​There are nearly 70 million Catholics living in America. That's about one in every five Americans. Approximately 55% of these Catholics will die without a Will or any Estate Planning arrangements stipulating the importance of their religious values. That's nearly 40 millions Catholics!

Catholic religious issues are too often overlooked in Estate Planning. Beyond leaving legacies to the Church, your local parish, a Catholic school, or ministry, there are many other Catholic Estate Planning considerations.

Below you will find the 7 Steps for Catholic Estate Planning. This article begins with a simple Catholic Estate Planning Checklist ...

The following are steps you can take to start properly managing your estate. You can start all of these today.[1] 

1. Determine the Priorities of your Estate Plan. What do you want? Do you want a steady income for life to provide for yourself, your spouse, and your dependent children? Do you want to fund a particular church parish, ministry, or Catholic school? Do you want to ensure the transfer belongings and assets to family and friends? Set up education accounts? Bless a ministry or organization? Or all the above?
2. Organize your Financial Records. Gather and keep information on your employment data, bank accounts, insurance records, investment data, tax returns, wills, deeds, and titles to any property you own or are paying for. Keep all records in a safe and accessible place.
3. Educate yourself. Read articles and books on financial planning and attend financial seminars. These can help you discover new and better ways to take care of all God has entrusted to you.
4. Choose your Advisors. Choose an Estate Planning Attorney, CPA, Insurance Agent, and Financial Planner. Sometimes your church parish will have a list of recommended professionals. These may serve you at a discounted rate if your estate plan benefits the Church. If you are Catholic, you should strongly consider using the insurance products offered by the Knights of Columbus, given their strong financial reputation and commitment to Church teachings. Unlike the KCs, many insurance companies do not come close to honoring the Church's values. Check out this article, for example: Top 5 Most Anti-Christian and Anti-Life Insurance Companies.
5. Preserve your Estate. Review all the options for increasing, preserving, and transferring the assets of your estate. Consider tax-advantage vehicles which may be available to you, including 401(k)s, 403(b)s, IRAs, or other tax-deferred growth opportunities. There are also many charitable trusts and annuities and other gift tools which can be used to create income, receive tax deductions, and transfer assets.
6. Formulate a Plan. Put the Plan in Action. One way or another, everyone will have an Estate Plan when they pass away. You can either write it yourself. OR, the state will determine your plan for you by operation of the law. The Estate Plan you write is the only one which will distribute your assets according to your wishes. 
7. Review and Revise your Plans and Documents on a Regular Basis. Do this yearly or when major changes occur in your life. Major changes might include having a baby, changing your investment strategies, changing your giving priorities, etc.

​Successful Estate Planning develops a long-term stewardship program which actively manages personal and business assets for this and future generations.

The legal aspects of Catholic Estate Planning include the following:

• Letters of Instruction
• Selection of Guardians and Fiduciaries 
• Charitable Giving, Planned Giving, Legacies, Bequests, and Financial Stewardship
• Powers of Attorney
• Living Wills and Health Care Proxies (including nutrition/hydration, pain relief, pregnancy, organ donation, Anointing of the Sick, and funeral provisions)

We will be going over all this in the next article ... Stay tuned!

As an attorney, I work with a lot of people with student loan debt. Who doesn't have some student loan debt, right? I find there are a lot of misconceptions about what bankruptcy can do for your student loan debt. 

The general rule in bankruptcy is that a debtor cannot discharge student loans. Discharge is basically wiping away the debt. There are exceptions. 

This is the gray-ish area. That means this is typically where your bankruptcy attorney and your creditor's attorney get involved. 

Need a translation of the law above? Here you go. Non-loan Student debt which is non-dischargeable (can't wipe it away in bankruptcy) includes  the following:

• Qualifying loans, generally requiring evidence of a promissory note. 
• Educational payments made by the school to the student, as in an advance of cash or exchange of money.
• Owed college tuition, by itself, does not fit into the non-dischargeable category.

So, the signing of a promissory note is key. A promissory note is basically a contract you sign for the school including the magic words, I "promise to pay" the school. More specifically, a promissory note is an agreement signed on or about the time you start classes, providing for a definitive amount to be repaid, in specified installments, by a certain time, and at a certain interest rate.

