Estate Planning 24 - Personal Family Lawyer

Family Loans Must Be Made Properly to Avoid Tax Repercussions

April 10, 2015

The recession made many parents and grandparents into personal bankers, making loans to strapped children or grandchildren to help them cope with unemployment or other financial misfortune. However, family loans need to be prepared properly to avoid tax repercussions. Here are some tips on how to do that: Put loan terms in writing – the…

April 3, 2015

Estate planning is an ongoing process, and plans should be reviewed with a qualified estate planning attorney every few years to ensure that the goals you set in making your plan are still valid. When reviewing your estate plan, keep these things in mind: Your estate plan only works if your assets are owned properly…

March 27, 2015

Avoiding the need for a conservatorship – the process whereby someone is appointed by a court to assume responsibility for the property or the personal welfare of an adult – and keeping your family out of Court can be accomplished by making plans for incapacity in your estate plan. The most common ways to avoid…

March 20, 2015

Even the best intentions can have unintended consequences when it comes to estate planning. A case now winding its way through the New York appellate court system provides a cautionary tale when it comes to the safekeeping of your estate planning documents. According to a recent news report, Robyn Lewis and James Simmons divorced in…

March 20, 2015

Americans today are getting married later in life. Currently, the average age of a first marriage is 27 for women and 29 for men — an increase of four years for women and three years for men in just the last 25 years. So it may not be so surprising that more well-established brides and…

March 13, 2015

Women outlive men, make less during their careers and have less in savings due to pay discrepancies and time taken out of the workforce to raise their families. These are just a few reasons why it is important for you to know the following about estate planning: Minor children can be legally protected with a…

March 13, 2015

One of the most prevalent misconceptions when it comes to estate planning is that if you have a will, it will take care of everything that needs to happen after you die in terms of your assets. But before you leave everything to just a will, consider these circumstances where a will simply doesn’t work:…

February 27, 2015

Last year’s uncertainty about the future of the estate and gift tax caused many people to put their estate planning on hold, even though estate and gift tax planning is only a teeny tiny piece of estate planning. Now that the clouds have lifted and Congress has given us clarity, there is simply no reason…

February 26, 2015

Alzheimer’s Disease is in the news again thanks to Academy Award winner Julianne Moore’s performance in the movie Still Alice, where she portrays a college professor diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s and movingly portrays the effect it has on her family. According to the Alzheimer’s Association, someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s every…

February 19, 2015

With the federal estate tax exemption at $5.43 million for 2015, many people think estate planning is unnecessary. But there’s one thing ALL adults over the age of 18 need to look at, regardless of estate taxes: beneficiary designations. You would be amazed at how many people neglect this simple step, and their heirs and…

Include Your Intellectual Property in Your Estate Plan

You don’t have to be a famous producer or household name to own intellectual property. If you create music, own a business, write stories, or build gadgets in your garage, you almost certainly have intellectual property. However, because intellectual property…

Help Your Parents Avoid These New Financial Scams – Part 2

In part one of this series, we explored two popular scams that are targeting older adults this year: the grandparent scam, and cryptocurrency pickpocketing. In this week’s blog, I’m sharing two more scams that you and your parents need to…

Help Your Parents Avoid These New Financial Scams – Part 1

Fraudsters and scam artists are nothing new, but changing tools and technology are making it easier than ever for scammers to target their victims, especially seniors. To protect your aging parents (or yourself) from these con artists, it’s crucial to…