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MSU Left Millions in Best Wurst Bequest

 

Montana State University announced on Thursday that the late Bill Wurst, a 1959 alumnus in electrical engineering, has left $4 million to the MSU College of Engineering as a gift from his estate. The gift will be used as matching funds for the university’s planned Norm Asbjornson Innovation Center. Through a bequest from his estate, Bill Wurst designated $4 million to be directed to the greatest needs of the College of Engineering. Wurst had first shared that MSU would be a benefactor of a portion of his estate in 2011 during a conversation about his philanthropic goals and estate planning with MSU Alumni Foundation Senior Director of Development Jackie Sather.

When Bill Wurst passed away last year, Edith and his children worked with the Alumni Foundation and realized Bill’s gift would really have a big effect on the match for the Norm Asbjornson Innovation Center.

According an article on the KPAX.com website, Wurst was an energetic supporter of future engineering students at Montana State. He had established a scholarship with matching funds from HP for students in electrical and computer engineering in 1994. In addition, Bill established two additional endowed scholarships designated for engineering students from Flathead and Lake Counties in Montana, where he grew up.

Wurst received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from MSU, and he earned a master’s degree in electrical engineering while working as a research and teaching assistant at the school. Wurst had a 30-year career with Hewlett Packard.

Colleagues described Wurst as a natural leader who developed a reputation as an innovator and strategic thinker. Many at the school believe these qualities about him make his estate gift to the school especially appropriate. The building will be designed to promote student-faculty interaction and accelerated innovation that responds to and anticipates emerging trends in education, industry and society.

University officials hope to break ground on the facility by the middle of 2016.

If you would like to discuss bequests or other tax-wise methods of benefiting your favorite school or charity, please set up a time to come in and talk.

Reference: KPAX.com (September 18, 2015) “Late Ronan man leaves $4M estate gift to MSU”

Should A Revocable Trust be Your Estate Planning Choice?

If you haven't considered using a revocable trust rather than a will as your main estate planning document, you could be making a critical mistake.

A recent MoneyWatch article, “5 reasons you need a trust, not a will,” lists five reasons for using a revocable trust as the primary method for disposing your estate.

1. Pass on assets privately, quickly and efficiently. A revocable trust as a vehicle to distribute your estate allows your beneficiaries some privacy. The trust isn't filed with the probate court and isn't a public document (unlike a will). Property transferred into a revocable trust during your lifetime isn't subject to the expense and delays of probate.

2. Preserve assets for heirs and charities. Changes can be made to your revocable trust anytime. However, when you pass away, the trust becomes irrevocable. The provisions that pertain to the disposition of assets to your heirs and charities will be administered by your trustee under the trust’s terms.

3. Assets that remain in your trust after your death typically aren’t considered marital property. Those assets aren't subject to division in a settlement if the beneficiary gets divorced. However, in many states, a divorce court may take the beneficiary's income interest into consideration when determining the division of marital property or support obligations.  (If this is a concern to you, let's talk about FL law.)

4. Retain control over distributions. A trust can contain language that says when distributions of income and principal will be available to beneficiaries, and it can have distributions for specific purposes like education or health care expenses. A trust can also include language for distributions based on attaining specific ages. For example, one-third of the principal is distributed at age 30, half at 35 and the rest at 40.

5. Distribute retirement accounts efficiently. If the trust is the beneficiary of your retirement accounts and if it is written correctly, the trustee can limit withdrawals to the retirement account's minimum required distributions based on the life expectancy of the oldest beneficiary. This avoids the mistake of a beneficiary liquidating a retirement account and triggering a large income tax obligation.

Please make an appointment to discuss if this strategy will work for your specific circumstances.

Reference: MoneyWatch (September 17, 2015) “5 reasons you need a trust, not a will”

Who Handles Everyday Life When I'm Not Around?

Who pays the bills in your house? If your house is like most, there is probably one person who handles most of the financial matters. Would you or your spouse be prepared to assume the role of managing the household finances if something happened to the other spouse? Too often, clients have gone through the process of ensuring their estate plan is in order, just to realize that, when one passes away, the other does not have the information they need to pick up where the other left off. After the wills, power of attorneys, and medical directives are created and the other crucial estate planning components are addressed, take some time to consider your unique family situation and the details that would make the transition more difficult to navigate following a death.

A recent issue of The Ledger contained a very practical checklist for organizing household finances in “Estate planning details you may be forgetting.”It included these important points:

1. Organize financial documents and personal information. Leaving behind organized records with everything from account information to contact numbers will help your spouse or children when they need access to this information. Make certain your spouse knows where you keep things such as wills, trust documents, insurance information, social security cards, birth certificates, medical records, and tax information. Write the names and contact information of emergency contacts and include your doctors, attorney, and insurance agent.

2. Create a list of assets and liabilities. Assets should include bank accounts, brokerage accounts, safety deposit boxes, and property. Liabilities should include things like credit card debts, mortgages, and car payments. List the location, names on the accounts, account numbers, and any website login information including usernames, passwords, and security questions for each one.

3. Identify all sources of income and expenses. This will help your spouse understand what in-flows to expect, as well the bills to be paid. Note whether you pay a bill by paper or online, and if online, list the usernames, passwords, and security information to access the websites.

4. Document any other miscellaneous information that your spouse might need. While this might not be financial planning, it is still very important. This includes things like where you keep the spare keys to your house, or any keys to the shed or safes. As you go through your daily routine, consider things that are obvious to you, but may not be as obvious to your spouse or children. This should include a list of passwords for online accounts, passwords for computers and other electronic devices, locations of flash drives or CDs with old family pictures—even a basic household maintenance checklist.

Detailed planning will result in the peace of mind for your spouse and family in the event of your death or incapacitation.

I'd be happy to sit down with you and your loved ones and help with planning for these and other life events.  Please visit my website for more information or to set an appointment.

Reference: The Ledger (September 17, 2015) “Estate planning details you may be forgetting”