Jews for Jesus Development Department Monthly Newsletter from David Stone, Jews for Jesus of San Francisco, California, United States for Tuesday, 22 November 2016

Jews for Jesus Development Department Monthly Newsletter from David Stone, Jews for Jesus of San Francisco, California, United States for Tuesday, 22 November 2016
Shalom to you, our partners in ministry. It is an honor to share with you the latest news from Washington, Savvy Living, Personal Planning, gift stories, finance news, and timely articles.
There are no "asks" in this eNewsletter as it is designed totally to be a helpful service to you. Feel free to share it with others in your family or your friends. If you would like me to send it directly to them please send me their email address.
This information is put together in a way to be a help in understanding what is happening in our economy so you can use it to your best advantage. I hope this information is useful to you.
If you have any questions or I can be of assistance to you please contact me.

David Stone
Director of Donor Relations

PERSONAL PLANNER
Living Trusts Versus Will
Living Trusts Versus Wills
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was diagnosed with cancer in January 1994. She signed a will in the New York offices of a large law firm on March 22, 1994. She passed away just two months later on May 19 at the age of 64.
Because a will is a public document, her will is available on the internet. In the will she remembered family members, several friends and planned to make a substantial transfer to a charitable lead trust. However, because the children received the family personal property and promptly sold the items for the unexpectedly large sum of $35,000,000, the residue of the estate was used to pay the estate taxes on this large transfer of value to children and the charitable trust was not funded.
Bing Crosby passed away on October 14, 1977, with a trust. When his first wife Dixie Lee passed away from cancer in 1952, she had a will that transferred her separate and community property. Bing Crosby was very upset that his financial circumstances were disclosed to the public through the probate process. After marrying his second wife Kathryn, Crosby created a number of trusts for the children from his first marriage, for Kathryn and for children from his second marriage. He greatly appreciated the privacy benefit of creating a living trust.
You may not have the fame of Jacqueline Onassis or the assets of Bing Crosby (along with Lawrence Welk and Bob Hope, he was one of the wealthiest actors at the time of his death), but you can learn from both of them in deciding whether or not to create a will or a living trust.
When Wills are a Good Choice
There are a number of reasons why a person frequently starts the estate planning process with a will. These include youth, cost, the estate size, the ability to transfer assets outside of probate and a hesitation to select a trustee.
Young and Healthy
If you are in your 30s or 40s and have good health, a will is the common starting point for estate planning. Your will is much more simple than a living trust. The property subject to a will goes through probate, but that could be many decades in the future.
As you acquire other property, it can be covered by your will. You can modify your will at any time, and you save the effort necessary to retitle and track property inside a living trust.
For a young person, the cost savings are significant. Wills frequently cost from $250 to $800, while a living trust may involve costs of $1,000 to $2,500. A young person may be reluctant to spend the funds necessary to create a living trust, but can start his or her estate plan quite reasonably with a will.
Modest or Moderate Estate
A second characteristic of people who choose a will is that they have a fairly modest or moderate estate. As the estate becomes larger and more complicated, a trust is more important. For individuals who have more moderate assets, the will is a good starting point. As the estate grows, they can use some of the increase in resources to add a living trust to their plan.
Using Transfer Methods that Avoid Probate
Another option is to create a will then transfer most assets without probate. Your IRA, qualified pension plan, life insurance and property held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship all avoid the probate process. For individuals who have a modest or moderate estate and are willing to transfer most assets through contract or property law methods that avoid probate, a will is a good solution.
Do Not Want to Select a Trustee
With a living trust, it is necessary to select a trustee to manage your property. This trustee frequently will end up managing your assets during the senior years of your life and after you pass away.
Some people do not like the concept of a trustee managing their property. They would rather own the property themselves outright during life and transfer the property outright to family members. For this person, a will is often a preferred planning method.
When a Living Trust is a Good Choice
For those individuals who can afford a living trust, it is a very good choice. The living trust facilitates management of property during life, protection of the grantor, transfer of assets and income to family members and management of real estate.
Senior Age Care
What if I become too ill to manage property? One of the concerns you may have is that you may eventually become a senior person with a major illness. For medical reasons, you may be unable to manage your property. A major benefit of a living trust is that you select a successor trustee. If you are no longer able to serve as trustee and manage the property, your successor trustee can manage your property. He or she can make certain that the expenses of your medical care or long-term care needs are covered through trust payments.
Larger Estate or Real Estate
If you have a more substantial estate, a living trust can have multiple benefits. The living trust may include various provisions for handling the management of real estate or personal business interests. Particularly if you have real estate in multiple states, it is advantageous to transfer that property to a living trust. This property can then be managed for the benefit of both you and your heirs.
If you have property in multiple states and pass away with a will, it is necessary to conduct a probate administration in each state where you own property. This entails hiring professionals to manage the probate in each estate and considerably increases the total cost. With a living trust holding real estate in different states, there is no need for multiple and expensive probate proceedings.
Bypassing Probate
One of the major benefits of a living trust is that the trust assets bypass the probate process. In most states, there are savings in probate costs that may be many thousands of dollars.
Not only are there savings in probate costs, but your estate may also avoid the delays that frequently occur in the probate process. If there are claims against the estate, the probate process can take from two to ten years. While some large estates have been tied up in probate for many years, other similarly sized estates with a living trust can continue to manage the property and pay income and principal to beneficiaries.
Privacy
As Bing Crosby discovered, a living trust is generally a private document. While wills are public documents (the will of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and many other famous individuals are readily available through internet search sites), a living trust is a private document. Even if a financial institution requests the trust in order to invest property owned by the trust, generally only a small portion of the trust is required to be disclosed to the institution. For most purposes the living trust is private.
Reduced Risk of Estate Contest
Larger estates are understandably more vulnerable to a probate contest. When the document and a large estate are public, as is the case with the will, the target is very tempting. Distant relatives come out of the woodwork to determine whether they have a potential claim against the estate.
One of the most disheartening aspects of a will contest is that there frequently are lifelong hard feelings among family members. In many cases, the bitterness from a will contest is carried by children, grandchildren, cousins, nephews and nieces to their grave.
A living trust is a private document. Because it is a private document and does not have to meet the specific standards for signature and witnesses that are applicable to a will, it is less likely to be attacked.
With a large estate, the living trust is generally safer. In addition, if a senior person needs someone to manage the estate, the successor trustee has been previously designated. The successor trustee frequently protects the senior person from potential undue influence of heirs or caregivers. Therefore, the living trust reduces the probability of an estate contest.
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SAVVY LIVING

