News

Hug a tree, it’s Arbor Month! Arbor Day is commonly celebrated on the last Friday in April, but here in Oregon our trees get the entire month for recognition. Read the Governor’s Proclamation or learn more from the Oregon Department of Forestry.

It’s easy to find a favorite tree in the Central Oregon landscape. The Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests are at our doorstep, while Bend, Madras, Redmond, Sisters, and Sunriver are among Oregon’s numerous participants in the Arbor Day Foundation’s Tree City USA program celebrating efforts to maintain and grow urban tree cover. Wherever your favorite tree may be, we hope you can enjoy it today and everyday!

It’s Earth Day! We hope that you can celebrate our planet by enjoying the beauty of our Central Oregon landscape. If you can’t make it outside, a sampling of that local beauty can be found in our Central Oregon Moments video blog, providing peace of mind through the wonders of the regional landscape.

It’s tax day! Don’t forget to eFile or get your return in the mail (and postmarked) by the end of the day. Both the IRS and the Oregon Department of Revenue offer a variety of resources to eFile, request an extension, check your refund status, and more.

Taxes can play a significant role in estate planning, particularly here in Oregon where the threshold for the state-level estate tax is relatively low at $1,000,000. Including tax-planning provisions in your estate plan can potentially result in significant savings for your beneficiaries. Specific circumstances vary, however, so you should always consult with an attorney to determine which options best suit your goals. If you’d like to discuss how estate taxes may affect you and your beneficiaries and how a comprehensive estate plan may help to minimize the impact, please contact us.

Today a total solar eclipse will be visible, weather permitting, across much of the eastern United States, the last total eclipse visible in the contiguous United States until 2044. Here in Central Oregon, we will see a partial eclipse. At our office location in Bend, the eclipse will begin at 10:30am, peak at 11:25am with 26.1% coverage, and end at 12:22pm. Always use appropriate eye protection when viewing an eclipse and never look directly at the sun. You can learn more from NASA and the National Solar Observatory.

If you weren’t able to make the trip east to view totality, please enjoy this throwback image from our own Central Oregon total solar eclipse experience on August 21, 2017 as viewed from Camp Sherman.

Tax season means many people are reviewing accounts, making (Roth) IRA contributions, depositing refunds, and generally tidying finances. This is a great time to verify that beneficiary designations are up to date and aligned with your estate plan on all of your accounts. Beneficiary designations can play a key role in a comprehensive estate plan, particularly for those concerned about tax implications.

Specific circumstances vary, however, and details like account type and who or what a beneficiary is can make a big difference in whether what you plan to do will work as intended—so you should always consult with an attorney and a financial advisor regarding your specific situation before including beneficiary designations in your estate planning.

Please contact us if you would like to set up an appointment to explore your options.

This week is spring break for most schools across Oregon, including our local K–12 districts (Bend-La Pine, Redmond, Sisters, Crook County, Ashwood, Black Butte, Culver, and Jefferson County), COCC, and OSU-Cascades. Our office staff are available intermittently while spending time with family—please bear with us if we cannot respond immediately to inquiries. We wish all Central Oregon students, teachers, and families a fun and relaxing week!

Today is the March equinox, also known as the vernal or spring equinox in the Northern Hemisphere. At 8:06 PM, the sun will shine directly on the equator and all parts of Earth will have nearly equal amounts of day and night (we wind up with a bit more daylight due to atmospheric refraction and using the top of the sun to mark both its rise and set). As Earth proceeds in its orbit of the sun, Earth’s axial tilt will place the northern hemisphere in increasingly direct sunlight—the March equinox marks the beginning of astronomical spring as our days become longer than our nights. Learn more from NOAA, NASA Space Place, National Geographic Education, or Space.com. NOAA also offers an excellent visualization.

In Central Oregon, our latitude (44.06°N at our Bend office) means daylight will increase from just over 12 hours today to 15½ hours at the solstice on June 20th, 2024. You can determine exact sunrise and sunset times for your precise location using the NOAA Solar Calculator. The time for each equinox and other seasonal phenomena can be found using the US Naval Observatory’s Earth’s Seasons calculator.

