Do We Spend More Time Planning a One Week Vacation than Planning for What Really Matters?
Have you taken the steps to protect what matters in your life? Do you have a Will or a Trust? Do you have Powers of Attorney for Health Care or Property?
Family Caregivers – Providing a Selfless Service
A recent report from AARP found that in 2009, there were 42 million unpaid family caregivers in the United States. According to the study, the “average” caregiver is a 49-year-old female who juggles a job and a family of her own while providing 18.4 hours per week of unpaid care.
Your Estate Plan: It’s the Little Things that Matter Most
Often times when a relative dies it is not the financial assets that can break a family apart, it is the little things that cause the most animosity. Recently I read an article about an item that had caused…
Common Estate Planning Mistakes – Celebrities Make Them Too
When it comes to estate planning, wills and inheritance arrangements, it’s what most people DON’T know or do – celebs and non-celebs alike – that can cause the most harm. Although we don’t like to think of our own death or disability, these are a few lessons from Hollywood and throughout history where a little planning really could have gone a long way.
Living in a Digital World Means We Have Digital Assets
Digital assets are any file on your computer in a storage drive or website and any online account or membership (John Conner, Texas Tech University School of Law). If you have ever saved a file onto a computer, made an online account, or downloaded a song from iTunes, then you have a digital asset.
You Are Never Too Young For A Will – Amy Winehouse’s Death Illustrates That
You are never too young for a Will. A will is a document that lets you tell the world who you want to get your assets. Die without one, and the state decides who gets what, without regard to your wishes or your heirs’ needs.
Estate Tax Portability
In the past, we’ve advised married clients to divide their assets between their revocable trusts in such a way as to “equalize” their estates. The reason for this was that we could not know who would pass away first and we wanted to be sure that each spouse could maximize his or her individual exemption allowed under the law. In December 2010, President Obama signed the new tax law to take effect for January 2011 through December 31, 2012, which provided that married couples could elect to combine their individual $5 million exemptions to a $10 million joint exemption for the couple, so that a surviving spouse could apply the predeceased spouse’s unused exemption upon the survivor’s death.
Reverse Mortgage
We frequently have clients whose health is deteriorating and whose finances are becoming strained, but who have strong feelings regarding staying in their homes. Perhaps they do need round-the-clock nursing care brought into their home, or they may fear becoming isolated if they leave their neighborhoods, churches or friends to move into a facility.
Celebrity Estates Part II: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly
Clients often ask me whether they need a Will or not. Although the answer is different for everyone, I am a strong believer that not everyone needs a Will or even a Trust.
Celebrity Estates: the Good, the Bad & the Ugly
When clients come to my office to prepare an estate plan, we will meet initially to create the strategy and determine what the client wants in their plan, whom they want to provide benefit for and how.