2015 Budget Deal putting an end to "File-and-Suspend" Social Security strategy

The new budget deal is bringing an end to the "File-and-Suspend" strategy (or loophole) to maximize Social Security Benefits in retirement.  

"... file-and-suspends are disallowed, beginning 180 days after the bill is signed into law. That opens a window for six more months for people to file and suspend, if they choose that strategy."

End of Year Estate Planning

It’s approaching the end of the year and time to begin reflecting on the changes of the past year.  With the end of 2015 upon us and 2016 about to begin, it’s time to get organized.  Updating (or creating) your estate planning documents is the final step of the process.  First thing you need to do is Get Organized:

1. Talk to your family about your wishes
2. Review beneficiary designations and make sure they are up to date
3. Military and VA documents (get a copy of your DD214)
4. Government benefits
5. Employment documents
6. Pension and savings accounts

Once you have a good idea of what you have and what you want, think about what has changed for your family in the past year:

1. Marriages
2. Divorces
3. New Children/Grand Children/adoption
4. Guardians and Conservators for minor children
5. Children becoming Adults
6. Retirement plans
7. Family members with special needs
8. Major purchases (especially Real Estate)

Review what you have and make sure it’s up to date.

1. Advanced medical directives
2. Powers of attorney
3. Write a will or living trust
4. Make sure your living trust is funded and up to date

There is no reason to wait to the beginning or end of the year to start thinking about Estate Planning but that's when most people reflect on the past year and make the to do list for the next. 

Disinheriting Parents in Oregon

Disinheriting Deadbeat Parents

Typically, when a child dies without a will and does not have a spouse or children, his parents will inherit his property.  The Oregon Probate Code does make certain exceptions.  

Under the law, Parents were disinherited if they deserted their adult child for a period of ten years or neglected to care for their child for 10 years.  Parents of minor children were disinherited if they willfully abandoned their children of the life of the child or for 10 years. 

The New Oregon Probate Code that becomes effective January 1, 2016 adds another way to disinherit parents.  ORS 112.047 is amended to read:

112.047. (1) Property that would pass by intestate succession under ORS 112.045 from the estate of a decedent to a parent of the decedent shall pass and be vested as if the parent had predeceased the decedent if: (a) The parental rights of the parent with respect to the decedent were terminated and the parent-child relationship between the parent and the decedent was not judicially reestablished.

Like most of what the Probate law tries to do, this addition tries to accomplish what most people would have wanted if they had gotten around to writing a will.  Most people would not have wanted parents who abandoned them to inherit their property.  The Oregon legislature as added language so that those who had their parental rights terminated would also not inherit property from their children.

This is the latest post in our series on Oregon Probate Law Modernization.  A list of articles can be found here.

Inheriting Property when there is no Will.

See update at the bottom of the post.

As part of the updated Oregon Probate law, the Oregon legislature updated and clarified the definitions for inheriting property. 

For those who want to get technical, the amended language of the statute is:

ORS 112.065 is amended to read: 112.065. “Representation” means the method of determining the passing of the net intestate estate when the distributees are of  different generations in relation to the decedent. Representation is accomplished as follows: The estate shall be divided into as many shares as there are surviving heirs of the generation closest in relation to the decedent and deceased persons of the same generation who left issue who survive the decedent, each surviving heir of the nearest generation in relation to the decedent receiving one share and the share of each deceased person of the same generation being divided among the issue of the deceased person in the same manner.

The definition of Generation is:

ORS 111.005 (18) “Generation” means a group of human beings, living or deceased, that constitute a single step in the line of descent from an ancestor.

For example:  Grandma dies without a will.  She has three children (Child A, B, and C.)  Child C died but before dying had 3 grandchildren.  The shares of the estate will be divided as follows:  Child A receives 1/3; Child B receives 1/3; and the children of Child C receive 1/3 .  Each grandchild of Child C receives 1/9 each of the total estate.

Updated:  I reread the post after Paul Wick's comment below and realized what I had written wasn't clear.  There is no change to how the mechanics of Oregon inheritance law works, just that the definitions are simplified to more closely align with common usage.