Dear Liz: Please consider mentioning employers who haven\u2019t forgotten long-time employees in their estate planning. <\/p>\n
Caregivers and domestic workers may work for families, the elderly or seriously ill patients for decades. When there is a death, the estate or family members rarely remember these workers who feel their effort must have meant very little not to have been acknowledged in some small way. <\/p>\n
I did hear about an employer who put away $10,000 a year in a savings account for an hourly paid employee who retired after 30 years of service. <\/p>\n
By the way, the employee never asked for anything. She was just grateful to have been of service for so many years.<\/p>\n
Answer: You\u2019re right that a bequest could be a meaningful acknowledgment of a longtime domestic employee\u2019s faithful service. Such bequests also can trigger huge family fights, accusations of undue influence and court challenges that drag on for years.<\/p>\n
The size of the bequest, the size of the estate and the contentiousness of the family are all factors that need to be considered. Also keep in mind that while most bequests aren\u2019t taxable, bequests from an employer often are since the IRS views such transfers as compensation. Anyone contemplating including an employee in their will would be wise to consult an estate planning attorney as well as a tax pro.<\/p>\n
Dear Liz: My mother passed away two years ago. She left a small mountain of paperwork which my brother, sister and I have finally started to sort through. Among the surprises that we have found is a receipt from a bank for the purchase of $4,500 of U.S. government savings bonds. <\/p>\n
The date of purchase is one month after the birth of her grandson in March 1992. We suspect that the bond was intended as a gift for the grandson. 4<\/p>\n
Is there a way to track down these bonds? Would a receipt from a bank be sufficient to satisfy the Treasury that the bond purchases were valid?<\/p>\n
Answer: Savings bonds purchased in 1992 would have already matured and are no longer paying interest. If your mom didn\u2019t cash in these bonds, you may be able to find them through the U.S. Treasury Department\u2019s Treasury Hunt tool. You can find it at treasurydirect.gov\/savings-bonds\/treasury-hunt<\/a>.<\/p>\n Liz Weston, Certified Financial Planner, is a personal finance columnist for NerdWallet.<\/a> <\/a>Questions may be sent to her at 3940 Laurel Canyon, No. 238, Studio City, CA 91604, or by using the \u201cContact\u201d form at asklizweston.com.<\/a><\/p>\n If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dear Liz: Please consider mentioning employers who haven\u2019t forgotten long-time employees in their estate planning. Caregivers and domestic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-92586","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}