Estate Planning, Probate, Power of Attorney Blogs & More

• Posted in: Estate Planning

Many pet owners are refusing to leave the future of their pets to chance. As a recent article explains, devoted pet owners are providing for the care of their pets through wills, trusts, or other estate-planning provisions. As pet owner Carol Santora explained, “I got really nervous about it because I don’t think anyone in […]

• Posted in: Estate Planning

Parents with special needs children face many challenges. While protecting your child’s financial future may seem like a far-off goal, a recent article points out that it is important to partake in some long-term financial planning now. Early planning helps to ensure that your child has enough assets to maintain proper care in the future. […]

• Posted in: Estate Planning

Estate planning is especially important for farmers and ranchers, as it assists them in passing the farm and its operation along to the next generation, and may save some taxes in the process. A recent article discusses important steps in the process of estate planning for farmers and ranchers.   According to New York Life […]

• Posted in: Veteran's Benefits

New regulations published in the Federal Register last December will ease the process of receiving health care and compensation for veterans who suffer or have suffered from a variety of illnesses that are caused by a traumatic brain injury (“T.B.I.”). As reported in The New York Times, the new regulations will provide expanded benefits to […]

• Posted in: Estate Planning

A common estate planning question is whether it is better to allow your heirs to inherit your home, or give it to them as a gift. This article in the Los Angeles Times addresses that question.   Generally, it is better to let your child inherit homes that have appreciated in value since your original […]

• Posted in: Estate Planning

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 benefits. First, it is generally […]

• Posted in: Estate Planning

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 that one of the most […]

• Posted in: Asset Protection

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, any assets placed in a […]

• Posted in: Special Needs Planning

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, as an article in the […]

• Posted in: Current Affairs

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 a tax rate increased from […]