Today on Mitlin Money Mindset™ we are joined by Jordan Linn. He is a partner with Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt’s trusts and estates practice group. Jordan brings an uncompromising commitment to providing each and every client with responsive, efficient, and sophisticated counsel. Jordan has more than 20 years of experience structuring and executing sophisticated gift estate and generation-skipping tax planning techniques. He represents clients in preparing their last will and testaments, trust agreements, and advanced directives. When the time comes Jordan guides them through the administration process. He has been able to use his expertise to help his clients address the often avoided topic of death in a way that makes them feel comfortable and allows their wishes to be followed. This is an extremely important part of the planning process. He is an excellent attorney and someone that I’ve had the privilege to call a friend for 20 plus years.
You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in…
- What is Jordan’s focus at the firm? [2:14]
- At what point should people start thinking about estate planning? [7:33]
- What are the staple documents people should have in place? [8:59]
- Things to consider when your child is 18 and heading to college. [11:23]
- Do trusts help people avoid taxes? [12:35]
- Misconceptions about what’s included in the trust. [17:10]
- Different types of planners and what they do. [20:52]
- Estate planning for business owners. [25:38]
- What Jordan did today that put him/her in the right mindset for success? [31:25]
Is there a certain age that should prompt someone to start estate planning?
For young people, estate planning seems like something that’s far down the road. The older you get the more important things like this become. At what age should people start thinking about starting an estate plan and moving forward in that process? Jordan says it’s not age as much as it is what you have in your life. Your most valuable asset is your children so if you have kids you should have some type of estate planning documents in place. It’s important for everyone to have a will if for no other reason than a will allows you to designate who would be the guardian of any minor children if something were to happen to you.
Do you have the bare minimum in place when it comes to your estate?
Jordan says building an estate plan is like building a house. You have to start with a good foundation and build up from there. In estate planning your foundation is a basic set of documents that everyone needs.
Here are the basic foundational documents you should start with:
Last will and testament to make sure that it’s clear who would be in charge of your estate and who would administer your estate for the benefit of your beneficiaries.
Power of attorney is vital, if you become incapacitated, someone needs to be able to step in and handle your assets on your behalf. Otherwise, if you’re not able to sign anything, your family may end up in guardianship court trying to get guardianship over you in order to get control over your assets. This is time-consuming, expensive, and unpleasant. It’s much easier to have the document and have the power of attorney in place.
Healthcare proxy, this establishes who makes healthcare decisions for you if you can’t make decisions for yourself. You don’t want the family arguing about what medications or surgeries you should or shouldn’t have. Picture a waiting room full of people, yelling at your doctor, different directives on how to handle your care. The health care proxy appoints one person at a time that the doctors and the hospitals can rely upon if you can’t communicate your own wishes.
A living will, which is basically a statement of your intentions. Something saying that if things are hopeless under some terrible circumstance, that you’re authorizing your healthcare agent to refuse certain types of transmittal care.
Do you have your foundation in place?
A simple thing that brings Jordan joy
We ask everyone the same question on Mitlin Money Mindset™. What did you do today that brought you joy and put you in the right mindset for success? Here’s what Jordan had to say.
“I’m going to be really corny here, you see people, athletes, talk about their why right? Why do you do what you do? For me, it’s family. My wife and my kids. That’s why I get up in the morning and do what I do. Why I work as hard as I do. So just getting up this morning, driving my kids to school. Having that time and doing that with them is a mundane, daily thing that I do. But it gets me set off on the right foot that I got to spend a little bit of extra time with my kids. And I’d say, that’s what brings me joy.”
Connect with Jordan Linn
- On Instagram
- On Linkedin
- Jordan’s company THSH website
- THSH on Instagram
- THSH on Twitter
- THSH on Linkedin
- THSH on Facebook
Jordan S. Linn’s practice focuses on estate planning, business succession planning, and the administration of estates and trusts. Jordan is a partner with Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt’s trusts and estates practice group, with an uncompromising commitment to providing each and every client with responsive, efficient, and sophisticated counsel. Jordan has more than 20 years of experience structuring and executing sophisticated gift, estate, and generation-skipping tax planning techniques. He represents clients in preparing their last will and testaments, trust agreements, and advance directives. He is a seasoned expert in the drafting and implementation of grantor retained annuity trusts (GRAT); qualified personal residence trusts (QPRT); intentionally defective grantor trust transactions (IDGT); irrevocable life insurance trusts; charitable lead and remainder trusts (CLAT/CRAT); revocable living trusts; and dynasty and generation-skipping tax (GST) trust planning. Jordan adeptly guides clients through the probate and administration of estates and trusts, including complex estates involving numerous testamentary and intervivos trusts, and requiring the preparation of state and federal estate tax returns. Jordan regularly advises clients regarding asset protection planning and Medicaid planning, and has represented clients involved in audits and tax court proceedings relating to gift, estate, and excise taxes. He is also experienced in the formation and representation of private foundations and public charities. Jordan is a frequent and well-regarded lecturer on a myriad of trusts and estates topics, presenting regularly at continuing education programs for attorneys and accountants. He has also served as an adjunct professor at LIU Post and CUNY Queens College. Jordan’s pedigree and stellar reputation in the trusts and estates arena has led to various honors and accolades, including an AV “Preeminent” Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating, multiple “SuperLawyer” awards, a LIBN “40 under 40” award, and an LIBN “Leadership in Law” award. Originally a Brooklyn native, Jordan now lives on Long Island with his wife and two sons. When he’s not in the bleachers watching his boys on the basketball court or baseball diamond, he enjoys traveling and spending time with family and friends.
Guests on the Mitlin Money Mindset Show are not affiliated with CWM, LLC, and opinions expressed herein may not be representative CWM, LLC. CWM, LLC is not responsible for the guest’s content linked on this site.
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