A Florida non-profit organization has begun a petition drive urging Congress to offer a tax credit to families of children with special needs to assist with the costs of obtaining guardianship. Prosperity Life Planning, the organization behind the petition, teaches families of children with special needs how to locate resources for their children while preserving…
Elder Mediation Resolves Family Conflicts
“My daughter is insisting I move in with her,” complains Martha. “She just wants to control my life and take away my freedom,” she continues. Jenny, Martha’s daughter worries that her mother keeps falling, and fears one day she will break her hip or hit her head. “I’ll take my sister to court before I…
Holiday Blues – Depression In The Elderly
The holiday season is quickly coming upon us. If you are a caregiver for an elderly loved one, you may notice a change in your loved one’s mood as the holidays approach. Perhaps you are one of many, who visit elderly parents and family during the holidays who live a distance away. When you visit…
Can I Create a Trust Inside My Will?
All trusts aren’t alike. When you put a trust in your will, it should be drafted precisely in order to satisfy your wishes and goals. Just any old boilerplate text or preprinted legal form won’t do. You may have one or more reasons to put a trust in your will (called a testamentary trust by…
Spice Up Your Estate Plan By Using Trusts
Are you looking for new ways to protect your family and your money? Would you like to cut estate taxes and probate costs, too? Trusts can be the answer. They are remarkably versatile and can broaden your estate plan. While not magical, they can produce results that seem beyond belief. The particulars are simple. A…
Should I Create a Joint Trust? (Should We Have One Trust or Two?)
If you’re married, perhaps you and your spouse are thinking about setting up living trusts. If so, you might ask, “Can’t we have just one living trust for the two of us?” Is a joint trust a good idea? How a Joint Trust WorksFirst, don’t confuse a joint living trust with jointly owned property. A…
Discover the Flexibility of Living Trusts
A living trust is just what its name implies—a trust you establish while you’re living. Living trusts can be “revocable” or “irrevocable,” and there are unique characteristics to each. Although it’s not normally intended to completely replace a will, a revocable living trust can be an effective way to maintain control of property during your…
A Living Trust? You Don’t Need to Be Rich
The term “trust fund” conjures up images of mansions, yachts and huge fortunes. But once the province of the very rich, trusts have found themselves into the lives of many families who’ve never thought of themselves as wealthy. Trusts come in myriad forms, but for middle-class families, the living trust is popular because the person…
Five Benefits of a Living Trust
Living trusts are flexible estate planning tools that can offer you many advantages, five of which are mentioned below: 1. Revocable. Because the needs of family members may change over time, a living trust normally allows you to modify trust provisions or change the beneficiaries. 2. Private. A living trust avoids the costs and delays…
Getting Started: The Revocable Living Trust
The University of Georgia’s Mary L. McCormack wrote the following article entitled “Getting Started: The Revocable Living Trust: The subject of a living trust as an estate planning tool generates quite a bit of discussion. A living trust is an arrangement you create during your lifetime to provide for yourself and your family both before…
2009 Annual Gift Exclusion Increases to $13,000
Just a quick note here – The IRS has provided in Rev Proc 8-66 that the Annual Gift Exclusion amount for 2009 has been increased to $13,000. This means that individuals may give $13,000 in gifts each year to other persons without having to file a gift tax return. Should you be married, you can…
When Your Aging Parents Need You
Caregiving can bring guilt and anxiety—and it can be a gift as well. By Sally Wadyka for MSN Health & Fitness For most children, their parents are the people in charge of taking care of them from infancy and even into adulthood. Mom and Dad were there to bandage your boo-boos, sing you to sleep,…
Financially Preparing for Special-Needs Kids
Sarah Palin’s son Trig helps spark a national conversation By Kimberly Palmer Posted September 30, 2008 Sarah Palin’s 5-month-old son, Trig, who has Down syndrome, has sparked a national conversation about kids with special needs: the extra care they require, available government benefits and the pros and cons of prenatal testing. One topic that has…
Medicare Enrollment Period Starts November 15, 2008
It’s that time, once again, to make changes to Medicare options. According to CMS, which is the government entity that oversees Medicare, the six weeks from November 15, 2008 through December 31, 2008 is a hectic time of the year otherwise known as the Annual Election Period (AEP.) Once a year, Medicare allows enrollees to…
Family Wealth Planning Institute Personal Family Lawyers & Story of My Life Team Up To Preserve ‘Priceless Conservations’
The Family Wealth Planning Institute™ and Story of My Life® announce a partnership program to capture and preserve “Priceless Conversations™” that clients create when they create their estate plan with a Personal Family Lawyer® law firm. The Story of My Life website deposits these precious memories into its perpetual, secure Vault to store them for…
New FDIC Rules for Inter Vivos Trust Accounts
On September 26, 2008, the FDIC issued interim final regulations entitled Deposit Insurance Regulations; Living Trust Accounts. The interim rules amend 12 CFR 330 and took effective immediately, pending a sixty day comment period before finalization. Here is a summary of the new regulations: The FDIC is adopting an interim rule to simplify and modernize…
Long-Term Care Insurance: Pricey But Necessary?
One of the most common questions I get is “Should we purchase long-term care insurance? Is it worth it?” The answer to that question is up to the individual client, but usually people feel that it’s “too expensive” as they pay it while healthy, and it transforms into a “lifesaver” when one becomes ill and…
Long Term Care’s Impact On The Family
“Families are not necessarily drawn together in a time of crisis. Very often, they are blown apart.” says Nancy Dykeman, an educator of long term care planners. Nancy illustrates this problem with an example: Imagine a young family. The father is working toward a career promotion; he coaches his kids’ soccer teams. His wife works…
Do Your College Age Children Have Healthcare Directives? DO YOU?
We should all protect our families and our assets with legal documents like wills and trusts, but what are our essential needs and what can we do on our own to save on legal fees? Family financial and legal expert, Alexis Martin Neely, is the author of “Wear Clean Underwear: A Fast, Fun, Friendly and…
Two Legal Documents Every Adult Needs No Matter The Size of Your Bank Account
As of your 18th birthday, you became an adult in the eyes of the law. Even though your kids may still act like teenagers (or you may feel like one), in the eyes of the government, turning 18 means you need to have legal documents in place in case of an accident. Every adult should…
