Author Archives: Site Administrator
Who Do You Trust To Administer Your Estate?
For many people the hardest part of creating an estate plan isn’t deciding what to leave to their heirs, but deciding who they trust enough with the difficult job of administering their estate. The job of administrator requires a rare and unique combination of talents, and finding one person with all of these traits… Read More »
Who Will Care for Your Pet When You Are Gone?
When most people think about estate planning they think about friends and relatives, they think about minor children or grandchildren, they think about family heirlooms or large assets to pass on to the next generation. There is one family member who often gets overlooked when estate plans are being made: Your pets. Have you… Read More »
The Most Important Part of an Estate Plan is the Memories
Most people, when they design their estate plan, think primarily about the large financial assets: Real property, bank accounts, investment accounts, family businesses, etc. But any estate planner will tell you that the most heart-wrenching family rifts and disputes are not over money, but over the little things that end up having little or… Read More »
How to Protect Your Partner Even if You Choose Not to Marry
According to the U.S. Census Bureau the number of senior couples choosing to cohabitate instead of marry (or remarry) has risen significantly. Although this may seem like a shocking choice that goes against tradition, the truth is that there are quite a few reasons why senior couples might choose not to tie the knot:… Read More »
Recent Polls Reveal the Tide is Turning Regarding Retirement Living
Where do you plan to live when you retire? 50-somethings and near retirees used to dream of moving to Arizona, California or Florida when they retired; planning to give up the responsibilities of mowing lawns and shoveling snow for a more leisurely life of regular golf-games and walks on the beach; but recent studies… Read More »
Protecting a Child With Special Needs
The thought that your child may have to survive on his or her own before they are ready is every parent’s worst fear; it’s what keeps many parents up at night, and what brings many parents into our offices asking about trusts, guardians, and estate plans. For parents of children with special needs that… Read More »
Prepare Your Kids for a Large Inheritance
One of the unspoken rules in many families is that you don’t talk about money, and you especially don’t talk about money with your kids. What many parents are finding out, however, is that keeping hush-hush about money matters leaves children unprepared, unappreciative, and uncomfortable when they eventually come into their large inheritance. A… Read More »
What Do Current Retirees Have to Say About Retirement?
There are plenty of articles out there about how to prepare for retirement, what to expect in your retirement, how difficult it may be, how easy it may be, what to tell your kids, what to tell your parents, and on, and on, and on. What we don’t often find is the first hand… Read More »
Should Heirs Pay Taxes on Assets They Can’t Sell?
Throughout history artists and their artwork have often been on the leading edge of controversy. In a recent brou-ha-ha between the heirs of the New York art dealer Ileana Sonnabend and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service the controversy is over nothing less than the value of art—although perhaps not “value of art” in the… Read More »
Prudential to Stop Offering Group Long-Term Care Insurance, Giving Buyers One Less Option
If you have been thinking about investing in long-term care insurance when planning for the future, you now, unfortunately, have one less option to consider. Recent news reports that as of August 1 of this year, Prudential Financial Inc will stop selling group long-term care policies in all but five states. According to news… Read More »