Caregiving Tips for Long-Distance Caregivers
Can you recommend any long-distance caregiving tips that can help me help my elderly father who lives in another state? He has physically declined over the past year, but is determined to stay living in his own house.
Providing care and support for an aging parent who lives far away can be very difficult and stressful. Here are some tips and resources that can help.
When it comes to monitoring and caring for an aging parent from afar, you have a couple options. You can either hire a professional to oversee your dad's needs or you can manage things yourself by building a support system, tapping into available resources and utilizing technology devices that can help you keep tabs on him.
Professional Help
If your dad needs a lot of help, you should consider hiring an "aging life care professional" who will give him a thorough assessment to identify his needs, and will set up and manage all aspects of his care. These professionals typically charge between $100 and $200 per hour, and are not covered by Medicare.
To find a professional in your dad's area, ask his doctor for a referral or visit the Aging Life Care Association website at AgingLifeCare.org.
Do-It-Yourself
If your dad only needs occasional help or if you can't afford to use a care manager, here are some things you can do yourself to help him:
Assemble a support system: Put together a network of people (nearby friends or family, neighbors, clergy, etc.) who can check on your dad regularly and who you can call on from time to time for occasional help. Also put together a list of reliable services you can call for household needs like lawn care, handyman services, a plumber, etc.
Tap local resources: Most communities offer a range of free or subsidized services that can help seniors with basic needs such as home delivered meals, transportation, senior companion services and more. Contact the Area Aging Agency near your dad - call 800-677-1116 for contact information - to find out what's available.
Use financial aids: If your dad needs help with his financial chores, arrange for direct deposit for his income sources, and set up automatic payments for his utilities and other routine bills. You may also want to set up your dad's online banking service so you can pay bills and monitor his account anytime. Or, if you need help, hire a daily money manager (aadmm.com) to do it for you. They charge between $25 and $100 per hour.
Benefitscheckup.org is another excellent resource to look for financial assistance programs that may help your dad, particularly if he's lower-income.
Hire in-home help: Depending on your dad's needs, you may need to hire a part-time home-care aide that can help with things like preparing meals, housekeeping or personal care. Costs can run anywhere from $12 to $25 per hour.
To find someone, ask for referrals through your dad's doctor or area hospital discharge planners or try websites like Care.com, CareLinx.com, CareFamily.com or CareSpotter.com.
Utilize technology: To help you keep tabs on your dad and manage his care from afar, there are various technologies that can help.
For example, there are motion sensors (like Silver Mother - sen.se/silvermother) and video cameras (nest.com/camera) that can help you make sure he is moving around the house normally; computerized pillboxes (medminder.com) that will notify you if he forgets to take his medication; simplified computer tablets (grandpad.net) that provide important face-to-face video calls; and a variety of websites that can help you coordinate care (lotsahelpinghands.com) and medical information (reunioncare.com) with other family members.
For more tips, call the National Institute on Aging at 800-222-2225 and order their free booklet "Long-Distance Caregiving: Twenty Questions and Answers."
Savvy Living is written by Jim Miller, a regular contributor to the NBC Today Show and author of "The Savvy Living” book. Any links in this article are offered as a service and there is no endorsement of any product. These articles are offered as a helpful and informative service to our friends and may not always reflect this organization’s official position on some topics. Jim invites you to send your senior questions to: Savvy Living, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070.
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YOUR PLAN
Deferred Gift Annuity