What's the bottom line? If you attend classes without paying or signing a promissory note, you likely can discharge this debt in bankruptcy. The same principle applies to debts at the student union, gym, bookstore, and room and board debts. 

Are you inadvertently buying life insurance to an anti-Christian company? Are trusting your life savings and retirement to an immoral company? Are you worried that your money might be accidentally supporting abortion? Check out the list of top anti-Christian life insurance and financial companies below. 

Be careful where your money goes! None of us want to invest our future in a company without a conscience. No good can come from this, financially or otherwise. 

There's something terribly ironic about an anti-life life insurance company, isn't there? The following list will help you avoid contributing to this irony.  

Here is your list of anti-Christian and anti-life insurance and financial companies. The rankings of offenders is based on size and influence. Please be sure to comment below if the list is missing any particular malefactor. ​

Aetna was recently fined $4.5 million by the State of Missouri for illegally funding elective abortions. Aetna's fine represents the largest fine to an insurance company in state history! Not only that, it's Aetna second such fine in the last three years. One more fine and Aetna will lose its license to sell insurance in Missouri.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg, unfortunately. Aetna has also violated state laws by refusing to allow employers to opt out of contraceptive coverage. 

Also, while happy to fund abortions and birth control, Aetna refuses to pay for diagnosis and treatment of autism spectrum disorders. Again, this violates the laws of multiple states.  

Jay Nixon, the Governor of Missouri, had the following to say about Aetna: “This [fine] demonstrates that we will hold Aetna or any other insurance company responsible to the people of this state – particularly children with autism disorders – to provide the coverage the law requires.” 

Aetna's elective abortion coverage also pays for the abortifacient RU-486 (also called mifepristone or Mifeprex). According to its own website, Aetna considers this abortifacient "medically necessary" even into the second trimester.

New York Life is a corporate partner of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), which fully promotes an anti-Christian view of marriage and sexuality. New York Life actually penned an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015). New York Life also sponsors the LA LGBT Center, which advocates for the Equality Act. The Equality Act includes sweeping sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) protections at the federal level, completely undermining First Amendment protections for religious liberty.

Also according to 2nd Vote, New York Life matches gifts to New York City chapter of the Susan Komen foundation, which continues to fund Planned Parenthood. 

The New York Life Insurance Company is one of the largest mutual life-insurance companies in America, as well as one of the largest life insurers in the world.  It is the parent company of both MainStay Investments and the Candriam Investors Group.

As far as attacking religious freedom, Prudential deserve a higher ranking. Prudential Financial receives low marks for all the following:

• Corporate supporter of the far-left think tank, Center for American Progress, which advocates for religious leaders to support abortion and the LGBT agenda;
• Corporate partner of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC);
• Corporate sponsor of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which received a perfect score on the Corporate Equality Index; and
• Penning an amicus brief supporting same-sex marriage in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015).

Prudential Financial donates heavily to pro-abortion organizations. In particular, Prudential Financial donates to Planned Parenthood and participates in gift matching. Prudential also contributes to a number of other pro-abortion organizations:

• Prudential Financial contributes to the United Way fund Planned Parenthood;
  
• Prudential Financial contributes to Girls Inc., a pro-abortion organization;
  

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Prudential Financial sells financial products relating to life insurance, retirement, and investments.  Prudential Financial is also the parent company of Bache & Company and Pruco.

Nationwide Financial is a big supported of the YWCA. YWCA, despite having "Christian" in its name, heavily supports abortion and same-sex marriage. Like Prudential above, Nationwide is also a corporate sponsor of the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC) and Human Rights Campaign, which both oppose religious liberty. 

The Hartford is a corporate partner to the Urban League. The Urban League, along with the NAACP and the Congressional Black Caucus, advocates for abortion specifically among black communities. Such advocacy has had a tragic effect on black populations. In New York City and specifically Harlem, it is more likely for a black child to be aborted than born.

Also, like Nationwide Financial above, The Hartford supports the YWCA, the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce (NGLCC), and the Human Rights Campaign, which both oppose religious liberty. 

