Estate Planning - What the Experts Say!

Many elders live independently and fiercely guard their independence. When additional care becomes necessary to keep the elder healthy and safe, these elders prefer to stay in their home instead of moving to a retirement community, assisted living facility or even a nursing home. Staying at home often means being at a distance from the primary caregiver. Although staying at home creates More...

  Spring has sprung, and it seems everyone is planning to get away. Are you planning a trip? Perhaps you will head to the shore to enjoy the weather or you will visit family or friends. When planning to travel, it is common to experience nervousness. What would happen if you did not make it safely to or from your destination? Fortunately, you can establish an estate plan before More...

The most cherished asset in most families is the family home. In many cases, the family home is also the largest asset. Typically, protecting that home from nursing home costs is a high priority concern as most families would choose to protect the home instead of selling the home to pay for nursing home care. For those who desire to protect the home, it may be possible to avoid a sale More...

Congratulations! Your new baby is home and healthy. You are finally sleeping normally and enjoying your little bundle of joy. Now that you are thinking clearly again, it is a great time to get a quick and easy estate plan together... just in case. Here are the six steps to remember when you prepare your first... Last Will and Testament. {loadposition More...

  Times have changed, and many committed couples are now choosing to delay marriage, sometimes indefinitely. Although they are not married, they present themselves as a married couple would. They live together, and they share their assets and debts. While this arrangement may allow the happy couple to live in bliss while each partner is alive and well, trouble begins when one More...

  When a loved one dies, lots of folks decide to create a funeral slideshow to remember and honor them. There is not usually a lot of time, and often the most that can be achieved is to gather the available photographs and have them thrown into some kind of semi-automatically generated funeral slideshow. And that's just fine. After all, it's about the person - More...

  It is very common for a child to provide assistance to an aging parent in order to allow the parent to continue to live at home. A child is the most commonly the caregiver because the parent will not agree to hire professionals to assist with the activities of their daily life. Typically, the parent has concerns regarding privacy, and their child is the only caregiver they will More...

  The following will provide an overview and some of the general federal rules on both the gift tax and income taxes due when various gifts are made.  Certain gifts that are not taxable and tax filing requirements are also explored. Some Gifts Are Not Taxable At All: Gifts To A Spouse, Charity, or Annual Exclusion Gifts Most gifts are not subject to the gift More...

  When 82 year old Elizabeth G. died her attorneys notified the local animal shelter that they had been named as a partial beneficiary on her life insurance policy. The shelter was to receive a donation of $25,000. The grateful director was taken by surprise! Elizabeth had faithfully given $5 a month for the 12 years that had passed since she had adopted her beloved dog. She More...

MetLife recently released its study of the cost of caregiving services by working caregivers, mainly adult children.  The study found that nearly 10 million adult children over the age of 50 provided caregiving services to their aging parents. These adult caregivers, the study found, are aging themselves while providing care, and that these adult caregivers need to be planning and More...

Every family has its own dynamics and while the parents are alive, they tend to mediate the arguments and personalities involved. But when they are gone, all too many families incur needless and sometimes irreparable damage to their family unit. It could be fighting over the estate assets, arguing over administration issues or even the outside influences of an in-law. Whatever More...

  Wealth is difficult to amass but easy to squander. This worries some affluent parents, so they are transferring assets to their heirs with strings attached. With a $5 million lifetime gift tax exemption in place for 2011 and 2012, parents are transferring significant amounts to their children and grandchildren now instead of leaving it to them at death. However, More...

  Uncle Sam gives the best wedding presents. A Simon Pearce vase is divine, but it pales in comparison with the married filing jointly tax rates and unlimited marital estate tax deduction. Regrettably, even though they embody the same levels of love and commitment, same-sex couples do not receive these gifts from Uncle Sam. Financial planning for same-sex couples More...

Every family is unique. Parents need to let their loved ones know what they wish them to do in the event something happens. Unfortunately, many children are too busy, not local or are reluctant to face the realities of their parent's mortality. Other times parents choose not to inform their children until it is too late. Whatever the reason, your personal instructions to More...

  Are you considered an innocent spouse for tax purposes? What is an innocent spouse and is there a protection for innocent spouses? Most couples file joint income tax returns as a married couple. This means generally that both parties are responsible for what is on the return, as well as what income should be reflected on the return, but is not. Sometimes the division More...

Divorce and second marriages present special challenges in estate planning. These challenges are common where the spouses have children from prior marriages. The emotions and people involved require a delicate balancing between the needs of the surviving spouse and those of natural children. The surviving spouse will want to insure a continuation of the lifestyle they enjoyed while More...

  As we allow the impact of the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010 to set in, some of the finer details are starting to come into focus. The big news involved the changes to the estate exclusion and the rate of the tax. Rather than the anticipated $1 million exclusion and 55% maximum rate, the passage of this legislation has raised the More...

  The conventional gender roles are eroding quickly as women have made great strides in the world of business and politics. It has become increasingly uncommon to see the likes of June Cleaver walking the streets among us in the twenty first century. Yet, some things have not changed. Men continue to pass away at an earlier age than women leaving women solely responsible for the More...

  If a person sets up a charitable trust, it is generally safe for them to believe their money will go to the appropriate beneficiary. However, there are some instances in which this simply is not possible. For instance, establishing a trust for an organization or institution that disbands or closes shortly before the trust goes into effect would make the trust technically impossible More...

The Internal Revenue Service announced on February 8, 2011 a special voluntary disclosure initiative designed to bring offshore money back into the U.S. tax system and help people with undisclosed income from hidden offshore accounts get current with their taxes.  Here are some of the basic provisions of this program. 1. Deadline To Come Forward: August 31, 2011 This More...