MSU Extension, AARP Montana to offer monthly Wisdom Wednesdays webinars

MSU News Service

BOZEMAN — Montana State University Extension, in partnership with AARP Montana, will offer a four-part estate and legacy planning webinar series. Wisdom Wednesdays will begin April 14 and take place monthly from 10 to 11 a.m. online.

According to Marsha Goetting, MSU Extension family economics specialist, this series was created due to the level of interest in the Tuesday Tips series, which ran January through February. Nearly 250 people signed up to attend those webinars.

In the first session, viewers will learn when a written will does and does not work in estate planning. Participants will become aware of the basic will provisions and meaning of specific phrases such as “right of representation.”

How beneficiary designations allow Montanans to pass property without probate, while saving more money for heirs, will be the topic of the second session May 12. Montana law allows payable-on-death designations, transfer-on-death registrations and transfer-on-death deeds, and, according to Steve Reiter, senior operations specialist for AARP Montana, viewers will understand how these designations override provisions written in wills.

In the third session on June 9, Goetting will answers common estate planning questions. Topics will include whether individuals should give their property away while living or bequeath it after death, as well as the potential tax consequences of heirs selling gifted property compared to property they receive as a bequest.

Goetting will examine some of the advantages and disadvantages of living, testamentary and Clayton Election QTIP trusts as estate planning tools in the final session on July 14. She will touch on family circumstances in which a trust could be beneficial.

For more information and to register for the webinars, people can visit https://www.montana.edu/estateplanning/wisdomwednesdays/index.html .