Raising the retirement age is inevitable, given the economy, the state of the budget (at least, that’s what they call it in Washington DC), and the increased life expectancy that modern medical science helps us attain.
Posts Categorized: Estate Planning
Your Advance Health-Care Directive: Don’t Leave Home Without It
There are a few legal documents that every competent adult should have in place. One of them is an advance health-care directive. Pre-printed generic forms are available in a variety of places, but you might want to educate yourself as to the options that might be important to you. There are a lot of things that you can include in your directive that are not covered in standardized forms.
An ugly reality: financial abuse of the elderly
Heartbreaking stories like this are way too commonplace. We have had our share of similar, well-publicized problems in Hawaii. A primary mode of elder financial abuse is by the misuse of durable powers of attorney. Powers of attorney can be helpful tools, but they must be carefully managed and maintained, and they must be judiciously granted. It pays to have checks and balances, as well as systems of accountability, in place.
I love you, you’re perfect. Sign here. The world of pre-nuptial agreements
Premarital agreements may not be the most romantic things in the world, nor the easiest to discuss with a prospective spouse. However, they do have a place in estate planning. A scenario we see way too often is where a widowed individual marries late in life and leaves assets to a second spouse. The second spouse subsequently leaves those assets to his or her kids, to the exclusion of the children of the original owner. This is fertile ground for lawsuits and long-term resentments that could easily be avoided with proper planning. A premarital agreement is not necessarily a concession that a marriage work out. In fact, it can promote long-term stability in the marriage, with the added benefits of encouraging friendly relations between the surviving spouse and members of the next generation, as well as between his and her kids after the marital partners are both gone.
NorthJersey.com: Family feud may test boundaries of inheritance law
The good news is, these folks have plenty to fight over and the lawyers are going to make a ton of money. The bad news is, when people fight over estates, the lawyers often end up being the only winners.
Too Rich to Live? – WSJ.com
It’s looking more and more like the estate tax will be coming back with a vengeance in 2011. It’s not too early to plan for how to minimize the bite. This WSJ article provides a pretty good explanation of the current situation and future prospects.
Estate Tax Dormant, Billionaire’s Bequest Is Tax-Free – NYTimes.com
Dan L. Duncan, a soft-spoken farm boy who started with $10,000 and two propane trucks, and built a network of natural gas processing plants and pipelines that made him the… Read More »
Sanders Estate-Tax Proposal Would Hit Wealthy Harder – WSJ.com
Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and three Senate Democrats Thursday proposed an estate-tax plan that would hit wealthier taxpayers harder than another proposal on the table. The estate tax lapsed… Read More »
States Compete for Trust Business – WSJ.com
About half a dozen states are actively vying to attract wealthy families' trusts, as well as the jobs and tax revenue that come from the companies that administer these estate-planning… Read More »
10 Tips For Parents Of Special Needs Children – Forbes.com
Providing for children in an estate plan is not a simple task. For parents of children with special needs, the concerns and difficulties are magnified since, in many cases, the… Read More »