According to a study conducted by Caring.com, the percentage of people aged fifty-five and older who have created a will has fallen from 60 percent to 44 percent since 2019.[1] Although creating or updating your estate planning may seem like a daunting task, a proper estate plan can help address the concerns you may face…
When your aging parent, or elderly loved one, is having difficulty paying their bills, or needs medical care they can’t afford, you probably want to pitch in and help. Doing so with your own pocketbook will mean less money available to pay your bills and save for your own retirement. You attempting to solve your…
What are advance directives and why should everyone have them? Advance directives allow you to plan for the possibility that you may one day be unable to make your own medical and financial decisions. In doing so, there can be confusion about the differences between the various advance directives. Among the most important…
A durable power of attorney is one of the most important estate planning documents you can create, but it is also one that can be misused. While it isn’t possible to entirely prevent the possibility of abuse, there are steps you can take in drafting the document to greatly reduce the chances. A power of…
The Tax Cut and Jobs Act (TCJA) is now officially law. Both the House and Senate passed the new tax reform bill in December with straight party-line votes and no support from Democrats. President Trump signed it into law right before Christmas. It is the first overhaul of the tax code in more than 30…
According to a March 2017 survey by Caring.com, six out of ten Americans have no will or any other kind of estate planning. Many said they’d get around to it, eventually. When they’re old. (The survey did find that the elderly are much more likely to have some plan in place.) It’s all too clear…
In my last post to this blog, I explained why it is so important to put in place a durable power of attorney. In this post, I want to emphasize why it is important to get that power of attorney in place before you need it. If you wait until you need it, you’ll be…
