Recent Blog Posts
Long-Term Financial Planning In Uncertain Times
When you read the news headlines, even if you can no longer stand to read entire articles about current events, it is easy to get the impression that it is futile to make long-term plans. Planning for retirement and building an estate plan implies an ability to be reasonably certain about the way that… Read More »
Transferring Property To A Revocable Trust
You do not have to be rich to set up a revocable trust. In fact, if you are watching every penny, that is an even better reason to establish one. Revocable trusts are an effective way to save money on taxes while you are alive and to pass property to your heirs seamlessly after… Read More »
Inflation Proofing Your Retirement Plan
You thought you were doing everything rate, saving at least five percent of your income in a savings account, maximizing your employer-matched retirement contributions, and saving up for in-state university tuition for your children. Now that you are getting closer to retirement age, inflation is the highest it has been in decades, and the… Read More »
Getting The Best Value From Annuities
If you have a retirement pension that pays you a fixed income every month for life, consider yourself lucky, but employers have been getting less generous with these kinds of benefits over the years, so most people do not have employer-provided pensions. The closest thing you can do to buying a pension is to… Read More »
3 Strategies For Simplifying Probate
Leif, the retired physician who writes the Physician on FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) blog correctly states that the only way to avoid probate is to become immortal, but unless you can succeed where Gilgamesh failed, probate is probably as inevitable as death and taxes. If you are trying to avoid probate entirely, you… Read More »
An Annual Cash Gift Will Not Make Young Adults More Spoiled Than They Already Are
The time when you used to load diapers and baby food onto the conveyor belt in the supermarket checkout line and commiserate with the cashier about how expensive children are seems like ancient history now. Your kids are now adults, and they have been consistently employed for years. You are no longer at the… Read More »
Can Smartphone Apps Make Your Plans For Aging In Place More Feasible?
There is more to planning for aging in place than adding non-stick bathmats to your bathroom and congratulating yourself on living in Florida, where the terrain is flat and most houses have one story, so you don’t have to worry about the risks of falling down the stairs or slipping and falling on your… Read More »
An Assessment Tool For Determining Whether Elderly Adults Understand Their Own Decisions
It is not difficult to find horror stories about seniors being unfairly placed under guardianship or about the most vulnerable adults, who truly are unable to make their own decisions about finances and medical care, being entrusted to unscrupulous guardians. The most nightmarish cases are about whether it is one person’s word against another’s… Read More »
What Retirees Should Know About Long-Term Care Insurance
“Don’t be insurance poor” is one of the cornerstones of personal finance at any age. Especially as you approach retirement age, you look for ways to spend a modest amount of money now in order to save a larger amount in the future. Just as young, healthy people should buy health insurance and life… Read More »
Getting Financial Compensation For Your Work As Personal Representative Of A Deceased Family Member’s Estate
If a family member has expressed a wish for you to act as the personal representative of their estate during probate, you might have found out that the surviving spouse of a deceased person has the right to claim a percentage of the estate even if the decedent’s will disinherited them, but no other… Read More »
