Planning with Special Needs Trusts Parents sometimes think they must disinherit their disabled child in order to preserve his or her SSI/Medicaid benefits. However, these benefits rarely provide more than subsistence. Plus, this “solution” does nothing to help their child after they are incapacitated or die. Consider using a “Special Needs Trust.” This trust will…
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We now provide long-term care planning -Advertising Material – We are launching a new area of practice: long-term care planning. Because I want to tell you about it, I need to identify this note as “advertising material” according to the Ethical Rules of the State Bar. Here’s what I want to talk about: When families…
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Naming a Guardian for your Minor Children This is one of the most personal and difficult decisions my husband and I ever had to make. The thought of somebody else raising our children was hard, and there were so many factors we had to go over. We worried about everything, including who would have the…
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The new tax law We certainly didn’t expect to find ourselves with a tax law – even if it is temporary – that gives our clients a $5 million federal estate tax exemption. But here we are! On December 17 President Obama signed into law a tax bill that extended the Bush income tax…
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Special Needs Planning Special Needs Planning This is the first post in a category that I, and I’m sure Keith and Laura as well, will be revisiting fairly often—special needs planning. Planning for family members of a disabled loved one has always been necessary, of course. However, with longer life expectancies and, appropriately, greater societal…
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New Year’s Resolutions (I originally posted this almost ten years ago, but it still holds true today.) We all make New Year’s resolutions. Losing weight, exercising, learning a new language . . . . Few of us think of our estate plan, but we should. Here are 8 things you can do to get your…
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Family Matters With tax matters dominating the news this past week, I thought it was appropriate to point out that estate planning is not just all about taxes. No matter what happens with the tax laws, the most significant reasons to complete an estate plan continue to involve family matters, not taxes. With the recent…
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Our first blog post We’ve wanted to launch a blog for a long time but there was always more research, more preparation, more discussion -something – that needed to be done. Well, I’ve finally decided that, just like everything else, the answer is to start doing something. So, here is the first blog entry from…
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