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Southgate at Shrewsbury

Retirement community near Shrewsbury and Worcester, MA

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Five Myths About Having An Estate Plan

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  1. “I don’t have an estate of any significant size to have an estate plan.”

Your estate can grow. Many aspects of a good estate plan such as Powers of Attorney and Living Wills have no relation to the size of an estate.

  1. “I have a Will so my estate planning is complete.”

There may be a better way. Wills start in the Probate system which makes a Will public record  and open to contestation. Children can have their inheritance at age 18, and may be too young to manage it well. A Will is the instrument only for distribution after your death of your estate to your heirs distributed by an executor. In case you become incapacitated, there is no protection from an appointment of a conservator who would then manage your estate.

A Trust can help. It is a private plan whereby you can manage your assets as a Trustee. A Successor Trustee manages and distributes your estate. In case of an incapacity, there is no conservator needed, as the Successor Trustee can help manage the estate.

  1. “My estate isn’t big enough to pay estate taxes.”

A Trust isn’t set up only to eliminate estate taxes. It also eliminates other taxes such as most capital gains, gift, and state estate taxes that even small estates have.

  1. “A Trust is too expensive.”

Weigh the value. It’s true, Wills are less expensive than Trusts. Contrast that with 3%-10% shrinkage of your estate after your Will goes through the Probate System. Furthermore, a conservatorship for incapacity can easily take 3%-5% of your estate.

Therefore, if no estate planning is done, 6%-15% of your estate is gone before your heirs receive anything. In some cases, contestation of a Will with much time and money involved in the Probate system could end up taking the complete value of the estate!

  1. “I am too young.”

It is not about age, but circumstances. If you have family responsibilities and plans for your money after you are gone, you will need a Will to appoint guardians for your children’s care and determine who will distribute your estate.

Passing away without a Will leaves the state as your executor. Your state’s plan could very easily be different from your plans. For example, some state laws won’t pass 100% of an estate to a spouse. The living spouse could receive 50% and the children the other 50%. It is important to ensure that your wishes are known and carried out in the manner you choose.

5 Ways Your Body Gets Better With Age

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Call it the upside of aging. Some changes are for the better…honest! Here are five of those changes that may make you overlook the number of candles on the cake.

1.Your Skin Gets Better — In Some Ways

“Our skin typically becomes less oily,” says Julie Karen, MD, a New York City-based dermatologist in private practice. Your sebaceous glands simply produce less oil as you get older, which can be very welcome news for those who’ve had acne since their teen years. As the oiliness declines, so does the acne. “Even the acne that does come as an adult tends to be less severe,” Dr. Karen says.

And as for wrinkles: From a dermatologist’s point of view, they can actually be a boon, she says. “If you need to have surgery, such as for skin cancer, it’s easier to hide a scar under a wrinkle.”

How to Thrive: Aging changes your skin, of course. Wrinkles and sagging happen. The skin’s outer layer, the epidermis, thins. You can bruise more easily, and you may chill more easily. To keep your skin as healthy as possible, protect your skin from ultraviolet radiation with a good quality sunscreen year-round. And be sure to hydrate, as being dehydrated can affect the elasticity of your skin.

  1. You’re Still Building Lifelong Brain Skills

With age, lots of people worry that their brain power is on the decline. But the opposite may actually be true, according to research in the April 2015 issue of Psychological Science. It turns out that some of our cognitive skills, such as the ability to remember names, learn new words, and process information, peak at different times.

According to the study researchers, your word knowledge doesn’t peak until your sixties and seventies. Their conclusions are based on the results of standard IQ and memory tests taken online by nearly 50,000 participants, which included kids through older adults.

Another finding: Older adults in their forties and fifties were also better than younger people at reading other people’s emotional states. This can be a valuable skill that helps you decide how to react in sticky situations, such as when you know you’ve really annoyed a friend or your partner.

How to Thrive: Your ability to process information in a speedy manner tends to peak in your early twenties, and then gradually declines. In your forties, you may start having difficulties remembering things, according to the American Psychological Association. But it doesn’t have to be this way: You can prevent those skills from declining with some effort. People who engage in vigorous mental activities — such as doing puzzles, reading every day, or learning new skills — throughout their lives experienced slower cognitive decline than those who didn’t, according to a study in the June 2014 issue of JAMA Neurology.

  1. You Could Kiss Those Migraines Goodbye With Age

Not everyone gets this bonus of aging, but some may experience fewer migraines. About 40 percent of people with migraines will notice they don’t have them anymore by age 65, according to The Migraine Trust, a United Kingdom-based migraine research charity.

How to Thrive: Migraines have numerous triggers, so you may or may not experience a dip in attacks as you age. Since other health conditions could provoke migraines, aim to keep existing problems under control, and to prevent others from developing. And if you get migraines for the first time as an older adult, check with your doctor to be sure some underlying disease isn’t responsible.

  1. You’ll Yawn Less During the Day as You Age

If you’re healthy and between 66 and 83 years old, you can expect to be less sleepy during the day, according to a 2010 study in the journal Sleep. British researchers studied young, healthy adults (20 to 30 years old), middle-aged adults (40 to 55 years old), and older adults for two nights as they slept in a sleep lab. (The word “slept” is used loosely, since researchers may or may not have disrupted particpants’ sleep before looking at the effects.)

“Healthy older adults without sleep disorders can expect to be less sleepy during the daytime than young adults,” says Derk-Jan Dijk, PhD, one of the study’s authors and a researcher at the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom, about their findings.

How to Thrive: True, you may not sleep like a baby at night. Paying attention to sleep habits  — what doctors call “sleep hygiene” — can help. As difficult as it may be for seniors, it’s important to go to bed and get up at the same times every day, even on Saturdays and Sundays. No caffeine for 8 hours before bed, and regular exercise, may help you get a better night’s sleep, too.

