August 12, 2014 Lunch Meeting

Announcements: 

Aleta announced:

• Richard Bennett has stepped up to be the host for the 33 year old Gift of Life recipient from Haiti who will receive much needed heart surgery; Aleta had praise for Richard for volunteering to do this, and she also thanked Jim Cole who will assist with transportation around surgery time.  Richard was scheduled to meet with the District Gift of Life Chair David Whitlock on Tuesday to discuss logistics.
• The Rotary Club of Secaucus invited Eileen to present on her Rwanda project.  They are looking for another club to partner with.
• UN Day will be November 1^st and not November 8^th.  15 Interact/RYLA students from Dwight Morrow are slated to attend Rotary UN Day inclusive of three chaperones.  As of now, Aleta, Joyce Grossbard, Charlotte Bennett Schoen and Joan Johnson plan to attend
• Rotary Leadership Institute will be holding its next event on October 11^th, and Eileen O’Driscoll, Joyce Grossbard, Joyce Dudley Hamilton, Aleta, Sue Fettner, and Jennie Katsaros will attend

Happy Dollars:

Many happy dollars were given to welcome Enilsa Lora back from successful knee surgery, to welcome Joyce Grossbard back from her trip to Japan with Ikuyo, and for Richard Bennett for hosting the Gift of Life recipient.

Program: Michael Prigoff was a pinch presenter on Tuesday and discussed the three documents that everyone needs to help alleviate estate issues and family squabbles:

Document 1: A will

Everyone over the age of 18 should have a will per Michael. If you pass away and don’t have a will, a costly bond will kick in.  This could be avoided by appointing an executor named in the will to serve without bond.  He recommended using an attorney to draw up the will which typically costs between $700-$900 in lieu of cheaper online resources as sometimes these have mistakes which could be costly, or at least time consuming.

Document 2: Durable Power of Attorney

You should appoint a person who can act on your behalf if you are not able to do so.  The person who has been given the Power of Attorney ceases to hold that title upon death of the individual who appoints them.

Document 3: Advanced Directive for Healthcare

This document, also known as a “Living Will” basically directs actions that should or should not be taken by medical providers if the individual is no longer able to make decisions for themselves because of illness or incapacity. The directive could also appoint someone to act on your behalf in case you become incapacitated.  Hospitals are now required to ask patients if they have this directive upon check in.

Michael then talked a bit about finance issues involved with capital gains, taxes, estates etc.  He mentioned that appreciated assets, homes and the like, are good to give away at death, or to charity.  The federal estate tax will not likely affect most of us, with the threshold being over $5 million indexed to inflation, but the State of New Jersey estate tax kicks in at a much lower $675,000. 

He also stated some advice for considering executors of estates:

1. Better to have an odd number of executors, to avoid deadlock
2. It is preferred that the executor reside in the same state that you are located
3. It may be better to not have a family member be the executor, but of course there times where this could make sense depending on the situation

Overall, club members in attendance enjoyed Michael’s interesting and informative presentation.

50-50: With $643 in the pot and 29 cards remaining, Carol Rauscher picked the 5 of Spades

Attendance:  20 of 68 members 29%

Upcoming Programs:

August 19:                 Allyson Powers Johnson, Classification Talk

August 26:                 William Rupp, Student Protection

September 2:            Joe Klyde, Classification Talk

September 9:            Joyce Dudley Hamilton, Strategic Plan