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Non-Traditional Plans for Non-Traditional Partners
Can you imagine your beloved partner being gravely injured, and you unable to be at his or her bedside? For most of us this is unthinkable, but this is exactly what happened to Brett Conrad and Patrick Atkins, a gay couple of 25 years, when Patrick suffered a stroke in 2005 and was placed in […]
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No Contest for Meddling Relatives
When are you safe from meddling relatives if not when you’re dead? It turns out, even death is no safe haven, as this article by Tracy Breton in The Providence Journal suggests. According to the article, the Will of University of Rhode Island professor Beatrice S. Demers, who died last year at the age of 100, […]
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Big Kudos for Small Businesses
“The entrepreneur is our visionary, the creator in each of us. We’re born with that quality and it defines our lives as we respond to what we see, hear, feel, and experience. . . The entrepreneur in us sees opportunities everywhere we look. . . “ – Michael Gerber, founder and chairman of E-Myth Worldwide The […]
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Estate Planning for the YouTube Generation
The internet has changed the way we live…and divorce. It started with video wills, and now Fox News just reported that Playwright Tricia Walsh-Smith is ranting about her divorce from the wealthy husband on YouTube. It is undeniable that technology and the internet have changed all areas of our lives, and the law is no […]
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6 Key Elements of a Health Care Directive
April 16th is National Healthcare Decisions Day, a day dedicated to “ensuring that all adults with decision-making capacity in the United States have the information and opportunity to communicate and document their healthcare decisions.” Our firm is in complete support of such a goal. In fact, we include a Health Care Directive as an important […]
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World Autism Awareness Day
You may not know that autism is the fastest growing developmental disability in the country, according to the Autism Society of America, with a 10%-17% annual growth rate. These are disturbing numbers for parents and parents-to-be, especially when doctors aren’t always aware of the signs and indicators of autism. When doctors aren’t aware, and parents […]
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Linney on “The Savages”
I love movies. Reading about Laura Linney’s interview about her role in the 2007 movie, The Savages, reminds all of us the issue of caring for aging parents. “The biggest gift you can give me is to help me figure out what to do during that period of time. If we can talk about this […]
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Domestic Partnership Estate Planning
According to a recent article in the New York Times, the topic of marriage and family is still being hotly debated in our country. Although some states have granted same sex couples the option to choose a “civil union” or “domestic partnership” status, many couples say it isn’t enough. Because they cannot use the term […]
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Ledger Tragedy Amplified by Outdated Will
According to this article by the Associated Press, the tragic death of actor Heath Ledger is followed by the further tragedy of a Will that was filed in Australia in 2003 and never updated to provide for his 2 year old daughter with actress Michelle Williams. The entirety of Ledger’s estate is instead left to […]
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Change Is In the Air for Estate Tax Law
It was Benjamin Franklin who said, in the late 1700s, that “in this world nothing is certain but death and taxes”; but in 2008 nothing is less certain than death taxes, a situation that the U.S. Senate is trying to remedy. In 2001, President George W. Bush introduced a tax cut that would gradually reduce […]
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