Several years ago Larry and Allison invested $30,000 in what they believed to be an attractive stock. It turned out to be a very wise decision, because the value of the stock increased to $100,000 a few years later. Though they were not in need of additional income at the time, the couple decided to cash in on this growth and began considering selling the stock.
Allison: We had had a good year and were looking for ways to maximize deductions and reduce what we owed in taxes. At the same time, we had been exploring the best way to make a gift to our favorite charity.
Larry: Allison and I were both age 50 at the time, in good health and still working. And though we didn't really need extra current income, we were planning to retire at age 65 so we were always interested in smart retirement planning. Our goal was to be able to live comfortably and travel in our motorhome to visit friends and family.
Allison: I remember when we met with a gift planner. He explained the benefits of setting up a deferred gift annuity. Instead of selling, we could give our stock to our favorite charity and receive an immediate charitable tax deduction. Plus, when we turn 65, the deferred gift annuity would make annual retirement income payments to us for our lifetime.
Larry: We decided to set up the deferred gift annuity. And we experienced first hand each of the benefits Allison mentioned: we received a charitable tax deduction and tax savings immediately. And now that we're retired, we receive income each year that helps make our retirement travel possible. On top of all of this, the deferred gift annuity makes a portion of the income payments we receive tax free.
*Please note: The name and image above is representative of a typical donor and may or may not be an actual donor to our organization. Since your gift annuity benefits may be different, you may want to click here to view a color example of your benefits.
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WASHINGTON NEWS
IRS Tips on Year-End Planning

