Author Archives: Jay Butchko
How To Revoke Your Will In Florida
Your will is meant to last forever, but life has a way of throwing surprises at you when you think you are too old to change your mind. You have probably heard about probate disputes where different heirs wanted the probate court to execute different versions of the will. Such disputes, no matter how… Read More »
Artwork And Your Estate Plan
If you need a fix of human drama, you can do worse than reading Arabic biographical dictionaries from the Middle Ages, such as Abu al-Faraj al-Isfahani’s Book of Songs, which says as much about singers and the poets who wrote their lyrics as it does the songs themselves, or al-Khatib al-Baghdadi’s History of Baghdad…. Read More »
The Non-Financial Costs Of Downsizing Your Retirement
One of the biggest decisions you must make about retirement is whether to continue living in your house or to move to another accommodation that is smaller, less expensive, and better suited to your elderly self. Most web content about this decision centers on the financial aspects of it. Since you are retired, work… Read More »
Who Cares About The Rule Of 173?
The obstacles to writing a will exist mostly in your mind. The hardest part about writing a will is thinking about how life will go on after you are gone. Once you can let yourself envision a world where the people you love carry on without you, it is easy to think about how… Read More »
Surviving The Retirement Marital Mismatch
Some people are frustratingly committed to dominating conversations at social events by spouting one size fits all advice in painstaking, uninterruptible detail. If a fellow guest at a social event is droning on about how every retired person should spend his or her time and money and how much it will cost, you can… Read More »
Nieces And Nephews As Beneficiaries Of Your Will
Among the cheaper plot devices writers use is when a character inherits a vast sum of money from an aunt or uncle that the character did not realize was wealthy, and where the character did not know that he or she was a beneficiary of the relative’s will. In practice, inherited wealth passed from… Read More »
Smile Or Smirk: Graphing Your Retirement Expenses In The Form Of A Facial Expression
At this time of year, cash-strapped teachers always write op eds, and old fogeys like us always read them. They fret about how much the education level of our society has declined since they were students, or since they first became teachers. These days, Chat GPT and its fellow chatbots receive a disproportionate share… Read More »
An Inherited House: Windfall Or White Elephant?
The laments about how people born after 1985 will never be able to afford to buy a house have become old news. You are wise to focus on the silver lining of that lament if it applies to you, the part that says that you will only be able to afford to buy a… Read More »
Establishing A Trust Fund For Your Grandchildren Isn’t As Villainous As It Sounds
These days, people who are committed to posting content online every day because they think it is their only path to financial stability have a lot to say about nepo babies, and none of it is flattering. In the previous generation, when people snarked in person instead of online, we used to call them… Read More »
Choosing A Personal Representative For Your Estate Without The Drama
Some estate planning decisions are more fun than others. Thinking about your possible need for nursing home care and how much it will cost is not fun, but other aspects of estate planning feel more like a party, and with good reason. If you have enough optimism to think of a funeral as a… Read More »
