A common strategy to reduce estate taxes is to give away some assets before you pass away. Gifting to younger family members can be used as a strategy to reduce estate taxes.  However, it also comes with the potential for the recipients to become wasteful or lose their incentive to preserve assets. However, there are […]

Life expectancy has been going up for decades. However, now it is going down. Life expectancy has been rising for decades for Americans but it has now gone into reverse, according to the Financial Advisor in “Americans Are Dying Younger, Saving Corporations Billions.” It is not certain yet whether this is a statistical aberration or […]

We may be the richest nation in the world but do things seem to be going right? Many of us may feel powerless to change things around us whether it is politics, terrorists, protesters or the economy. However, perhaps we all can do something to make things better with our estate plans, according to the Rockford […]

Giving your family a verbal “estate plan” for them to carry out can create difficulties. There are legal and practical reasons why it is unwise to rely on family members to carry out your wishes you have voiced to them about your assets, according to the Fontana Herald News in a recent article “Having estate […]

Discovery at pet cemetery results in accusations against cemetery and crematorium in Illinois. A family was apparently given the ashes from a different animal after they brought their pet’s remains to a cemetery and crematorium in Illinois, according to the Daily Mail in “Pet cemetery is accused of giving the ashes of random animals to […]

Your estate plan may not be effective, if it is not updated to account for changing circumstances. People sometimes think that if they have an estate plan, their work is done. They put the plan on the shelf and do not consider changes in their lives that will affect the plan, according to Market Watch […]

Fairly dividing an estate among the children can be difficult with remarriages. Resolving the issue of dividing an estate with a blended family, sparked a recent letter to Market Watch in “How do I split my estate between my two stepdaughters and biological son?“. Among the issues in the letter were people remarried with children […]

A will may be cheaper than a trust now. However, that may not be the case in the long run. Many people decide on wills instead of trusts to save time and money. The problem with that thinking is that a will is more expensive overall than a trust, according to the Times Herald-Record in “Trusts […]

Now is the time to think about a happy future. However, it is also time to prepare your spouse for handling any future estate challenges. You have decided to marry and focus on the good times. However, it may also be wise to think about the importance of protecting your new spouse with some new or […]

Medicaid is designed to pay for long-term care in nursing homes for Americans who cannot afford it. The New York Times recently discussed the debate over the ethics of hiding your assets to qualify for the government payment of long-term nursing care in its article “The Ethics of Adjusting Your Assets to Qualify for Medicaid.” […]