Estate Planning

• Posted in: Asset Protection

Learning about investing is like learning another language—a language of numbers and symbols and percentages. Although everybody wants to grow their money, not everybody has the time to learn this new language. Luckily, there are an abundance of people who have learned the language of investing, and whose job is to help the rest of […]

• Posted in: Asset Protection

Your grandson’s birthday is coming up, and once again you’re stumped for ideas. You may wonder, is there something other than video games I can give him; something with a lasting value? How about an education? Give your children or grandchildren the most useful gift of their lives, and benefit yourself as well; contribute to […]

• Posted in: Estate Planning

“Probate” is a term that is mentioned quite a bit in the estate planning world. We’re always talking about the process of probate, the cost of probate, the list of “horribles” with probate, and how to avoid it. With all this talk of probate, a definition and description of the process seems in order. Probate is the […]

• Posted in: Asset Protection

All of us know about saving for retirement, but how much do any of us know about spending during retirement? With fewer people receiving pensions, and more and more retirees using a combination of IRAs, 401(k)s, stock investments and real estate, your retirement income can begin to look like something even an economics expert would […]

• Posted in: Books

“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see, So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.” (Sonnet XVIII by William Shakespeare, b. Apr. 23, 1564, d. Apr. 23, 1616) People do some strange things with their Last Wills and Testaments, and Shakespeare was no exception. One item in William Shakespeare’s will, for […]

• Posted in: Current Affairs

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 […]

• Posted in: Current Affairs

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 […]

• Posted in: Estate Planning

What is the most important word in your estate plan? It is the key word that determines when your successor trustee takes over, when the agent nominated in your Healthcare Directive gets the authority to make health care decisions for you, and when your financial Power of Attorney goes into effect. That word is “incapacity”. With so […]

• Posted in: Estate Planning

I am not a baseball fan, but watch the games occasionally.  April marks the opening of baseball season, the season of the great American past-time; a season when, every few years, an average Joe can step up to the plate and make himself a national hero. One of the most famous of those heroes is […]

• Posted in: Asset Protection

Will your business still be in the family 400 years from now? The answer to that is “probably not”. Statistically, only 40% of family owned businesses survive to the second generation, 12% to the third, and 3% to the fourth. One reason for this might be lack of interest by subsequent generations, another might be […]