Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Is Whole Life Insurance Worth The Price?
Even in your younger years, financially secure people would advise you not to be insurance poor. When you were first married or otherwise first old enough to base your financial decisions on your desire to provide for other people, you probably felt empowered when you bought a dirt-cheap term life insurance policy. It felt… Read More »
Back To School Estate Planning Goals For Parents
Kids are bummed out that summer vacation is ending. They want to squeeze in as many trips to the swimming pool and as many games of mini golf as they can before the school bus shows up. For parents, though, the new school year brings relief. There is more structure and less screen time,… Read More »
A Jointly Inherited House Can Cause Discord Between Siblings
Most people alive today have only heard the term “white elephant” in the phrase “white elephant sale,” where people buy donated used items to raise money for a charity. You might think, based on this, that a white elephant is something wondrous and rare that comes into your life serendipitously, such as a pair… Read More »
Be As Specific As Possible When Designating Beneficiaries In Your Estate Plan
Remember how surprised you were when you found out that your uncle’s name wasn’t Bubba, even though that was what everyone called him? For your entire life, his siblings, parents, and friends had only ever called him Bubba? Maybe he was filling out forms at a rental car office before you embarked on a… Read More »
Are You Prepared For The Costs Of Long-Term Care?
Estate planning is not just about budgeting for a cruise around a different body of water each year or about daydreaming about leaving your fortune to an animal rescue shelter so that it can pay for the care of adorable puppies and kitties. You must also prepare for the parts that are not fun…. Read More »
The Retirement Rumspringa
If you lived within commuting distance of Amish Country before retiring to Florida, perhaps you have heard the term “Rumspringa.” The term comes from a German word that means “to jump around,” and in some Amish communities, it refers to the period of young adulthood, between about the ages of 16 to 21, at… Read More »
Can You Get A New Mortgage Loan When You’re Retired?
So many aspects of the previous generation’s American Dream are out of reach for the members of Generation X, who are quickly approaching retirement age. In the old days, if you were financially stable, but not necessarily wealthy, then you could pay off your mortgage over 30 years and then spend your retirement living… Read More »
Types Of Special Needs Trusts
The past few years have made it abundantly clear that money and health are both scarce resources. You might think that you will never need a special needs trust, but this probably reflects a hubristic view of your own future or a narrow understanding of medical special needs and of trusts. Contrary to popular… Read More »
Not Everyone Needs A Trust, But Do You?
You come from a sufficiently privileged background that, when you transferred from private school to public school, your new classmates called you a trust fund baby, but you never thought much about what it meant. It was enough, though, to leave you with the impression that trust funds were something that only rich people… Read More »
Found Family As Beneficiaries Of Your Will
People tend to use terms like “work spouse” disparagingly, but in certain professions, the people you meet at work become like family to you. The inheritance laws of the United States make it such that the testator of a will can leave any portion of his or her estate to anyone he or she… Read More »