As the year races toward December 31st, the IRS offered helpful tips to taxpayers in IR-2016-150. Good planning in November and December will facilitate filing your 2016 tax return next April.
1. Documents – You can expect your W-2's and 1099's early in 2017. You should retain a copy of your 2015 tax return. This may be helpful if you use tax preparation software for your 2016 return. The software may use data from 2015 to verify your identity and permit you to use the electronic signature option.
2. Individual Tax Identification Numbers (ITIN) – If you obtained an ITIN prior to 2013 and did not use it in 2013, 2014 or 2015, it will expire and no longer be valid. You may need to obtain a new ITIN. You should plan to submit your ITIN request through the information on www.irs.gov about nine to 11 weeks before you file. If you do not have an ITIN and have previously been a victim of identity theft, the IRS may delay your refund.
3. Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) – If you claim an EITC or An Additional Child Tax Credit (ACTC) on your tax return this year, the IRS is now required by Congress to hold your refund until at least February 15. The intent of the new requirement is to permit the IRS additional time to make certain that the EITC or ACTC refund is proper.
4. eFiling – Each year a higher percentage of all tax returns are filed electronically. You may plan to use the IRS Free File, be assisted in electronic filing by the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance or Tax Counseling for the Elderly programs or may use an electronic option in your commercial tax software.
5. Direct Deposit – The option to have your refund electronically transferred directly to your bank account is a fast and easy solution. The federal government already uses direct deposit for 98% of Social Security and Veteran Affairs benefit checks. It costs the federal government approximately $1 to process a paper check, but only 10 cents to process a direct deposit to your bank account.
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FINANCES

Stocks - Williams-Sonoma's Outlook Disappoints

Williams-Sonoma's Outlook Disappoints
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (WSM) announced its third quarter results on Thursday, November 17. The consumer retail company's quarterly profit edged out Wall Street expectations.
The company reported that revenue increased 1.1% during the quarter to $1.25 billion. Expectations were for revenue of $1.26 billion.
"Our third quarter performance demonstrates our competitive strengths—our differentiated portfolio of brands and profitable multi-channel business model—as well as the ongoing success of our strategic initiatives that we have seen this year," said Williams-Sonoma President and CEO Laura Alber. "Although the current environment is less certain, we remain focused on what we can control, and we are confident that the ongoing progress on our strategic initiatives will improve service for our customers and will drive long-term sustainable profitable growth for our shareholders."
Williams-Sonoma earned $0.78 per share in the quarter. This topped the prevailing estimate for earnings of $0.77 per share.
For the fourth quarter, Williams-Sonoma expects earnings per share to be in the range of $1.45 to $1.55, lower than analysts' estimates of $1.59 per share. The disappointing outlook resulted in Williams-Sonoma's share price falling 4% after the earnings release. For the year, the company's stock price has fallen 8%.
Williams-Sonoma, Inc. (WSM) shares ended the week at $52.94, up 2.2% for the week.
Dick's Strong Quarter Undone by Forecast
Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (DKS) announced its third quarter results on Tuesday, November 15. The sporting goods retailer reported earnings that easily surpassed pre-release expectations.
The company reported that net sales during the quarter increased 10% to $1.8 billion. This easily topped forecasts of $1.7 billion.
"We are very pleased with our third quarter results, which were driven by a 5.2% comp sales increase and gross margin expansion," said Dick's Sporting Goods Chairman and CEO Edward W. Stack. "We realized meaningful market share gains and saw growth across each of our three primary categories of hardlines, apparel and footwear, while maintaining tight control of our inventory."
Dick's reported earnings of $0.48 per share in the quarter. This beat the estimated $0.42 per share.
Compared to its competitors, Dick's has made significant gains this year. The company's share price rose nearly 50% from June until this latest earnings report, closing at a little over $60 prior to the third quarter release. In addition, same-store sales during the quarter increased 5.2%. Despite these positives, the company's stock price fell nearly 10% following the earnings release, perhaps the result of a fourth quarter financial forecast that was below investor expectations.
Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (DKS) shares ended the week at $58.02, down 4.9% for the week.
Best Buy's Earnings Soar on Tech Purchases
Best Buy Co., Inc. (BBY) reported quarterly earnings on Thursday, November 17. The retail store posted better than expected earnings and revenue, causing its stock to surge 8.2% following the report's release.
Best Buy's third quarter revenue was $8.95 billion, a 2% increase from last year's third quarter revenue of $8.82 billion. This exceeded analysts' expectations of $8.85 billion in revenue.
"We are pleased to report today growth on both our top and bottom lines," said Best Buy Chairman and CEO Hubert Joly. "We are excited by the continued product innovation we are seeing, the role we play for customers, the growth opportunities in front of us, the quality of our execution and the strength of our financial performance."
The company reported net income of $194 million, up from last year's third quarter earnings of $125 million. Adjusted earnings for the third quarter were $0.61 per share, up from $0.36 per share a year ago.
During the third quarter, Best Buy benefited from consumers filling their carts with home theatre products, smartphones, connected home products and wearable tech devices. The company said on Thursday that it anticipates a strong holiday season with expected earnings in the fourth quarter to fall between $1.62 and $1.67 per share. On Wednesday, survey findings released by the Consumer Technology Association showed that a record 116 million consumers in the U.S. are considering purchasing technology or tech devices between November 21 and 28 (aka "Black Friday week").
Best Buy Co., Inc. (BBY) shares ended the week at $44.79, up 16.2% for the week.
The Dow started the week of 11/14 at 18,877 and closed at 18,868 on 11/18. The S&P 500 started the week at 2,166 and closed at 2,182. The NASDAQ started the week at 5,246 and closed at 5,322.

