Transcript:

[00:00:00] Voiceover: Welcome to the Life Unlimited Podcast with Larry Heller. You deserve complete financial advice so you can confidently live your life your way for life. Now let’s get into this week’s podcast episode. 

[00:00:18] Matt Halloran: Hello and welcome to another Life Unlimited podcast with your host, Larry Heller. Today we’re gonna be talking about estate planning for women with Allison Dolzani.

[00:00:26] Matt Halloran: Now she’s a partner with Julie Kessler, LLP, and specializes in estate planning, estate administration, and surrogates court practice. She represents both domestic and international clients, including multi-generational families in advanced estate planning. Focus on strategies to minimize the impact of gift estate generation, skipping transfer, and income taxes.

[00:00:46] Larry Heller: Alright, Larry, take it away. All right, thanks Matt. Allison, thank you so much for joining us today on podcast and we’re gonna talk about estate planning for women. So, uh, so why don’t we kind of jump right into it, Allison, and why don’t you let us know and the audience know some of the unique considerations that women face when, when it comes to estate planning.

[00:01:06] Allison E. Dolzani: Yeah, absolutely. And thank you for having me. Um, so a lot of times when women come to, to. My office, it’s women who maybe are going through a divorce, women who are widowed, and we can kind of get into their unique, um, planning needs. But a, a lot of times, um, you know, women come in, they think that they don’t have an estate.

[00:01:28] Allison E. Dolzani: Um, I tell everyone, if you [00:01:30] have minor children, you have. Planning needs. So women especially, um, you know, thinking about their minor kids, it’s really, really important that they name guardians, um, on, on their wills. Um, it’s, it’s a really big issue that needs to, uh, be taken care of. 

[00:01:48] Larry Heller: So, and just, and, you know, just talking about that, so, uh.

[00:01:51] Larry Heller: So if someone’s divorced, um, do they have to name their ex-spouse as the guardian on their, on their wills? How does that work? 

[00:02:00] Allison E. Dolzani: Yeah, so good question. Yes, the natural parent is the, uh, bylaw guardian. So if, if their, you know, ex is the natural parent and there’s not any sort of custody, uh, agreement, otherwise they, they would, you know.

[00:02:14] Allison E. Dolzani: That would be the natural guardian in succession. However, they should also name a backup in case that’s ex predeceases, the, the client. Um, and that’s where guardianship issues could get really tricky, especially if the, uh, spouses are divorced, um, who is going to be the successor to each other. Um, so, and that could cause a battle in the courts.

[00:02:39] Allison E. Dolzani: So having each. Spouse name a successor guardian gives the court a better guideline as to what the parent wanted. 

[00:02:47] Larry Heller: And do you see, do most custody agreements address this or is this something that they don’t address and that’s why they need to speak to an estate attorney? 

[00:02:55] Allison E. Dolzani: It depends. Um, you know, that that might be, but also it should [00:03:00] really be addressed in the will.

[00:03:01] Allison E. Dolzani: Now, the will is not binding just because you named. You know, your best friend as the Guardian, that best friend will still have to petition the court to become the guardian. So I always make that clear as well. It’s not automatic. The, the, that person still has to go through that proceeding, but the court seeing that person’s last will and Testament saying, oh, okay, this is what the parent wanted it, it holds great weight.

[00:03:27] Larry Heller: Hmm. And what are some of the other unique considerations that women should address when it comes to estate planning? 

[00:03:33] Allison E. Dolzani: Yeah, so, you know, a lot of times it comes down to what their own assets are. Maybe they have, um, you know, separate from the spouse, maybe they have inherited assets that they are getting from their own family, um, whether they’re married or not.

[00:03:47] Allison E. Dolzani: That should be dealt with in their estate planning documents. A lot of times, um, you know, a a couple could be happily married, but they’re, you know, I, I’ve seen it a few times where, um, woman comes in, she has a nest egg from her parents and they, the goal is while they love the other spouse, they really wanna keep it in the family line.