“The intellectual nature of the human person is perfected by wisdom and needs to be, for wisdom gently attracts the mind of man to a quest and a love for what is true and good. Steeped in wisdom. man passes through visible realities to those which are unseen. Our era needs such wisdom more than bygone ages if the discoveries made by man are to be further humanized. For the future of the world stands in peril unless wiser men are forthcoming. It should also be pointed out that many nations, poorer in economic goods, are quite rich in wisdom and can offer noteworthy advantages to others.”
Gaudium Et Spes, Paragraph 15
 
A major trend in today’s economics is the importance of Socially Responsible Investing. The blending of entrepreneurial spirit with care for the common good is making waves across many aspects of culture in the United States.

Socially Responsible Investing, or SRI as abbreviated here on, is being spoken of and acted upon more every day. But what is the phenomena, and why is it gaining popularity?

My brief opinion will touch two key points, and then outline how these desires can be guided with the investing principles of the Catholic Church and direction from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).
 
1. A growing awareness of need in the world.
With the mediums of instant information, we now have access to knowledge of endless opportunities for charity. Every swipe of the thumb presents a new situation that needs attention. A country is being exploited and its citizens need refuge, a town is hit with a large senseless act of violence and needs support, families in other parts of the world need supplies to have sufficient shelter.
 
The list could go on, but the point being is if you have trouble finding an opportunity to serve or give . . . you must be living under a rock.
 
2. The desire to make an impact on the world. 
Gen X, Y, and millennials have been raised on the encouragement “You can be whatever you want to be.” and as more and more people enter the workforce, more and more are becoming restless. Several major articles highlight that the movement within millennials is that they work for purpose VS working simply for a paycheck.
 
This is easily noticed with the norm of changing college majors frequently, young people choosing career fields that do not pay high-median salaries, and even choosing a career later in life in order to feel some fulfillment in their choice. Hedonism is falling as young people see its vanity. Affirming other persons and their dignity is slowly taking the reigns of how young people live their lives.
 
“In the economic and social realms, too, the dignity and complete vocation of the human person and the welfare of society as a whole are to be respected and promoted. For man is the source, the center, and the purpose of all economic and social life.”
Gaudium Et Spes, Chapter III Economic and Social Life, Paragraph 63
 
Pope Paul VI summed up this innate desire with these words: “This likeness reveals that man, who is the only creature on earth which God willed for itself, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of himself.” Gaudium Et Spes, Paragraph 24.
 
With the economic system being so contiguous, the movement of SRI has become easily accessible. Movements such as Fair Trade, Micro Finance, and Sustainable Investing all have the goal of positive societal impact.
 
Several cultural factors influence how people use their financial resources and are the key driver in SRI. This can be motivated by a person not supporting large corporations which could lead them to spend their money in local stores. A company can take a political stance on an issue and consumers will choose to either support them or not by their shopping habits. Many new businesses will have a sponsor charity that they donate a portion of profits, or the culture/model of profit sharing with employees or key clients.
 
“A similar lack of economic and social balance is to be noticed between agriculture, industry, and the services, and also between different parts of one and the same country. The contrast between the economically more advanced countries and other countries is becoming more serious day by day, and the very peace of the world can be jeopardized thereby.”
Gaudium Et Spes, Paragraph 63
 
The USCCB lays out 6 points of focus to consider when investing in companies and incorporating SRI. Each point is supported with points from encyclicals, historic teaching, observed historical impacts, as well as other supporting rhetoric.

1. Protecting Human Life.
2. Promoting Human Dignity.
3. Reducing Arms Production.
4. Pursuing Economic Justice.
5. Protecting the Environment.
6. Encouraging Corporate Responsibility.

 
Now each of these points can be broken down into sub-categorical conversations. Later articles will address each point in detail. Even if you are not a practicing Catholic, the aim of these six points is the good of all human persons and can easily be adopted into your desire for SRI.
 
Whether through fair trade, profit sharing companies, or any other notable SRI initiative, the guidelines of the USCCB are a great framework to guide your conscience when considering how to spend or invest your financial resources.

​Please share and comment below! What are your questions on this topic?  
 
Additional Sources:
Gaudium Et Spes
http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_const_19651207_gaudium-et-spes_en.html
 
USCCB Guidelines for Socially Responsible Investments
http://www.usccb.org/about/financial-reporting/socially-responsible-investment-guidelines.cfm
 
3 things millennials want in a career (hint: it’s not more money)
http://fortune.com/2015/03/26/3-things-millennials-want-in-a-career-hint-its-not-more-money/