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Bonds - Treasury Yields Continue Their Rise 

Treasury yields on Friday, November 18 continued their rise that began last week with Donald Trump's presidential election victory. Positive economic news this week further aided the rise in yields.
Driving the increase in yields is the belief that Mr. Trump's presidency will lead to stronger economic growth and higher inflation. Inflation poses a threat to the value of long-term bonds, so traders are preemptively shifting away from bonds and into stocks.
"There are expectations for tax cuts next year—which were part of the Trump campaign's promises—and then there's also the idea of what type of fiscal boost are you going to have," said Richard Cochinos, head of Citi's G10 currency strategy in London. "That's what's driving asset prices—it's people's expectations for the fiscal impulse next year."
During early Friday trading, the benchmark 10-year note yield rose to 2.32%, higher than last week's closing yield of 2.12% and nearly 0.4% higher than before Mr. Trump's election victory. Despite the recent spike in yields, the 10-year yield has been steadily increasing since its 1.37% nadir in early July.
Aside from the economic prospects of a Donald Trump presidency, there are signs the U.S. economy is growing. Housing starts rose 26% in October, the fastest pace since August 2007, and jobless claims fell to their lowest level since 1973.
With the U.S. economy potentially on the rise, analysts and investors all but expect the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates at its upcoming December meeting. Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen on Thursday even added that an increase in short-term interest rates "could well become appropriate relatively soon."
The 10-year Treasury note yield finished the week of 11/14 at 2.32%, while the 30-year Treasury note yield was 3.02%.

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CDs and Mortgages - Mortgage Rates Soar

Freddie Mac released its latest Primary Mortgage Market Survey (PMMS) on Thursday, November 17. The report revealed interest rates soared higher following the election of Donald Trump.
The 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 3.94% this week, up from last week when it averaged 3.57%. Last year at this time, the 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 3.97%.
This week, the 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 3.14%. This is up from last week when it averaged 2.88%. The 15-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 3.18% one year ago.
"Last week's election fell in the middle of our survey week, making it impossible to determine how closely the mortgage rate would track the post-election sell-off in the Treasury market," said Sean Becketti, Chief Economist at Freddie Mac. "This week, the verdict is in—over the last two weeks the 30-year mortgage rate jumped 40 basis points to 3.94%, almost identical to the 39 basis point increase in the 10-year Treasury yield. If rates stick at these levels, expect a final burst of home sales and refinances as 'fence sitters' try to beat further increases, then a marked slowdown in housing activity."
Based on published national averages, the money market account finished the week of 11/14 at 0.53%. The 1-year CD finished at 1.18%.

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David Stone
Jews for Jesus
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