[00:04:09] Allison E. Dolzani: So that should be carved out in her own estate planning documents. Um, a lot of other times. Two, just 

[00:04:15] Larry Heller: just a point on that. Sorry to interrupt there. Yeah. So we’re in New York, so we’re talking about New York, New York law. So, um, from a divorce standpoint, if the assets remain in her name, if they would ever to get divorced, that would be still remain [00:04:30] her, her, her property, right?

[00:04:31] Larry Heller: So, correct. So I just want to kind of clarify that’s what, that’s what you were, you were talking about. So that’s a great, you know, a, a great, um, thought there, especially, uh, we have some women whose. Whose parents own businesses and they’re getting married, forget about pre prenuptial is a whole nother conversation, but just thinking about some of the planning that’s important either before you get married or going forward.

[00:04:58] Larry Heller: So I just kind of want to bring, bring that up. 

[00:05:00] Allison E. Dolzani: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, it’s important too, while, um, if, if. To be mindful, even pre-marriage, during marriage and whatnot. Um, if, if they are getting separate assets from, from the family or whatnot, keep it in your individual name. Do not co-mingle because that is a really, uh, you know, you’re, you’re allowing the other spouse to, to go after that in the event of divorce or even death.

[00:05:25] Allison E. Dolzani: Um, so, you know, whether you keep it in a segregated account, never a joint account kind of earmark it separately. Um, it’s, that’s a. Good planning tool. Mm-Hmm. 

[00:05:36] Larry Heller: So that’s kind of, you know, pre matter, but we were talking a little bit about divorce and about, um, about widows. So what are kind of some of the other, uh, planning opportunities or planning things someone should think about if going through a divorce or a, uh, or, or, or unfortunately becoming a widow.

[00:05:54] Allison E. Dolzani: Yeah, so, um, you know, updating your estate planning documents if, if you’re going through a divorce or you [00:06:00] were widowed, um, your spouse might be on those documents. So, um, it’s always good just to update them. To your current situation. I always tell people to come see their estate planning attorney at every major life event, birth of a child, marriage, buying a home, starting a business, divorce, retirement.

[00:06:18] Allison E. Dolzani: Um, so for women, it’s also important too, especially if they weren’t head of household managing all the finances. This is now a good time to come together with, with me and maybe their financial advisor as well as, okay. What are the assets? What, in the context of divorce? Uh, maybe they’re in the, in the divorce agreement, you’re getting an X amount of money.

[00:06:41] Allison E. Dolzani: Um, if you are a widow, you inherited X amount from your spouse. You wanna make sure that it is all organized in your estate plan and then also in your financial plan going forward. 

[00:06:51] Larry Heller: Right? And you mentioned estate planning documents, so why don’t you address some of the other important documents? You know, especially if someone’s gone through a divorce or becoming a widow.

[00:07:01] Larry Heller: That should be looked at and may po possibly be revised. 

[00:07:05] Allison E. Dolzani: So a lot of people are very familiar with wills, um, last will and testament. And, and while you are, you know, married, um, and a lot of assets are joint, that might be fine. But if you’re going through a divorce or becoming widowed when you’re the single person, um, then everything is in your name.

[00:07:22] Allison E. Dolzani: And what I’m recommending now is. Set of wills are revocable living trusts. Um, they are, I [00:07:30] like to call them the will 2.0. They take the place of a will because they avoid the probate proceeding that has to happen in the court at death. So normally your named executor will have to petition the court name your next of kin, either serve them with a citation or have them sign off on a waiver and between death and getting that probate decree, it could be several months.

[00:07:52] Allison E. Dolzani: Um, it’s where that really matters is what if the person had minor children or there’s a lot of bills. No one can touch those probate assets until an executor or fiduciary is appointed. So, um, especially for, for single women who maybe have the minor children or are widowed, it’s really important, I think, to streamline that process and then, and then make it easier for the family.

[00:08:18] Allison E. Dolzani: To administer their estate by doing a revocable trust instead of a will. Um, and just the revocable trust look, looks just like a will. It says, you know, upon my death, my asses will go here, here and there. 

[00:08:30] Larry Heller: You know. Great, great point. Um, and there’s other documents too that are, are important, especially now if you’re, if you’re now single.

