With colleges starting the fall semester around the country, worries about paying for higher education and making ends meet often come to students’ minds. Family members, like parents and grandparents, will often want to help their loved one pay for college if they are able to; however, at the same…
You know that health care, taxes and not saving enough for retirement can derail retirement. However, what about the risks you never saw coming? Consider these three risks to retirement says Wealth Advisor in the article, “The Three Risks To Prepare For In Retirement.” They are a little less obvious…
Guardianship is a fairly straightforward and basic function. A person who is not able to handle her or his own affairs, for any number of reasons, is assigned a guardian by the court, who is to act on their behalf for financial, medical and care-taking purposes. The guardian is charged…
The media tends to place a great deal of focus on federal income tax, but despite that, the number of estates that actually pay this federal tax are proportionately small. Less than 12,000 estate tax returns were filed with the IRS in 2014, and of those, most of the estates…
In many cases, knowledge is power. But in estate planning, knowledge by itself can be a dangerous thing. You need to pair knowledge of the most common estate planning mistakes with another kind of knowledge: what to DO about those mistakes. And we would even add a third thing: knowing…
This is a great example of a failure to think outside of the box. Literally. A California man created a handwritten will that left all of his property to his wife if he were to predecease her. He also wrote that if they should both die at the same time,…
When most people think of wills and estate plans, they usually think about the primary function of distributing assets to children. The natural next thought is, if they have no children, then they don't need a will. But estate plans, and especially wills, actually serve a number of important purposes,…
Americans love collections and homes across the country boast music collections, rock collections, sea shell collections and the list goes on. Often, these personal collections hold a great deal of sentimental value while their market value is nil. Typically, favored items are passed on to the family members who will…
Several nude photographs of the late artist Jean-Michel Basquiat were taken by his ex-girlfriend Paige Powell. The photographs, which were shown as part of an art exhibition in 2014, show Basquiat reclining on the bed, smiling at the camera. Subsequently, they were posted on several art websites. One of those…
Upon British actor and director Lord Richard Attenborough's death, the value of his estate and his last wishes were made public via his will. His estate in the United Kingdom was worth approximately £1.5 million, not including the value of any assets held in trust or any foreign assets. However,…