When Parent and Child Reverse Roles

When we start off in life, our parents provide love and nurturing, as well as the necessities of daily life. As time passes, we grow into adulthood. Our relationship with our parents becomes one of equals, with each providing love and nurturing for the other, while both are self-sufficient. Often, parents reach a stage in their lives when they are no longer self-sufficient, typically due to advanced age or illness.

Estate Planning in Light of a Remarriage - Ensuring the Care of Your Children

The staggering amount of divorces that occur in today’s society is all too well known. Depending upon the circumstances that lead to the break-up of any marriage, one may think that getting into another such arrangement would be out of the question. However, this is not always the case. In fact, the Stepfamily Association of America reports that about 43% of all marriages are remarriages for at least one of the adults, and of these, about 65% involve children from a prior marriage.

Asset Protection - Why Do You Need It

With your growing financial portfolio and asset, it is imperative that you take steps to protect your assets. A practical solution for creating an additional umbrella of security for your family is to take advantage of asset protection that minimize the risk of losing your assets or being taxed heavily.

Durable Powers of Attorney

One of our greatest frustrations as elder law attorneys is not being able to help families implement strategies that would qualify their loved one for Medicaid and protect family assets because a power of attorney is insufficient to allow us to do what we need to do. Therefore, we thought it would be beneficial to address durable powers of attorney in this issue.

Sometimes a Conservator can be a Good Thing!

The thought of having a conservator appointed for a parent or relative - even a friend or neighbor - is something we all seem to loath. It has all sorts of negative connotations, including the fact that a conserved individual will be paraded through the probate courts with psychiatric and medical evaluations open for all to see. But, most of all, it's the loss of dignity that results when the state declares an individual incapable - and takes away his or her right to vote, or marry, or divorce, or write a check, or pay a bill, or make any other meaningful decisions. It's a position that no one wants to come to in this life.

Beneficiary Controlled Trust Fact Sheet

As middle class estates get larger, and the divorce rate grows, more and more financial planners are utilizing beneficiary controlled trusts to pass inheritance on to future generations without loss to the beneficiary's creditors, ex-spouses, or even the IRS.

Charitable Remainder Trusts: Preserving Your Estate

Charitable Remainder Trusts: Preserving Your Estate Financial and estate planning ensure that a person's assets and property will be put to the greatest use during life, and to the beneficiary's best use after death. Too bad that studies show that relatively few people actually adopt such a plan.

Probate and Probate Avoidance

When an individual dies in Florida or while owning real property in Florida, probate is the procedure used to transfer his or her assets to the proper heirs. The procedure can be time consuming and expensive. However, with proper planning, the entire procedure can mostly be avoided.

New Cyprus Residents - Make Sure You Know Who Will Inherit Your Estate

In an earlier article, author Michael Yates drew attention to the need to review assets and the manner in which they are held in order to escape liability to inheritance tax in the United Kingdom. The key lies in domicile, even more so after the British Government's decision to tax the most basic of estate planning arrangements. So what is domicile?

Estate Planning - Undue Influence

Over views common means of contesting a will such as undue influence, lack of capacity, psychological domination and/or degenerated mental state.

Planning for the Intangibles

Over views questions surrounding intangible digital assets as a relative consideration to ones estate planning needs.

Estate Planning - Considering a Second Marriage Late in Life

Over views estate considerations that should be accommodated as widows and widowers (with their longer life spans) increasingly meet and decide upon a second marriage. Addresses for consideration a set of unique legal questions that those getting remarried, do not often think through.

Estate Planning – Protecting Your Will's Integrity

Over views modern day techniques (evidence) one can present to the courts that uphold the decisions the testator dictates in their written last will and testament.

Estate Planning - The Life Estate

Over views why the life estate is falling out of use but why it is still relevant for an estate planner.

Private Trust Companies

Private Trust Companies have gained in popularity in recent years. They provide a means by which a settlor can retain a greater degree of control over his trust affairs, without compromising the validity of the trust structure. A Private Trust Company offers both convenience and flexibility and enhanced protection for fiduciaries.