The biggest trend is “I want to protect my child’s inheritance.” Can you imagine leaving your hard earned estate to a child when you die and they get into a messy divorce, lawsuit or they just spend it unwisely and lose everything? What a waste. What if you could leave… Read More

ESTATE PLANNING BASICS Death is inevitable. There are some steps and planning we should take to put our affairs in order. This can be accomplished through proper and effective estate planning. Estate Planning provides peace of mind by knowing that your desires are recorded and your property will be disposed of as… Read More

A qualified IRA trust allows your individual retirement funds to “flow” through a special Trust to assure monies are paid to beneficiaries over their respective lifetimes. This trust is designed so that the beneficiary is entitled to withdraw from the trust only the minimum required distribution under the Internal Revenue… Read More

The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling will change estate planning for affluent same-sex married couples. United States v.Windsor, the case in the news last week, involved an important tax break for married couples. The marital deduction allows spouses to transfer as much as they want to each other, either during life… Read More

A USA Today article on February 13, 2013 dealt with this very issue. See “Memory Issues Can Wreck Your Finances If You Don’t Plan Ahead.” Individuals with MCI, mild cognitive impairment, affecting 20% of Americans over the age of 70, may leave the individual vulnerable to financial abuse or financial… Read More

Hello: You have probably heard about estate taxes, also called “death taxes.” You may be interested to learn that the IRS counts about everything yo own in figuring how he can get a share of it. The bad news is that once you have a taxable estate, the government wants… Read More

A recent article in Accounting Today discussed a new software program that prepares your own estate planning legal documents. While for very simple estates with traditional, single married couples, this may be a viable option. For the vast majority of individuals, our lives do not fit into simple computer programs… Read More