Former President Jimmy Carter has been in the news. I listened to a few interviews with him recorded over the years by Terry Gross for her Fresh Air radio program heard on NPR. In a 1998 interview recorded after the publication of Jimmy Carter’s book: The Virtues of Aging, the former President talked about his and Rosalyn Carter’s approach to estate planning.
Jimmy Carter has not shied away from contemplating his death. He says we all know we are going to pass away someday. His approach was to plan for it in a reasonable way.
First of all, the former President and his wife both have living wills (in California we use Advance Health Care Directives) expressing their desire to pass away without tubes or artificial extension of life that can be very costly. They have planned for what they hope will be a natural death.
Second, the former President and his wife have done some tax and estate planning. Jimmy Carter points to the fact that anyone who has a taxable estate has the U.S. government as a major heir. Without proper estate planning, a percentage of your estate will go to the U.S. government instead of the people we care about, or the charities and projects that we would rather support.
The Carters approached estate planning in a methodical way. They had all their children come home during a holiday weekend. They had frank discussions with their children about everything they owned. And, they asked the question – what did their children want the parents to leave to them. For example, would a child rather the parents skip them and leave the child’s share directly to his/her own children (the grandchildren)?
Finally, balancing their desire to benefit their children and with counsel from their estate planning professionals, the Carters created an estate plan to leave a substantial portion of their estate to the Carter Center, founded by the former President and his wife with a mission to wage peace, fight disease, and build hope.
Jimmy Carter ended the interview segment with good advice to all of us: “No matter who we are, we ought to make some plans about what kind of legacy we want.” (NPR: Jimmy Carter: The Fresh Air Interviews, March 7, 2023.)
Planning Ahead Column
By Lisa Alexander, Esq.
Jakle, Alexander and Patton, LLP
1250 Sixth Street, Suite 300, Santa Monica, CA 90401
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