Enjoy your increasing hours of sunshine, Central Oregonians!

Call us irrational, but we love pi! March 14th is recognized by many as Pi Day in honor of the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, known as pi (𝝅). As an irrational number, pi cannot be expressed as a common fraction of whole numbers and its decimal representation goes on infinitely, but many math enthusiasts nonetheless enjoy calculating pi to increasingly numerous decimal places. Try asking a computer to compute to the last digit the value of pi and it might be occupied for a while…

𝝅=3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679821480865132823… (for more digits)

The United States House of Representatives has periodically introduced resolutions recognizing March 14th as National Pi Day to promote math and science education (e.g., 118 H. Res. 221, 111 H. Res. 224). In an interesting legal quirk, the Indiana General Assembly considered a bill in 1897 enshrining erroneous calculations to square the circle, which would have effectively defined pi as 3.2. The bill actually passed the Indiana House before encountering brighter minds during Senate readings.

However many decimal places you can remember, enjoy the excuse for a round treat!

Daylight Saving Time began today at 2:00 AM, so it’s time to roll your clocks forward one hour. Daylight Saving Time currently begins at 2:00 AM on the second Sunday in March and ends at 2:00 AM on the first Sunday in November.

Oregon is one of many states exploring the possibility of eliminating this semiannual switch. In 2019, the Oregon legislature passed Senate Bill 320, which would abolish the annual change and place Oregon (except for the portion of the state in the Mountain Time Zone) on permanent Daylight Saving Time. This will only go into effect if (1) our Pacific Time Zone neighbors California and Washington do the same and (2) the United States Congress acts to allow states to observe year-round Daylight Saving Time (efforts in this area, such as the Sunshine Protection Act, have seen little progress). More recently, 2024 Senate Bill 1548 would eliminate the switch by placing the state (the portion in the Pacific Time Zone) on permanent Standard Time. This does not require an act of the United States Congress but as currently amended does need California and Washington to join the effort. The bill was narrowly passed by the Oregon Senate, but did not receive a vote in the House this session.

Whether you prefer permanent Standard Time, permanent Daylight Saving Time, or making the semiannual switch, today is the day to spring forward for the time being!

The Small Estate Affidavit recently became the Simple Estate Affidavit, making a revocable living trust an even more powerful estate planning tool in Oregon. Previously this procedure was a useful tool for administering an estate with probate assets valued at less than $200,000 in real property and $75,000 in personal property in a less cumbersome and protracted manner than a regular “full-blown” probate. With the passage of 2023 Oregon Senate Bill 308 and the change from “Small” to “Simple” on January 1st, however, it became useful for some larger estates with the proper planning as well: if the deceased set up a revocable living trust during his or her lifetime and a will is in place that gives all assets to that trust (what’s commonly referred to as a “pour-over” will), the Simple Estate Affidavit can now be used even if probate assets exceed the above limits in many cases. Before this change, accidentally leaving assets like a house out of a trust could trigger a full-blown probate even after setting up an estate plan. Now, assuming that you’ve set up a revocable living trust and a pour-over will, even if an Oregon asset like a new house somehow accidentally never gets transferred to your trust, a full-blown probate can likely be avoided by making use of the new Simple Estate Affidavit—making a trust an even more valuable tool in your comprehensive estate plan.

Specific circumstances vary, however, and details matter—so always consult with an attorney before proceeding with a Simple Estate Affidavit or developing an estate plan relying on the Simple Estate Affidavit procedure to ensure your unique needs are met.

Please contact us if you would like to set up an appointment to explore your options.

The Earth takes 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, and 56 seconds to orbit the Sun. Leap years allow us to recalibrate our calendar and keep it from gradually falling out of sync with the seasons by adding a day to some years to account for the extra time and make the average year 365.2422 days long rather than the non-leap-year normal of 365 days. Leap years occur when a year is evenly divisible by four, unless the year is also divisible by 100 but not by 400.

