“Caring for an aging loved one can be one of the most stressful family milestones,” writes Jeff Anderson in aplaceformom.com. “The sheer difficulty of the task, its high costs, as well as underlying family issues can collide to create a perfect storm of discontent.”...
Identity theft becomes a bigger issue each year, leading the Federal Trade Commission to enumerate the steps to take in order to protect your personal information. In fact, during tax refund season, “stranger danger” seems to be all around us. In fact, at Geyer &...
“For every financially dependent child there is an equally responsible financial-enabling parent,” observe Bradley Klontz and Anthony Canale in the Journal of Financial Planning. That’s not good: financially dependent adult children who continue to rely on their...
Estate planning for second marriages (after divorce or death of a first spouse), especially when there are children from prior marriages, is a challenge. One big part of that challenge is planning for the primary residence. Whereas couples married for the first time...
Planning for the traditional nuclear family is straightforward, as the Texas Probate Lawyer so aptly points out. In most situations, the husband and wife want to leave the estate to the surviving spouse, with the assets going to the children after the death of both...
“In the first few weeks after the death,” attorneys Liza Hanks and Carol Elias Zolla warn trustees and executors in the book The Trustee’s Legal Companion, “you should pick up the phone and notify the Social Security Administration of the death by calling...
“Prince died without a will, according to court documents filed by his sister on Tuesday, potentially causing big complications for that star’s sprawling financial estate and musical legacy,” the New York Timesreports. Why is a will so crucial in settling an estate?...
“There are several reasons why a beneficiary might disclaim a bequest,” Theodore Hughes and David Klein explain in The Executor’s Handbook. Those reasons include: Another survivor has a great need. (If Robert Smith’s brother leaves him $100,000, and Robert doesn’t...
“Once you place property in one of the following forms of ownership, listing that property in your will has no effect,” Denis Clifford explains in Plan Your Estate. Clifford is referring to: Living trust Joint tenancy property Pay-on-death bank accounts Life insurance...
“Irrevocable trusts, by their very nature, do not change – at least that’s what we tend to think,” Trevor Chuna, CPF®, observes in the Journal of Financial Planning. But since a trust is a vehicle used to transfer and manage assets to meet the objectives of the...
