How Should A Caregiving Relative Be Compensated?
It is common knowledge in our society of aging Baby Boomers that many adult children end up taking months or even years off from their lives and careers to provide care for their elderly parents. Most children do this out of love and a sense of duty, but even in the closest of parent-child relationships […]
Read more Estate Planning Challenges (and Benefits) for Same-Sex Couples
There are many changes going on nation-wide for same-sex couples as more and more states legalize gay marriage. But there are still a few areas of the law—estate planning being one of them—which present challenges no matter what your state of residence. This article in the Wall Street Journal points out just a few of […]
Read more Veteran Journalist Shares Her Personal Experiences Entering the Medicare System
Trudy Lieberman has had plenty of experience with Medicare—of course up until now most of it was from the outside looking in. As a journalist for more than 40 years specializing in insurance, health care, health care financing and long-term care, one would think that when the time came this year for her to enter […]
Read more It’s Not Over ‘Till It’s Over: Funding Your Trust
The hard part is done. Your estate plan has been created, all the documents signed and witnessed and notarized. But wait, you’re not quite done yet—especially if your estate plan includes a trust. The task of funding that trust still remains. Without the completion of this crucial step all of your hard work could be […]
Read more Estate Tax Calculator May Provide a Peek into the Future
Everyone who kept up with the recent changes in the estate tax laws—and the flurry of speculation, news stories and blog posts that came with it—knows just how important estate taxes are to estate planning. Although we make it clear on our blog that estate planning should be at least as much about family and […]
Read more Estate Planning for Beginners: Wills and Trusts
Every new project has to begin somewhere, and most newcomers to estate planning choose to begin with a will and a trust. This is because wills and trusts form the foundation for how your property will be distributed, how your heirs will be cared for, and how the probate process and estate taxes will be […]
Read more Even the Most “Normal” Families Require Special Estate Planning Consideration
Many people would like to think that estate planning is a piece of cake: choose your beneficiaries, write up a simple will, and voila – you’re done! The truth is that while estate planning can sometimes be achieved with this amount of simplicity, most of the time there’s more to it than that—a lot more—especially […]
Read more Take Advantage of Tax Law Changes and Give Grandkids a Head Start
We’ve recently seen a number of news stories with disturbing figures about the rising cost of college education, and the growing inability of graduates to pay off the debt they incur from student loans. In fact, recent studies reveal that student loan debt now exceeds credit card debt in the U.S.! All of this has […]
Read more Retirement Planning Goes Back to its Roots
When it comes to retirement planning you can find suggestions, rules and guidelines of just about every shade, but it wasn’t until this article in the U.S. News and World Report that we’ve seen the biblical “7 Deadly Sins” applied to retirement planning. The tone of the article is light and tongue-in-cheek, but the advice […]
Read more What to Do When Mom Can No Longer Manage Her Own Money
One of the most difficult aspects of caring for an elderly parent (or helping an aging parent who lives far away) is keeping one step ahead when that parent begins to lose the ability to manage his or her own finances. Many seniors can be very resistant to discussing what they feel is an extremely […]
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