Leap years can create some interesting legal questions, particularly for leap babies. In Oregon, driver licenses (yes, technically the law uses “driver” not “driver’s”) expire on the driver’s birthday. In non-leap years, the DMV recognizes February 28 as the expiration day for leap babies per OAR 735-062-0007. Many other legal deadlines put in terms of a number of years from a particular date similarly substitute February 28 for leap day in non-leap years per ORS § 174.120.

To learn more about leap years, visit the National Air and Space Museum, NASA Space Place, or US Naval Observatory Astronomical Information Center. And, as always, don’t hesitate to contact us for your estate planning needs. We hope you enjoy your extra day of 2024!

George Washington's Birthday (February 22, 1732) has been used to honor all those who have served as president of the United States since 1879. The Uniform Monday Holiday Act of 1968 moved observance of Washington's Birthday (the official federal title for Presidents' Day) to the third Monday in February so that it might be enjoyed as part of a long weekend. Like most states, Oregon recognizes Presidents' Day as a public holiday, though spelling varies widely. Presidents' Day, President's Day, and Presidents Day are all commonly used.

Whichever presidents you may choose to honor, we hope you have had a relaxing weekend and enjoyed our Central Oregon snowfall.

Gifts of unappreciated property (like cash or its equivalent) below the Annual Exclusion amount are an excellent tool for tax free wealth transfer to your heirs. For 2024, the Annual Exclusion per Donee has increased to $18,000, meaning that you can generally gift up to that amount total during 2024 per individual without estate tax consequences. For a couple, each spouse is entitled to the full Annual Exclusion amount, so a couple can together gift $36,000 to each individual child or other heir.

These exclusions can add up quickly! For example, within these limits a married couple can gift $72,000 to another married couple in 2024 without estate tax implications when structured properly. If minimizing estate tax is a priority, annual gifting can make a huge difference in the value of your gross estate down the road.

Specific circumstances vary, however, and details like whether the asset is considered a present or future interest, for instance, can make a big difference in whether what you plan to do will work as intended—so you should always consult with an attorney regarding your specific situation before making any such gifts.

Please contact us if you would like to set up an appointment to explore your options.

For more general information, see the IRS Frequently Asked Questions.

With this week’s icy weather causing treacherous travel conditions at times, we wanted to remind everyone that our office continues to make remote meetings available for those who would prefer to begin the estate planning process from the comfort of home. Video conferencing is available for initial consultations and most other types of meetings. Simply let us know your preference when scheduling your appointment, or call or email if your preference changes due to weather conditions or anything else.

The holidays are a great time to remember that gifts of unappreciated property (like cash or its equivalent) below the Annual Exclusion amount are an excellent tool for tax free wealth transfer to your heirs. For 2023, the Annual Exclusion per Donee is $17,000, meaning that you can generally gift up to that amount total during 2023 per individual without estate tax consequences. For a couple, each spouse is entitled to the full Annual Exclusion amount, so a couple can together gift $34,000 to each individual child or other heir.

These exclusions can add up quickly! For example, within these limits a married couple can gift $68,000 to another married couple in 2023 without estate tax implications when structured properly. If minimizing estate tax is a priority, annual gifting can make a huge difference in the value of your gross estate down the road.

Specific circumstances vary, however, and details like whether the asset is considered a present or future interest, for instance, can make a big difference in whether what you plan to do will work as intended—so you should always consult with an attorney regarding your specific situation before making any such gifts.

Please contact us if you would like to set up an appointment to explore your options.

For more general information, see the IRS Frequently Asked Questions.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released updated SSI, Spousal Impoverishment, and Medicare Savings Program income and resource standards for 2024, including many increased thresholds:

• Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Federal Benefit Rate: Individual $943 / Couple $1,415
• SSI Resource Standard: Individual $2,000 / Couple $3,000
• Income Cap Limit (300%): Individual $2,829 / Couple N/A
• Earned Income Break Even Point: Individual $1,971 / Couple $2,915
• Unearned Income Break Even Point: Individual $963 / Couple $1,435
• Substantial Gainful Activity (SGA) Limit: $1,550 (BlindSGA: $2,590)
• CPI Increase for 2024 3.7%
• CPI Increase, Since September 1988: 156.9%
• Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance (MMMNA): $2,465
• Maximum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance: $3,853.50
• Community Spouse Monthly Housing Allowance: $739.50
• Community Spouse Resources: Minimum Resource Standard $30,828 / Maximum Resource Standard $154,140
• Home Equity Limits: Minimum $713,000 / Maximum $1,071,000

