that their plan stays lockstep with their life-stage changes

#5 Overwhelming

Finally, estate planning can be overwhelming. Not only are each state’s statutes different, and they can change at any time, but the legalese is enough to make anyone’s head spin! For the average adult that doesn’t follow these laws and work in them regularly, it can be extremely overwhelming, causing many to avoid estate planning altogether. You can answer, or pre-populate answers, for the customer’s basic info, making it easier to encourage estate planning and get your customer started. It also makes it simple for users to create and maintain their plan through all their life stages. Our program makes it easy for you (and your customers), taking the overwhelm out of the equation.

Over 65 percent of Americans have avoided estate planning for one reason or another, but the biggest reasons center around: procrastination, access to a simple and affordable platform that users can trust, and the depressing reality of death. That is why we have reinvented personal legacy and estate planning for the digital-age. Like a 401k, legacy and estate planning is better delivered by trusted institutions a customer is already working with. With our solutions, your customers can create a viable estate plan in a fraction of the time, headache, and complexity of the traditional process.