The Bill Kumpe Law Firm

CHANGE IS COMING ...

The week before the election, in a copyrighted article, political pundit Pat Buchanan made several predictions as to what President Barack Hussein Obama would do in his first one hundred days in office.  To date, Obama's promise to start his first weeks in office with a series of executive orders tends to lend credence to Buchanan's predictions.  If even a few of these predictions come true, and I suspect that many of them will, they will have a profound effect upon how you do business and manage your affairs.  Here are Buchanan's predictions:

•   Swift amnesty for 12 million to 20 million illegal aliens and a drive to make them citizens and register them, as in the Bill Clinton years. This will mean that Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona will soon move out of reach for GOP presidential candidates, as has California.
•   Border security will go on the backburner, and America will have a virtual open border with a Mexico of 110 million.
•   Taxes will be raised on the top 5 percent of wage-earners, who now carry 60 percent of the U.S. income tax burden, and tens of millions of checks will be sent out to the 40 percent of wage-earners who pay no federal income tax. Like the man said, redistribute the wealth, spread it around.
•   Social Security taxes will be raised on the most successful among us, and capital gains taxes will be raised from 15 percent to 20 percent. The Bush tax cuts will be repealed, and death taxes reimposed.
•   Two or three more liberal activists of the Ruth Bader Ginsberg-John Paul Stevens stripe will be named to the Supreme Court. U.S. district and appellate courts will be stacked with "progressives."
•   Special protections for homosexuals will be written into all civil rights laws, and gays and lesbians in the military will be invited to come out of the closet. "Don't ask, don't tell" will be dead.
•   The homosexual marriages that state judges have forced California, Massachusetts and Connecticut to recognize, an Obama Congress or Obama court will require all 50 states to recognize.
•   A "Freedom of Choice Act" nullifying all state restrictions on abortions will be enacted. America will become the most pro-abortion nation on earth.
•   Affirmative action -- hiring and promotions based on race, sex and sexual orientation until specified quotas are reached -- will be rigorously enforced throughout the U.S. government and private sector.
•   Universal health insurance will be enacted, covering legal and illegal immigrants, providing another powerful magnet for the world to come to America, if necessary by breaching her borders.
•   A federal bailout of states and municipalities to keep state and local governments spending up could come in December or early next year.
•   The first trillion-dollar deficit will be run in the first year of an Obama presidency. It will be the first of many.

 
TIME TO CHECK YOUR ESTATE
PLAN AGAINST YOUR PORTFOLIO

In the past few weeks, the stock market has lost trillions of dollars in value and shows no sign of recovering soon.  On Sept. 29. 2008 alone the market lost 1.2 trillion.

These are not abstract numbers.  A lot of people lost money in the market and that is money that will not be available in their portfolio in the future.  For a lot of people, the lost funds were being used to fund their estate plan.  In short, a large number of Americans now have estate plans with bequests or directives that are no longer funded at the level they anticipated when they wrote them.  In some cases, previous bequests and directives may be impossible or impractical to complete due to lack of funds.

In the case of an underfunded bequest, the probate court will usually try to fairly apportion the funds as best they can in conformity with the probate code.  But, poorly drafted wills can result in unplanned results.  For example, specific bequests of what seemed to be small amounts of money to distant relatives, friends, etc. can trump the huge residuary bequests directed toward spouses and close family members if there is not enough money in the estate.  Living trusts are subject to the same cautions in that, contrary to popular belief, trusts can be challenged in court just like a will. 

It is vitally important that everyone run the numbers on their financial portfolio and compare the amount of funds reasonably expected to be available against the funds they have committed in their estate plans.  This should not be a cursory review.  Do not rely upon income projections from money market accounts or stock market based retirement accounts.  Cash is king right now and your estate plan strategy should reflect that new reality.



REVIEW CHURCH MANAGEMENT
POLICIES NOW!

For as long as anyone can remember, the actual working relationship between the average church and government has been pretty easy going.  The average American church has grown accustomed to operating under a wink and nod arrangement concerning the enforcement of hundreds of federal, state and local laws that affect their operation.

However, that relationship has been changing for the worse over the past few years and given the sweeping political changes our country will soon face, it is highly likely that many churches, especially those that have taken high profile positions on social issues, will face increased regulatory scrutiny at almost every level of government.

It is very important that churches use the next few weeks to bring themselves into complete compliance with all local, state and federal laws that they can obey without denying their faith.  It is also very important that these churches review their organizational documents and statements of faith very carefully and make sure that previously assumed conditions, restrictions and prohibitions against certain activities within the membership are carefully and clearly recorded as a tenet of faith of the organization.