Good Planning Protects Your Family’s Future
Fully protecting your spouse and children requires protecting yourself in ways that many young adults don’t consider, and preparing for eventualities most will never have to face. These tips on legal and financial planning for [...]
Who Inherits When There’s No Will?
Many people assume that their spouses or children will automatically be provided for upon their deaths. With that expectation, it’s easy to view a will or living trust as a tool that may make the [...]
Guardianship and Conservatorship
Every adult is assumed to be capable of making his or her own decisions unless a court determines otherwise. If an adult becomes incapable of making responsible decisions due to a mental disability, the court [...]
If I Don’t Have an Estate, Do I Really Need an Estate Plan?
You don’t need to have a summer house in the Hamptons or a private art collection big enough to rival MOMA to consider yourself the owner of an estate. In fact, virtually anyone who owns [...]
Advance Healthcare Directives Protect Patients and Families
When a medical emergency or some type of serious disability or incapacity strikes, it may be too late to make important decisions about your medical care. Though none of us wants to contemplate a time [...]
Living Trust Maintenance is Key
Many people opt for a living trust over more traditional means of estate planning because of benefits such as: A smoother, shorter transition after death Lower costs of administration after death Flexibility during the grantor’s [...]
4 Estate Planning Steps You Must Take After the Death of a Spouse
When a spouse passes away, thinking about “the estate” might be the last thing on your mind. And while it’s necessary to give yourself ample time to process the loss of your partner, it’s also [...]
Checklist: Factors to Consider in Selecting a Nursing Home
Choosing a nursing home for a family member can be one of the most difficult decisions anyone ever has to make. The fact that a loved one needs to move to a nursing home means [...]
The Role of Life Insurance in Estate Planning
Many people think of life insurance as nothing more than a means to ensure that dependents are provided for. While that is obviously a key benefit of a good life insurance policy, there are other [...]
Don’t Overlook Liquidity in Estate Planning
The purpose of an estate plan is to protect your family, loved ones, business partners and others who will be impacted by your death. Most people think in terms of the big issues, such as [...]
Estate Planning: Why Me, Why Now, and Is a Will Enough?
You have worked hard for years, have family members and friends you care about, and have approached a time in your life when “estate planning” sounds like something you should do, but you are not [...]
Using a Prepaid Funeral Contract to Spend Down Assets for Medicaid
No one wants to think about his or her death, but a little preparation in the form of a prepaid funeral contract can be useful. In addition to helping your family after your death, a [...]
Don’t Let Health Care Providers Use the Improvement Standard to Deny Medicare Coverage
Have you or a loved one been denied Medicare-covered services because you’re "not improving"? Many health care providers are still not aware that Medicare is required to cover skilled nursing and home care even if [...]
Take These Three Steps When Your Child Turns 18
Up until your child reaches 18, you are absolutely entitled to access your child’s medical records and to make decisions regarding the course of his treatment. And, your child’s financial affairs are your financial affairs. [...]
Long-Term Care Scorecard Finds States Have Room for Improvement
A new report finds that states have made incremental improvements in providing long-term care, but need to make more improvements in order to meet the needs of the growing number of people who require long-term care [...]
The Perils of Joint Property
People often set up bank accounts or real estate so that they own it jointly with a spouse or other family member. The appeal of joint tenancy is that when one owner dies, the other [...]