Category: Estate Planning

The Frank Capra’s Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life was recently on tv as part of some sort of “Christmas in July” promotion, and I happened to catch the part where mean old Mr. Potter suggests that George Bailey is worth more dead than alive because all he has to his name is...

Anthony Bourdain’s suicide left many of us shaken to the core. It is shockingly sad that someone so gifted, who seemed to have such a thirst for life, would want to give his up. His estate plan reflects what we as a public knew about him, and is a perfect example of why...

There are a lot of strange things you will have to do when a loved one dies, and handing out copies of their death certificate is one of them. You may need around 20 copies of your loved one’s death certificate in order to settle his or her estate.A death certificate is a...

Do you ever walk into another room to get something, and suddenly forget what that something is? Do you get confused and irritable when you are tired? Did you understand all of the fine print in the last contract you signed? Depending on how you answer these questions, someone might challenge your mental...

A few years ago, a young man came to our office asking for some legal advice. He had received a letter in the mail from an attorney informing him that his half-brother had passed away. He had not spoken to his brother in many years, and their father had already passed away, so...

If you didn’t know better, you might think that Memorial Day is all about heading to the beach, eating hotdogs, and scoring a good deal on a new mattress. Advertisers have taken what was once an opportunity to remember our deceased soldiers and our relatives who passed before us, and turned it into...

Do you know how much money you will get from Social Security if you retire or become disabled in the near future? You could access that information in a matter of seconds if you had my Social Security account.My Social Security is an online portal the Social Security Administration (SSA) has...

Cryptocurrency and Estate PlanningBitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, Zcash, Dash, Ripple, Monero… these aren’t just a bunch of made-up words, they are the most popular forms of cryptocurrency. They are a making waves in the financial world and creating interesting challenges for estate planners.If you die with a shoebox of cash hidden...

There is an old Polish saying that roughly translates, “Not my circus, not my monkeys.” It is a reminder that one need not get involved with every messy situation one comes upon, and should not take responsibility for controlling or changing a volatile or delicate situation out of one’s sphere of influence. The phrase...

When you meet someone new, the conversation usually covers the same general topics: family and careers. We love bragging about our family as much as the next person. But when the conversation comes around to what we do for a living, we are much more cautious about sharing our passion. A lot of people...