NC and SC Estate Planning and Elder Law Firm

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 he wasn’t sure what he needed to do to claim the money he imagined was now going to inherit.

We made some calls and discovered that this young man was indeed his brother’s closest living heir. But it was not likely that he would inherit much, if anything, from his brother’s estate.

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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 the “unofficial start of summer.” This year, plan on setting aside some time to remember those who have passed away.

Memorial Day as we know it became popular after the Civil War. The families of fallen soldiers would come together on an afternoon in late spring to spruce up the cemetery after the winter months, and lay flowers on the graves.

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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 created which allows you to track your Social Security benefits in real time. It can be a big help to those who are doing retirement planning or

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Cryptocurrency and Estate Planning

Bitcoin, 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 in your closet, or with money in a traditional bank account, or owning a piece of property, how those assets will be treated is pretty straightforward.

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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 gets bandied about a lot in social media forums, where as you probably know, getting in a fight in the comment section does little to change the world, but can ruin your day. 

Recently, however, merchandise has been popping up online asking, “What if this is my circus? And those are my monkeys?” The first time we saw that, it really struck a chord with us because it reminded us that we are the people that others call for help when the tent is missing a pole and the monkeys are throwing poo. 

This is especially true in the

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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 are uncomfortable talking about...

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The Titanic didn’t have enough lifeboats for all its passengers because the ship was “unsinkable.” The Mars orbiter was lost because some engineers used the metric system while others used the English system. Decca Records turned down the Beatles because they weren't sellable. No mistake you make will ever be a bad as these historic disasters, but just to be on the safe side, check out this list of the four biggest...

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The odds are good that you have read the book or saw the movie adaptation of To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee’s coming-of-age classic has a perennial spot on summer reading lists, and in the hearts of many attorneys who view Atticus Finch as a fictional role model.

When a follow-up, Go Set a Watchman was published in 2015 after 55 years with no new writings from Lee, fans rejoiced. But the novel proved more controversial than satisfying. Perhaps most upsetting at first blush is the revelation that Atticus is a racist.
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When Mary’s parents passed away, Mary inherited the house she grew up in. And everything in it. Figuring out what to do with her family’s “treasures” was more work, and more rewarding, then she could ever have imagined. Assisting her with the task gave our firm a crash course on archiving with an eye toward Read more . . .

Planning for Long-Term Care Should Be Done A Long Time Before You Need It

52% of all adults over the age of 65 are projected to spend time in a nursing-home or need some other form of long-term care in their lifetime. We work with clients who want to proactively plan for the cost of long-term care without sacrificing their quality of life to pay for it.

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2017 was a big year in the art world. A Saudi prince bought Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi for $450 million. And a painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat, which was bought by a Japanese collector for over $110 million, bumped Andy Warhol from the top spot on the list of most expensive American artists. It will be hard for 2018 to top those eye-popping deals, but the year is young, so you never know! What we do know is that art collections need to be factored into estate plans if one wants to avoid making some big tax mistakes. When dealing with a valuable collection of anything, special estate planning tactics should be employed to ensure the collection ends up where the collector wants it to, and to minimize the collector’s estate tax bill.
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