[00:08:39] Larry Heller: Correct. 

[00:08:40] Allison E. Dolzani: Exactly. So you wanna have an updated healthcare proxy that’s naming an agent who would make healthcare decisions on your behalf if you were incapacitated. I always recommend to name a primary and a successor, um, and then a power of attorney that’s really. Signature authority, especially if you are single.

[00:08:57] Allison E. Dolzani: Um, it’s really good to give a very trusted person [00:09:00] a power of attorney who could, you know, speak to the bank on your behalf if you’re unable to do so, or, or sign your name on something. Again, if you’re un it may be incapacitated or unable to do so. It’s a lot of burden to be a single person, maybe running a household now.

[00:09:15] Allison E. Dolzani: Um, so having those documents in place that you could. At least know someone’s there to, to take that over for you in the event of an emergency is really important to have, 

[00:09:25] Larry Heller: right? So obviously if you’re going through a divorce, you probably don’t want your ex-spouse named in both those things. If you became a widow, you may not have somebody at all named that.

[00:09:36] Larry Heller: So it’s really important that you go ahead and get those documents. People think, oh, it’s just a will and I don’t have to worry about that. But these documents are sometimes even more critical, more critical than wills. 

[00:09:48] Allison E. Dolzani: Exactly, exactly that. I call those the really, the foundational documents. I mean, they have, they, they, they really apply to your everyday life and give you peace of mind.

[00:09:58] Allison E. Dolzani: Um, just other, just in the context of what to put in your documents when you’re going through a divorce or widowed at a high level. It’s also important too that if, if you are getting divorce, for example, in your divorce agreement, there might be certain estate obligations. Maintaining life insurance for your ex or things like that.

[00:10:16] Allison E. Dolzani: And you wanna make sure that your, uh, will or revocable trust is up to date in order to make sure you’re not in violation of the divorce agreement. And, um, you know, for if you’re a widow as well, maybe [00:10:30] your spouse set up, uh, a trust for your benefit. So that all has to be incorporated into your new plan.

[00:10:36] Larry Heller: So one of the things that we see sometimes going through widow divorce and they’ve gone to the estate attorney and they’ve got all these new documents and everything is great, and they said, oh, everything’s good. And I my will. And we asked to look at their beneficiaries on their accounts and lo and behold, sometimes they’ve left their ex-spouse as their beneficiary on that ’cause they didn’t realize that or.

[00:11:02] Larry Heller: And this could be just as important. Now they’ve named their minor child as their beneficiary, and some of these accounts, their 4 0 1 Ks and their IRAs could be extremely, extremely large. So, uh, so, you know, one of the things that we’ve kind of talked about is, you know, how do you get around naming a minor beneficiary o on, on that?

[00:11:22] Larry Heller: But just making sure that you change those is so important. 

[00:11:26] Allison E. Dolzani: Absolutely. So when someone’s coming in, um, you know, maybe they’re going through a divorce and um, or widowhood and they, uh, come to me for all new documents. I make sure to look at everything ’cause it’s a good exercise for them, what accounts they have.

[00:11:40] Allison E. Dolzani: And they say, are there beneficiaries on that account? Um, it is. A a, a big, you know, no-no to name a minor child on your retirement assets or anything else because then essentially the guardian of your child will have to be on, uh, the bank account with, with the surrogates court until they’re [00:12:00] 18. So what I always do is either if they’re doing a will or they’re doing a revocable trust.

[00:12:06] Allison E. Dolzani: Establish a trust upon your passing for the benefit of your minor child, whether that’s till a certain age. Um, I like to, instead of saying 18, maybe 25, 30, give, delay it a little bit. Um, and then you would name the, that trust as the beneficiary, um, of, of the retirement assets or other, uh, TOD accounts.

[00:12:29] Larry Heller: Right. It gets a little bit more complicated now with the new inherited, uh, IRA roles, if you wanna kind of go past 21 because now you have to distribute within 10. 10 years. Exactly. So if you do delay it to 30, you could I. Be having some, um, lose some planning opportunities when it comes, comes to that.

