Category Archives: Life Changes

Happy 18th Birthday! Now What?

18th Birthday handwritten typography lettering Greeting card with colorful big cake, number, candle and confetti

Congratulations! You are now legally an adult. Although you may not feel any different, from a legal standpoint, a great deal has changed. When you were a minor (under age 18), your parents were your legal guardians responsible for making all your decisions. Now that you are an adult, their legal authority over you is […]

Unemployment: How to Protect Your Family

Unemployment Rates Soar

Seek out resources if you lost your job through no fault of your own. Some employers offer severance packages. And in many cases, you could collect unemployment benefits. Depending on state law and your former employer’s policy, a payout of accrued vacation and sick leave may fund source of liquidity to sustain you for a while.

Deathbed Gifts

Deathbed Incapacity Planning

Although gifts made within three years of your death are generally includible in your estate, an exception exists if a gift tax return was not required to be filed because the value of the gift was less than the annual exclusion amount. Transfers relating to life insurance policies, however, are an exception to this exception.

Helping Seniors Avoid Loneliness

Lonely Sad Man

Loneliness is feeling sad about a lack of human connections and interactions. While social isolation may make most people feel lonely, loneliness is not the same as being alone. However, not everyone who lives alone feels lonely. What’s more, not all people who feel lonely live alone. People of any age may feel lonely, but the condition is especially common in seniors.

Update Estate Plans as often as a Resume?

Elder lady with white haired planning her work while talking on cellphone

Is everything the same today as when you signed your will, trust agreement, and other estate planning documents? If not, then take steps to make sure your estate plan reflects those changes.

Time for an Estate Plan Checkup?

Document, contract, review.

Failure to take the time to craft an estate plan could leave the state where you reside at the time of your death in the driver’s seat. Laws in most states set forth how to apportion property.

Electronic Wills

Digital Will Electronic

We live in an increasingly digital world now. And courts increasingly determine whether a will created and stored on a computer, tablet, or cell phone and e-signed meets the traditional requirements of being “in writing” and “signed by the will maker.”