The statistics for termination of marriages in the United states are pretty grim. The latest statistics claim roughly 50% of first marriages end in divorce. Second or third marriages have only about 20% of couples remaining happily married. On the dissolution of the marriage by divorce, there are a number of issues to be dealt… Read More
“Near this spot are deposited the remains of one who possessed Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, and all the Virtues of Man, without his Vices. This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery if inscribed over human ashes, is but a just tribute to the Memory of Boatswain, a Dog.” Lord Byron… Read More
Unfortunately, all sorts of tellers, clerks, customer service representatives, brokers, account managers, and other employees of financial institutions give customers advice about how to title accounts and name beneficiaries. This wreaks havoc with many estate plans and causes problems. New Account Forms at financial institutions routinely ask you to name a beneficiary. Do not feel… Read More
Penn State Cooperative Extension-Centre County publishes the Central Pennsylvania Forestry blog. This post, Newly Released Estate Planning Guide, announces a new resource for owners of timberland, who have there own unique estate planning issues. The guide comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forestry Service, Southern Research Station. Find it here: Estate Planning for Forest Landowners:… Read More
We wrote about this before here. Prof. Gerry Beyer has compiled a list of commercial services that help to solve the problem of finding a decedent’s passwords. Check out his post.
Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-MT) introduced the Taxpayer Certainty and Relief Act of 2009 on March 26, 2009. The tax bill includes a $2.3 trillion middle class tax cut package and also creates a freeze on estate tax rates and major estate planning modifications. Read Greg Herman-Giddens blog post about it here. In… Read More
Thank you to Julie Garber of Julie’s Wills and Estate Planning Blog for her post alerting us to this NYT article: Julie writes: “Taxes Not Seen as Making the Rich Flee New York, so states an article by Nicholas Confessore that appeared last week in The New York Times. It seems that lawmakers in Albany… Read More
A family caregiver agreement, sometimes referred to as a personal care contract or personal service contract, is a written contract between a parent and child (or some other family member) in which the child agrees to care for an elderly parent for a specified amount of money. For an aging parent, the idea of being… Read More
Perhaps there are secrets we should take to the grave, but computer passwords are not among them. An increasing amount of critical personal and work-related information is stored on computers instead of in file cabinets. Many people are revising their estate plans to include complete lists of online accounts and passwords. As Liz Pulliam Weston… Read More
“Near this spot are deposited the remains of one who possessed Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage without Ferocity, and all the Virtues of Man, without his Vices. This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery if inscribed over human ashes, is but a just tribute to the Memory of Boatswain, a Dog.” Lord Byron… Read More