[00:12:50] Larry Heller: But then again, that’s a whole nother podcast that we can talk about. Exactly. Um, well, why don’t we kind of get back to, uh, to, to women. So, uh, you know, how does estate planning contribute to, you know, the women’s financial independence and possibly long-term security? 

[00:13:05] Allison E. Dolzani: Yeah, so I think, you know, when I, when I like to speak with, with women, um, I try to take a really personable approach because they, you know, they’re coming off of major life events, usually in context of divorce or death.

[00:13:17] Allison E. Dolzani: And, um, I believe once they have their estate planning documents in order, it’s kind of like a sigh of relief. I’ve had clients tell me a lot of times that it’s a weight lifted off their shoulder once they go through the exercise with me of. [00:13:30] Organizing their finances, their, you know, their agents, and then their estate planning documents.

[00:13:36] Allison E. Dolzani: I think it gives them greater confidence to say, I could be financially independent. I know these are my assets. I have a plan, I have my advisors. I I can handle this. So I think it’s like, this is where it starts. And then, um, they always have something that they could refer back to. And, and I always say.

[00:13:54] Allison E. Dolzani: You know, always update. I’ll, I’ll call them every so often to make changes, but I think this gives them a good foot forward. 

[00:14:01] Larry Heller: Yes. And kind of a transition into the next phase, whatever life that, whatever life that would, will now be. Um, so could you share some advice on how women can leave a meaningful legacy for future generations?

[00:14:15] Allison E. Dolzani: Yeah, absolutely. So what I like to do often is to, um, ask the client what their goals are. A lot of times, you know, they, they think, oh, it’s just to, you know, make sure I have guardians for my children, which are very important. But also, um, if maybe if they’re charitably inclined, um, I either set them up with the right advisors to do something, you know, currently during their lifetime, or maybe I could create, um.

[00:14:40] Allison E. Dolzani: You know, a scholarship, um, a, a request for a scholarship under their documents, upon their passing. So, um, and then that could be, you know, dedicated to my, my late spouse or in, you know, um, for my children and things like that. I also, I think it’s very [00:15:00] important, um, while I don’t. Want them to get too far in the weeds with tangibles.

[00:15:06] Allison E. Dolzani: I always like to suggest to clients to maybe think, oh, do I wanna leave personal jewelry to certain people? And then this doesn’t go with the estate planning documents because it’s not enforceable in New York. But I think I. Writing a separate letter of wishes, maybe in your own handwriting as to why maybe you provided for certain be requests.

[00:15:26] Allison E. Dolzani: I think helped the family a lot. Um, and, and it’s a, I, I know for a lot of children I’ve spoken to when their parents have passed, like saying I have something in mom’s handwriting that says, this is why I wanted to leave you, you know, grandma’s locket. Mm-Hmm. Um, is really nice. Even, you know, the smallest kind of details go a long way.

[00:15:44] Larry Heller: Yeah. A a Abso, absolutely. Um, and the other thing is if you have a estate now, uh, where you were married, you may be able to do some planning to kind of double your estate taxes. That kind of now in half, right? 

[00:16:01] Allison E. Dolzani: Exactly. Exactly. So, um. The, the, the importance of, you know, doing your estate planning, you know, now with, with taking advantage of certain tax elections is also really important in New York, especially if you’re, if you are the surviving spouse.

[00:16:18] Allison E. Dolzani: So, in the context of being a widow, um. Now you might have, depending upon the spouse, the predeceased spouse’s estate, you might have all the assets in your estate. So that’s another [00:16:30] reason why widows should really come and do their estate planning, because now they might be a, have a hundred percent of the bucket.

[00:16:35] Allison E. Dolzani: And regardless of, you know, estate taxes, you wanna make sure that you’re treating your, your family the way you want to under your documents. Um, but also in, in New York, there are a certain. Tax thresholds that you need to be wary of if you are kind of approaching that $7 million range where you don’t want, uh, New York State Department of Tax to necessarily be a beneficiary before your kids.

