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Estate Planning For Married Couples and Domestic Partners – Party of One?
When it comes to structuring estate plans, a potentially awkward but necessary question to ask is whether you and your spouse will seek joint or separate representation. This article in Forbes discusses how you and your spouse might go about answering that question. Joint representation for estate planning has many […]
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Don’t Lock Out Your Executor!
Although most estate planning continues to be performed on paper, make no mistake that we are living in a paperless world. This simple fact makes it exceedingly easy to lock-out your executor at the very moment when you need them most. Therefore, this article in Forbes serves as a reminder […]
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Trusts and Divorce – Are My Assets Protected?
As this recent article in Forbes points out, trusts are quickly gaining ground as a popular estate-planning tool. They are attractive to many because they can be molded to serve a variety of purposes. One such purpose may be shielding assets in the event of divorce. Prior to a marriage, […]
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Caring for Special Needs Heirs
The already challenging task of estate planning can become even more complicated when planning for loved ones with special needs. As governments on all levels continue to tighten their financial belts, income restrictions for medical and support services typically paid for by Social Security and Medi-Cal continue to drop. Therefore, […]
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The Fiscal Cliff Deal: Things You Should Know
A recent article in Forbes discusses ten facts about the fiscal cliff deal that all Americans should be aware of. The Bush tax cuts were made permanent for most taxpayers. As to the federal estate tax, the exemption will remain at $5.12 million per person and indexed for inflation, with […]
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The Joys and Sorrows of Gift-Giving During Your Lifetime
“You can’t take it with you.” These are good words to keep in mind as we go through life, they remind us not to take ourselves too seriously, not to hold onto things we don’t need, and to be generous to those less fortunate than ourselves. Whether you’re thinking about […]
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Beware of Mistakes in Your Old Estate Plan
Do you already have an estate plan? Or perhaps you don’t have an estate plan per se, but over the years you’ve collected all of what you feel are the necessary documents to provide security and protection for your family and your assets after your death? Well, you may want […]
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Estate Planning for Your Digital Assets
We live in a digital world. With every year that passes, more and more of our lives are moving into the digital ealm. This includes friendships, networking, business and banking. Many people would now consider their Facebook password to be just as secret and sensitive as a credit card or […]
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Are Health Care Costs A Part of Your Retirement Plan?
When people do the math to determine what their financial budgetary needs will be they factor in all the usual expenses, as well as change-of-lifestyle expenses (such as a travel budget, for example) but according to this article on CNBC.com, what many people still neglect to factor into their retirement […]
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The Year of Gifting
The year 2010 was the perfect year to die. The estate tax had expired and Congress could not get itself together in time to reinstate it for that year. Smart people like George Steinbrenner took advantage of the situation and departed this earth with no worries about the federal estate […]
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