  1. Your Self-Confidence Is Booming

As people age, their knowledge of the world — and themselves — grows. “Their sense of self identity gets stronger, and they’ve acquired a lot of different experiences to support that,” says Elizabeth Glisky, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of Arizona in Tucson. “With all these things together, you know who you are and what you’re about, and you have a lot more self-confidence than when you were younger.”

How to Thrive: Of course, everyone’s self-confidence can suffer at one time or another. One way to keep your identity and assurance high is to replace negative thoughts (“I didn’t do well investing this year”) with more positive ones (“I’ll search for a new adviser and read up”).

Tips For Protecting Your Digital Legacy

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We all know we’re supposed to have a will that lays out plans for our earthly belongings. But what about your virtual ones? In these days of smartphones, passwords and social media, it’s important to put thought into your digital legacy.

To ensure that you will be memorialized online according to your wishes, it is best to prepare for the day you won’t be around to manage your digital reputation for yourself.

Today, access to a deceased loved one’s digital property typically requires a court order.

Many Internet service providers don’t allow for accounts to be transferred to heirs, even when people indicate so in their wills. As technology continues to evolve, lawmakers attempt to establish digital property legislation. Today, access to a deceased loved one’s digital property typically requires a court order.

Alex Kilian, a wealth manager at AKT Wealth Advisors in Portland, Ore., advises that individuals consult with an estate planning attorney about establishing their specific digital legacy in their wills. “Every state is different in regard to the treatment of digital assets, and the legislation continues to evolve as estate planning tries to first catch up, then keep pace, with the myriad of different kinds of digital assets,” he said.

There are, however, a few steps you can take without an attorney that will start getting your online reputation in shape:

Choose your Legacy Contact

Think about what you would like to happen with your online accounts after you have passed. Facebook gives you options to select a legacy contact to have limited access to manage your profile page on your behalf, including authorization to respond to new friend requests, update the profile picture or delete the page altogether.

Consolidate Your Information

Access to your digital information almost always requires an email address and password. By streamlining these and organizing access to your phone (where much of your digital life likely lives), you will make it much easier to manage for anyone doing it on your behalf some day.

Email

If you are like most people who have more than one email account, be sure to list these accounts and their passwords with your will so your lawyer or executor can access them if needed. This can be especially important for access to social media profiles and online financial accounts such as PayPal.

Also, do not use only your work email address for personal social media accounts, including your LinkedIn account, since that address and all your online accounts associated with it will likely be inaccessible very quickly.

Passwords

Make sure your usernames and passwords for select digital accounts are safely kept with your will if you want your heirs to be able to access private information after your passing. This is especially true for sentimental digital assets such as genealogy research, photos and videos.

Consider streamlining the variety of passwords you have for such accounts by creating a “password formula” ― a set structure for how you compose your password that you can then amend regularly. Create one that includes at least eight characters, one symbol and a capital letter to ensure that the formula will work for the picky sites that require such things.

For example, July@2016 can be revised to be August@2016, etc. This allows you to change your password regularly and share a formula, if not the password itself. If your executor doesn’t have your most updated password, at least it would be easier to narrow down options to figure it out when he or she needs it.

Phone

If you are the only person who knows your Apple or Android account information, it will be nearly impossible for your executor or lawyer to access your iCloud or iTunes once you are deceased. While Apple’s policy indicates that you cannot transfer your account to someone else, a more immediate concern after your passing may be accessing information your phone, such as your friends’ contact information. Keep a printed contact list with your will.

Use a Little Black Book

It may be controversial for some people to think of writing down passwords, but for those of us who appreciate having something tangible for backup, I recommend using a Little Black Password Book to keep track of your various usernames and passwords and then keeping it in an ultra-safe place with your will, like a safety deposit box.

Alternatively, if you and your executor are more comfortable with a digital approach, you could try out a password app such as Dashlane or LastPass for one master password to access all.

Fun Ways To Make The Most Of Fall

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The cool, crisp air and falling leaves may mean the end of days by the swimming pool or trips to the beach, but the fall season offers plenty of fun activities that can easily be incorporated into healthy senior living. If you’re an older adult looking for activities that may be fun for you, your friends and your family, consider some of these options:

A trip to the orchard
Apple picking is one of the most time-honored autumn traditions, and it makes for a great activity for people of all ages. Everyone can enjoy walking through the beautiful orchard while the young ones climb ladders (with Mom and Dad’s help, of course) to reach the best apples at the top of the trees. Afterward, you can all return to the Southgate to bake an apple pie or tart for a delicious fall treat that is sure to please.

A foliage walk
We are now approaching the most beautiful time of year in terms of foliage, and a great way to enjoy the changing leaves is to take a walk through the woods. This is a fantastic activity for seniors who enjoy exercising in groups, as it allows you to get your blood pumping while also taking in the gorgeous scenery. Consider collecting a few of your favorite leaves and using them to decorate your home with fall’s best colors.

Pumpkin carving
Halloween may still be a few weeks away, but who’s to say you can’t participate in pumpkin carving a little early? It’s always fun to see what sort of creative designs you can make on one of these gourds, and the grandkids will love the opportunity to make a jack-o-lantern more than once this year. Don’t forget to save the seeds – you can pop them in the oven and roast them for a tasty and healthy treat.

Learn how to knit
Autumn is the season for warm sweaters, gloves and hats, and this year, why not have some fun making your own? Knitting is much easier than it looks, and you can enlist a friend or staff member here at Southgate to give you instructions. You’ll be amazed at how quickly you can pick up this skill, and it will allow you to create festive and homemade gifts for your entire family come the holiday season.