For many, estate planning sounds like an activity only for the rich and famous. The first definition in many dictionaries, in fact, allude to an estate being a large piece of land in the country owned by a family.
However, the reality is that estate planning is simply the process of communicating one’s end-of-life medical treatment, in addition to figuring out what to do with a life’s worth of accumulations and registering that plan into a legal document.
“It’s not just for really wealthy people,” said Murray Scheel, managing attorney for the D.C. Bar’s Future Planning & Probate Program, during an estate planning workshop at Lamond-Riggs Library.
The event was hosted by the D.C. Department of Insurance Securities and Banking.
“These are not,” Scheel continued, “cookie cutter issues.”
Whether someone is as young as 18, living their golden years, has no property to their name, or has several properties, businesses, children and even pets, planning an estate is the only way to protect personal desires around treatment in case of emergency. Not to mention, it ensures that others, including the government, are not left in charge of making such decisions in one’s absence.
According to Planned Giving, 68% of Americans do not have a valid will. This includes people who have never created a will or trust and those who have not updated their will, which can make them invalid.
Furthermore, 29% of the Black population have a will or estate planning document, according to Caring.com.
With this in mind, several organizations and agencies throughout the DMV are committed to educating residents about the benefits of estate planning, hosting events, free law clinics and discussions.
Estate planning is the ironclad way to ensure generational wealth, which is a dire need for the District’s Black community, according to Brenda Harrison of D.C. Prosperity Wellness Circles, who coordinated last month’s Heir Property Protection Forum and Community Event at the R.I.S.E. Demonstration Center in Southeast D.C.
During the two-day estate planning workshop, several legal and banking experts–six with doctorates–drilled down the need to protect wellbeing, investments and family by creating wills, trusts and having clear communication with families and friends.
“This is a pathway to revitalize financial living and intentional acquisition of homes, sustainability of home, wealth creation and most importantly, preserving the investments that we have made in our communities,” said Harrison.
According to the Urban Institute, the Black-white homeownership gap is wider than it was when segregation was legal. Today’s gap is a result of the Black community getting hit harder than other populations during the housing crisis of 2000. The disparity is likely also related to the fact that many Black residents are not addressing end-of-life planning at the rate of white residents, which means Black families are unable to inherit property of family members–at least not with the ease of their counterparts who are, in fact, writing wills and trusts to further generational wealth.
Deborah Johnson, corporate responsibility and community engagement marketing manager for JP Morgan & Chase, said when residents prepare to purchase a home, housing counselors talk about the need to reevaluate one’s budget, keep a good credit score and save for unexpected repairs. However, the key to keeping homes in the Black family is left undiscussed.
“One of the recurring things is that culturally, we don’t talk about death,” said Johnson, who led a discussion during the Heir Property Protection Forum and Community Event. “We don’t talk about insurance, we don’t talk about all the tools because we’re operating from a space of lack, not understanding that we have assets. Nothing is said about having a will, having a trust.”
Maryland estate planning lawyer Leah Boston agrees that the Black community suffers greater when it comes to inheriting family property and continuing legacies. Last month, she addressed attendees of Trinidad Baptist Church’s Homeowners Resource Fair in Capitol Heights, Maryland.
Boston explained how complications that arise with heirs’ property, which is family-owned land inherited from a person who did not have an estate plan, negatively impacts Black families.
“All of these government programs that other communities take advantage of because there’s clear title of ownership, we can’t necessary take advantage of because [with heirs’ property] … we all own this one piece of land because there’s not a clear probate that tells the government who owns the land,” said Boston. “So, this is a really big issue that actually happens a lot in our community, because our grandparents or our parents will die, and then it’ll just be this floating blob of people that have interest in the home.”
The attorney and owner of Law Office of Leah Boston, LLC., added that, when a predicament like this occurs, no one can truly benefit from the home because there are often even more issues to negotiate around, such as whether to invest, rent out, sell, or live in the home.
“Surviving family members may fight without intentional direction or instruction. If we put together some sort of succession plan that says where the house is directly going to go instead of dying and letting it just kind of trickle between multiple family members owning it, we now have an organized plan in place,” she said.
Furthermore, being strategic and asking questions is important. Someone writing their will may want to leave a family member in a good place with property, money or both, but this can actually be harmful to some Boston explained.
“A lump sum distribution may cause a beneficiary to lose governmental benefits. If you have a disabled child or you have an elderly parent that’s on Medicaid, Medicare, or getting some sort of disability…and those lump sum distributions from your estate now go to this person, they may get kicked off [from receiving] benefits…and you don’t want that to happen just because you failed to plan,” Boston explained. “It’s really sad that these are possible issues that can happen when the simplest thing that we can do is either put together a will or put together a trust or talk with an estate plan attorney.”