Jorge Ramos has won eight Emmy Awards and has been the anchor for Univision News for the last twenty-one years.  He has appeared on NBC’s Today, CNN’s Talk Back Live, ABC’s Nightline, and Fox News’s The O’Reilly Factor, among others, and is the bestselling author of No Borders: A Journalist’s Search for Home and Dying to Cross.  In his career he has been in many dangerous places. 

Recently, Jorge was on the CBS’s Early Show to talk about his new book. He told about how one sunny morning he was driving to his dentist’s office when suddenly a van almost hit him head on and killed him.  That shock, more than all the horrors he had witnessed as a journalist, brought him face to face with his own mortality. 

He realized that he had almost lost the opportunity to tell his story to his children.  His response was to write another book, The Gift of Time:  Letters from a Father.  In it, according to Barnes & Noble, he “reflects upon the world we live in and shares his love for his children in a series of letters that touch on everything from love and divorce to soccer and e-mail.”

You don’t have to be an award-winning journalist to pass on your intellectual, spiritual, and human wealth to future generations.  Our clients do it through our Priceless Conversations program.  Once each year, we sit down with them for an informal conversation and record their answers to a series of questions.  The questions, on a subject they have chosen, are carefully designed to capture a part of their intellectual, spiritual, or human wealth - their personal legacy.  We have questions on many subjects, such as your love for your children, what you remember about your childhood and your grandparents, and what is most important to you in life.

Don’t assume that passing your financial wealth to your children is the end of the story.  In most cases, it is only the beginning.  Don’t overlook your personal legacy as the most priceless element of your family’s wealth.

Clients ask me all the time whether or not they should have long-term care insurance. The answer isn’t always so cut and dry. The important thing is that if people are going to consider it as part of their retirement planning, they need to make a thorough assessment. In the May 2008 edition of Smart Money, Peter Keating makes the argument in favor of long-term care insurance. Take (Long-Term) Care, Smart Money, May 2008.

The most valuable benefit of long-term care insurance is that it gives you options. No one wants to be in a nursing home. “Americans 65 and over have a 40% chance of entering a nursing home at some point in their lives, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.” Sadly, there are many people currently living in nursing homes who might thrive in less restrictive settings if they could afford them. Unfortunately at-home care and assisted living usually require private payment. There are very few public assistance programs, and most have strict income or asset rules. As Peter Keating points out, it’s clear that depending upon Medicaid to pay for long-term care costs isn’t a wise choice, unless it’s the only choice.

Certainly long-term care insurance can be expensive. But consider these eye-opening statistics that Keating points too: Americans rely upon insurance to protect against a 1 in 1,200 chance of your home burning down, a 1 in 240 chance of an auto accident lawsuit and a 1 in 15 chance of a major medical expense. Yet, there is a 1 in 4 chance of needing long-term care. Of course, there’s no way to know what those statistics would be if homeowners insurance wasn’t required by our mortgage companies, and if auto insurance wasn’t required by most states. Some states, Massachusetts included, even require their residents to have health insurance.

If you want to know your long-term care insurance options seek out a long-term care specialist who has a great deal of experience with this type of insurance and can explain all the different bells and whistles. While your financial advisor may be licensed to sell long-term care insurance, this doesn’t mean he or she is qualified to sell it; ask about relevant experience. If possible, also work with an independent professional who can help you look at policies that fit your goals, not one who works for an insurance company who will try to make you fit their available policies.

Bottom line: complete retirement planning should include a consideration of long-term care insurance. A complete consideration, though, includes more than just knowing the price tag.

I was lucky enough to go to the Red Sox game last night. Jon Lester was the pitcher. Many of you may remember him as the young pitcher who in 2006 was diagnosed with lymphoma. Jon pitched the game of his career last night. In 7 innings he threw close to 100 pitches allowing only 1 hit. He did everything he could to guarantee a great outcome. In the end, though, even though the Red Sox won, Jon is not listed as the winning pitcher of record. The Red Sox scored their single run which ultimately won the game after relief pitcher Jon Papelbon came into the game. This one detail kept Lester’s fantastic work and great effort from being recorded in the “win” column.

I was reminded of a client who did everything right in working with his attorney to develop and put in place a trust as part of an estate plan. He thoughtfully considered his personal wishes, family needs and tax considerations. By all accounts, his new trust was a “win”.

Tragically, just like Jon Lester, one detail prevented success of this estate plan. The client never made sure his trust was funded, or that change of beneficiary forms were completed to flow retirement and insurance assets through the trust. In his case, nothing in his trust was implemented. His wishes were not honored, his plans were not carried out and to add insult to injury, a big tax bill became due.

The moral of the story is to make sure that all the details of funding are tended to while you’re still “on the mound”. Some clients take direction from their attorneys but complete the details upon themselves. Others recognize the benefit to paying their attorney to do it for them - it can save time, hold someone accountable and guarantee that the job gets done. Whatever your choice, don’t assume that the work is done when the documents are signed. There are almost always ‘i’s to dot and ‘t’s to cross to complete the work and “win” the game.

In late 2007, I was honored as the Member of the Year of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys - the local elder law bar association. I was selected from among 500 preeminent elder law attorneys for this distinguished award.

Ingle Law is pleased to announce (testing the color of links) that we have moved to a new location - right around the corner from our last office. We are now located at 56 Central Street in Southborough, Massachusetts.