Recent Blog Posts
How Bad Is It To Drag Your Feet Before Opening An Estate For Probate?
Once you open a deceased family member’s estate for probate, you are constantly trying to meet deadlines. You must file the decedent’s final tax return by April 15 or else file for an extension, in which case you must file it by October 15. Once you publish the notice to creditors, they have three… Read More »
Lady Bird Deeds Are Lighter On Their Feet Than The Average Life Estate Deed
If you have a blended family and are capable of thinking about anyone other than yourself, then you probably find the stories of probate “stepparent wars” disturbing, the ones where the decedent’s spouse spends years in court fighting with the decedent’s children from a previous marriage. Estate planning lawyers tell their clients early and… Read More »
Who’s Afraid Of Early Withdrawals From Retirement Accounts?
If you have an employer-provided retirement account, you can confidently say that your financial situation could be worse. When times are good, you daydream about required minimum distributions, working out various scenarios on your calculator, spreadsheets, or retirement planning websites about when you might retire, how much you will withdraw and what year, and… Read More »
Can Credit Insurance Simplify Your Probate Case?
In our current economic conditions, getting out of debt can feel hopeless. When you are young, borrowing money feels exhilarating. You look forward to paying off your car loan or home mortgage and living debt free while your savings pile up. In your youthful innocence, you don’t know how hard it is to pay… Read More »
What Are The Remedies For Wrongful Disposition Of Remains?
If you have thought about any of the provisions of your will, but not yet written it, you have probably thought about which family members, friends, or charities you want to inherit which items of property from your estate. You might even have someone in mind to designate as personal representative; the person can… Read More »
Which Retirement Income Should You Spend First?
People who are inclined to daydream about being rich often envision a future where they can live off the interest of their savings. Most of them will never do it; you must be extraordinarily wealthy to achieve this. It is how university endowments work; the endowment is the principal balance of the university’s savings… Read More »
Retirees, Brace Yourselves For Florida’s High Cost Of Living
Florida is so beautiful, and yet so full of dangers and pitfalls, that it would make sense for an emoji depicting the outline of Florida to mean, “Let the buyer beware.” You can build a mansion on dirt cheap land, but as soon as you snap selfies in front of your new stomping ground… Read More »
The Open-Faced Sandwich Generation
If you need proof that grandparents are the foundation of a family, look at any holiday gathering. The people who attend do so because they have a connection to the oldest members of the family. In multigenerational households, heritage languages survive as grandparents speak them and watch content streaming channels in them, so the… Read More »
Your Best Options For Avoiding A Miserable Retirement If You Don’t Have Savings
Whether Social Security checks provide enough income to sustain you in your retirement depends largely on how much money you have when you do not figure in your Social Security income. If you have a retirement pension, distributions from a 401(k) account, or both, and you and your spouse each get Social Security income,… Read More »
Long-Term Care Insurance Just Got Less Expensive For People Who Can Already Afford Long-Term Care Insurance
An employer-provided retirement account is your best protection against living hand to mouth once you stop working and start drawing Social Security income. If you have one, you are one of the lucky few. As prices have gotten higher, wages have not risen proportionally, and neither have Social Security payouts. Meanwhile, jobs that provide… Read More »
