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Health & Fitness

Consider carefully how you treat your property in your estate plans: Recent Pennsylvania Legislation

Consider carefully how you give away real estate that you own. Also, Pennsylvania's PACE and PACENET plans are enhanced to cover Social Security Cost of Living Adjustments.

UU House Outreach in Germanton Philadelphia is a program designed to help senior citizens who live at home by connecting them to community resources. My friends there asked that I pass on this hint about estate planning.

A long time ago the outreach program thought about expanding their operations. They had their eyes on a building just across from their office on Tulpehocken Street. The only problem was, the owner passed away leaving the building to his four brothers. One of the four brothers also passed away without a will, and it was tricky to determine who owned his interest. The remaining brothers could not agree on whether to rent or sell the land.  The property deteriorated over years until one day the city posted notices that it might be demolished. By that time the Outreach Project had found another office space, so the owners of the property gave it away to an outsider.

This same Outreach Project recently inherited mineral rights in property. The owner of the property bequeathed it to five charities, revenue to be divided equally among them. All are very thankful to the donor. However, the bequest poses a problem:  One of the charities is no longer in existence and it is tricky to determine what happens to its share. An oil company wants to enter into a lease for the minerals on the property and the remaining charities cannot seem to agree on the terms of the lease.

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The solution? Rather than bequeathing real estate to more than one beneficiary, consider making your property a part of your residuary estate and direct the executor to sell it and split the proceeds. Another alternative is a trust. The best thing to do is to see an experienced attorney because each case is different, and there are some cases where you want to give property directly to an heir, but be aware of the pitfalls. I hope I do not make readers uneasy by bringing up the topic of wills and estate planning, but unfortunately the mortality rate is holding steady at 100%.

A cheerier note of interest…

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On June 30th, Governor Corbett signed House Bill 463.  Essentially what that bill says is that any Pennsylvania Senior who receives PACE or PACENET medical benefits will not be disqualified from the program if their income is over the limits solely because of a Social Security Cost of Living Adjustment.  If you are not familiar with the programs, PACE and PACENET are our state pharmaceutical assistance plans. I expect to talk a lot more about that program in the weeks ahead.

Stay well until the next post.

 

Bob Gasparro

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