[00:17:00] Larry Heller: Right. And I think a lot of people don’t realize that it’s what, that’s a cliff tax. So if you, if you’re over the cliff, it’s tax from dollar one. It’s not. Assets from 7 million and and above. So it could be a pretty hefty number. So, uh, so I, you, you do wanna speak to someone like Allison and make sure that you have that proper planning in place?

[00:17:18] Allison E. Dolzani: Exactly. Exactly. 

[00:17:20] Larry Heller: So, uh, you know, finally, so, you know, I think we might have touched upon this, but is there any other estate planning items that may differ for a single or a widowed woman compared to those with partners? 

[00:17:33] Allison E. Dolzani: Um, you know, it’s, it, a lot of, it’s pretty similar. Um, but again, I think that when you’re single, it’s either, um, it’s a little trickier because also when you’re going back just to estate taxes real quick on the federal level, there’s a lot more planning you could do because, um, you could use your.

[00:17:53] Allison E. Dolzani: Your spouse’s estate tax credits. Also in your planning, when you’re a single person, you’re only working with, with [00:18:00] one estate tax exemption. So you wanna be really mindful if you are in that, in that arena where you could potentially be facing estate tax issues. And then also, you know, just making sure, especially when you’re a single, um.

[00:18:13] Allison E. Dolzani: Person that you update regularly because things change. The laws change. And, um, and, and even on the documents like the healthcare proxy and power of attorney, um, you might’ve named your best friend, but now she’s moved across the country. Mm-Hmm. So having those documents up to date are just really, really important when you’re just the sole head of households.

[00:18:34] Allison E. Dolzani: Yeah. 

[00:18:34] Larry Heller: Um, any final thoughts that you want to let our audience know today, Alison? 

[00:18:39] Allison E. Dolzani: Yeah. Um, you know, I just think sometimes with estate planning, you know, it could be a little bit of a taboo subject. Um, you know, you’re dealing with family dynamics, your own mortality, um, you know, so it, it could be hard to get people to come through the door, but again, I like to really just treat everyone as.

[00:18:57] Allison E. Dolzani: You know, very personable and just have them, you know, feel better that they check this off their to-do list. I always check in with them and it’s a, it’s a continual relationship as your life develops, so should your estate planning. So it doesn’t hurt to have that initial conversation in order to feel a lot more organized at the end.

[00:19:17] Larry Heller: Absolutely. Uh, Allison, thanks so much for joining us today. A lot of good information for everyone out there. And if, uh, if they need to con someone wants to contact you, what’s the best way for them to get ahold of you? 

[00:19:28] Allison E. Dolzani: Um, so I have two [00:19:30] offices, but my telephone number is, um, for my Manhattan line. It could reach me anywhere.

[00:19:34] Allison E. Dolzani: So it’s (212) 687-1466 And then my email is a adolzani@jandklaw.com 

[00:19:47] Larry Heller: Great. Thank you so much again for joining us today, Allison. 

[00:19:50] Allison E. Dolzani: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. 

[00:19:53] Matt Halloran: One of the fun things about being the fly on the wall, uh, on this podcast is Allison was saying a whole bunch of things that I’ve heard Larry say so many times on the podcast about the individual care and the level of care, uh, that, that he provides and everybody Health Heller Wealth Management provides to their clients, especially dealing with these very sensitive subjects.

[00:20:11] Matt Halloran: You know, Allison, you’re absolutely right. Uh, we’re talking about tough stuff here and making sure that you’re sitting down with somebody who can truly have that conversation and is in com, is comfortable in those emotions, make a really big difference. And for our listeners, this is one of those episodes.

[00:20:26] Matt Halloran: It’s a fantastic episode for you to share. Uh, if you have. Women in your life, which you probably do, uh, this is a great episode to go ahead and share with them and saying, Hey, look, mom, aunt, uncle, daughter, sister, friend. This is something I think you should pay attention to because what they talked about is what you’re going through too.

[00:20:43] Matt Halloran: And we’ll make sure that we have, uh, Allison’s contact information in the show notes. And if you want to know more about Heller Wealth Management, go to hellerwealthmanagement.com . So for Larry and Allison, this is Matt Halloran, and we’ll see you on the other side of the mic very soon.