For more information, see the CMS Bulletin.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced its annual inflation adjustments for a variety of tax provisions. Highlights for tax year 2024 include:

• The basic exclusion amount for estates of decedents who die during 2024 rises to $13,610,000.
• The annual exclusion for gifts increases to $18,000.
• The standard deduction rises to $29,200 for married couples filing jointly, $14,600 for single taxpayers and married individuals filing separately, and $21,900 for heads of households.
• Marginal rates are:
  • 37% for individual single taxpayers with incomes greater than $609,350 ($731,200 for married couples filing jointly)
  • 35% for incomes over $243,725 ($487,450 for married couples filing jointly)
  • 32% for incomes over $191,950 ($383,900 for married couples filing jointly)
  • 24% for incomes over $100,525 ($201,050 for married couples filing jointly)
  • 22% for incomes over $47,150 ($94,300 for married couples filing jointly)
  • 12% for incomes over $11,600 ($23,200 for married couples filing jointly)
  • 10% for incomes of $11,600 or less ($23,200 for married couples filing jointly)
• The Alternative Minimum Tax exemption amount rises to $85,700 and begins to phase out at $609,350 ($133,300 for married couples filing jointly with phase out at $1,218,700).
• The maximum Earned Income Tax Credit amount rises to $7,830.

More information is available in the IRS news release.

Get big savings on your estate plan while supporting your local school! It’s fundraising season for Central Oregon Parent Teacher Organizations (PTOs). PTO fundraising provides a critical addition to school budgets, particularly at public schools. PTO funds support teacher training, classroom materials, community building, field trips, special events, and other important resources that enrich the learning experiences of our region’s students.

The Law Office of James C. Bartholomew, LLC supports these efforts by offering clients a discount on estate planning fees to match your current school year’s donation to any Central Oregon PTO’s annual fundraiser, up to $500 per couple, so you can support your child’s (or grandchild’s!) school and secure their future at the same time! 

Please provide a copy of your donation receipt to receive this discount. Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) and school foundations will be considered equivalent to PTOs. If you need help connecting with your school’s PTO or finding a school in need, please contact us as our office staff is happy to assist.

Note that in some circumstances we cannot take on clients (due to conflicts, current case load, subject matter, or other issues), and in such cases this discount would not apply. Before relying on this discount in making a donation to your school’s PTO, please consult with us to ensure we are able to take you on as a client.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has announced increased retirement contribution limits for 2024:

• IRAs: $7,000
• 401(k)s, 403(b)s, most 457s, and the federal Thrift Savings Plan: $23,000
• SIMPLE retirement accounts: $16,000

Limits to additional catch-up contributions (for employees age 50+) remain unchanged. Income ranges for determining eligibility to make deductible contributions have also increased. For more information, see the IRS news release.

With the expiration of the federal Public Health Emergency for COVID-19 on May 11, 2023, and related sunsetting of Oregon state response measures, our office will be returning to our standard services, practices, and procedures, while still offering COVID-sensitive options for those clients who prefer them:

• In-person meetings are now available for all matters and our office space will soon be reconfigured back to its traditional layout without plexiglass barriers allowing more space for client comfort.
• Recently added air filtration will remain in place.
• Masks will no longer be required at in-person meetings, but will remain available. Staff are happy to mask upon request.
• Video conferencing remains available for all meetings that do not involve document execution and signing meetings can be kept brief for those who prefer to primarily meet via phone and video.

Please let us know your preferences when scheduling an appointment and feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns.

