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Real Estate Involves Real Risk
One of the many ways that wealthy families accumulate and keep wealth is through real estate. Despite the ups and downs of the real estate market, the value of real property continues to grow over the long term. Real estate is often considered a comparatively easy way to maintain and grow wealth because it doesn’t […]
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Leverage Unproductive Real Estate
I personally love real estate investments. Real estate also plays an extremely large role in the estate planning process. As mentioned in previous posts, your home (or other real estate holdings) often forms the bulk of your assets, and figures largely in the creation of your family’s estate plan. But real estate can serve as […]
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Books About Aging and Care-Giving to Parents
Many of our clients come to us with questions about Elder Law, and we are happy to be able to share information not only for our elderly clients (about Medicare or Long Term care) but for their children and loved ones as well (about care giving or the plight of the Sandwich Generation.) However, it […]
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Four Reasons Not to Create an Estate Plan (And Why You Should Ignore Them)
I always tell the audience at my seminars that the biggest enemy in estate planning is not the IRS, nor the state, nor conniving relatives. The biggest enemy is procrastination. We know we need to do an estate plan, but we say to ourselves, “I’ll do it next month” or “I’ll do it next year.” […]
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Tips to Get the Most From Your Appointment
We all like to be prepared in new situations, whether it be starting a new job or going to the first meeting of the gardening club. Aside from making for a more comfortable experience, your time is valuable, and the more prepared you are for the adventure, the more you can take away from an […]
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Ease the Transition During Times of Grief
When you pass away (after a long and happy life, of course) you hopefully have a current estate plan in place to provide for your heirs. However, even if you’ve executed the most intricate plan, there is a transition period after the death of a loved one which consists of gathering paperwork and information, paying […]
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Caring for the Child Who Cares for You
We’ve had one or two posts on our blog about caring for elderly parents, written for the most part for those who are—or who will someday be—providing the care. Today, finally we have a post for those who are the recipients of that care – your caregiver child. Parents know how much their children may […]
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Minimum Wage Increase and Your Small Business
Most of our small business clients probably already know that the federal minimum wage increased this week from $5.85 to $6.55 an hour. The increase is the second in a three-step process to bring the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour next year. In California, the minimum wage was increased to $8 an hour on Janunary […]
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Congress to the Rescue!
With the US housing market continuing to struggle, Congress passed a comprehensive bill designed to curb foreclosures and to extend additional credit to two of the nation’s leading mortgage lenders. On July 30, President Bush signed the measure into law. Some of the key provisions of the bill include the following: – $300 billion in […]
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Incentive Trusts Build Fortune and Character
When you imagine leaving your hard earned money as an inheritance to your children or beneficiaries, chances are you imagine it supplementing their income, allowing them to have some of those “little extras,” saving them from having to struggle quite as hard as you did, helping them to take care of their family. What you probably […]
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