With Phase II Reopening firmly underway in Deschutes County, we have ironed out best practices, implemented new procedures, and physically reconfigured our office space in order to fully assist our clients with their estate planning needs while also safeguarding health. Based on guidance issued by local, state, and federal authorities to curtail the spread of COVID-19, we continue to primarily work remotely and conduct most meetings via phone or video conferencing.

However, now under Oregon’s Phase II guidance we are able to carry out signings in person as well by employing a carefully designed two-step approach that both safeguards client and staff safety as well as ensures the legal efficacy of the documents:

• Once we’ve come to the point in the process where everyone is ready to sign, we first hold a pre-signing video conference the day before the actual signing in which we review all the final versions of the documents, next steps, and any questions the client may have—doing so enables us to keep the in-person meeting the next day as short as possible and limited solely to the requisite formalities for signing itself, thereby minimizing potential exposure.
• We then meet the next day in person with all the documents laid out and ready to sign with plexiglass barriers, air filters, and new sanitized pens all in place. James guides the client through executing the trust, the will, and the rest of the documents and ensures that all the formalities have been faithfully carried out, all while keeping the in-person portion of the signing as brief as possible.

Utilizing this two-step signing procedure in concert with our other COVID-19 precautions enables us to continue to provide our clients with the high quality estate planning service they have come to expect while also safeguarding health.

Please feel free to contact us for additional details or with any questions or concerns you may have.

Deschutes County has just been approved to enter Phase I Reopening on May 15th.

The newly issued guidance documentation will likely require updates to best practices and procedures moving forward. It is not yet clear whether in-person office work may be resumed in Phase I or will require Phase II reopening status. In any case, a cursory review of the new guidance indicates that compliance will at least require physical reconfiguration of our office space as well as new policies and procedures. Our comprehensive review of the guidance is underway and we will be working diligently in the coming days to implement necessary changes to our COVID-19 precautions in order to continue to provide our clients with the high quality estate planning service they have come to expect while safeguarding health.

Please check back here for additional updates and feel free to contact us with your questions and concerns.

Over the past month we have been working diligently to provide our clients with the high quality legal service they have come to expect while adhering to the COVID-19 precautions we implemented in March. This week, a more detailed and updated framework for reopening Oregon was released and we will be closely monitoring that framework and updating our policies accordingly. For the time being, however, the updated framework keeps current measures in place.

As such, we will continue to conduct meetings via phone and video conferencing in order to safeguard the health of our clients and staff. We have outfitted James's office with state of the art audio and video equipment to ensure that the quality of the video conferencing lives up to our high standard of service. And while communicating remotely has impacted some logistical aspects of representations, it has not affected the high quality legal service we provide.

We are pleased to remain open, albeit remotely, and to continue to be available to assist you with your estate planning needs in this time of crisis. Please feel free to contact us with your questions and concerns during this stressful time.

For the safety of our clients and staff, we have implemented CDC recommendations as well as other precautions recommended by local, state, and federal officials to curtail the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. As a firm focused solely on estate planning and administration, we are especially concerned about vulnerable populations and want to do all we can to maintain the health and safety of our clients.

As a result, we will primarily work remotely for the time being. While this will impact some logistical aspects of representations, it will not affect the high quality legal service we provide. To this end, for the time being:

• We will conduct meetings via phone and video conferencing; and
• We will implement new procedures for signings that safeguard the health and safety of our clients while also ensuring the legal efficacy of the documents.

With the above precautions in place, we will continue to be available to assist you with your estate planning needs in this time of crisis. Please feel free to contact us with your questions and concerns during this stressful time.

We've moved! In order to accommodate our growing practice, we proudly announce our new location conveniently situated near Summit High School in NorthWest Crossing. As of April 15, 2019, please find us at:

The Law Office of James C. Bartholomew, LLC
750 NW Charbonneau Street
Suite 209
Bend, Oregon 97703

Within walking distance of numerous amenities, our new office suite in the Valiant Building offers an ideal setting to continue to provide our clients with exceptional service, including elevator access and ample parking to the rear of the building.

We look forward to continuing to assist Central Oregonians with wills, trusts, and estate planning from our new location. Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions regarding the move. Our phone number, fax number, and email address remain the same.