Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Planning For Memory Care
Memory impairment, whether due to Alzheimer’s disease or to other causes, is prevalent in older adults. It is painful to watch a family member grow increasingly forgetful, and perhaps have little memory of the experiences you have shared together; it is equally unsettling to imagine yourself in that situation. In fact, confronting the thought… Read More »
You Don’t Have To Be Dirt Poor To Qualify For Summary Administration
Conventional wisdom about estate planning holds that everyone who is able to avoid probate should do so, and that the easiest ways to accomplish this are by being very rich or very poor. If the former applies, then your estate still goes through the motions of probate, while most of your assets pass to… Read More »
Pets And Your Estate Plan
So many of your hopes and worries related to your estate plan have to do with providing for your children and grandchildren, or for seeing to the care of your surviving spouse and siblings in their old age. Meanwhile, your generosity toward family members, even while you are alive, is often met with ingratitude… Read More »
You Call That A Retirement Fund?
As the poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Elliot demonstrates in a most unnerving way, your worst enemy and the biggest obstacle to your happiness is indecision. If you read that poem in high school English class, as many members of Generation X did, you probably focused on Prufrock’s inability… Read More »
If Your Estate Plan Doesn’t Include A Power Of Attorney, It Needs One
Introducing the good enough estate plan. If you are old enough to be aware of your mortality, then you are old enough to put some instructions in writing about what should happen to your body, children, and property (no matter how meager that property might be) when you die. The rest can wait. If… Read More »
Protecting Yourself From Excessive Long-Term Care Expenses
Just as many couples promise, at their wedding ceremony, to care for each other in sickness and in health, you should design your estate plan so that it will take care of you in your old age, no matter your state of health. Estate planning involves hoping for the best but preparing for the… Read More »
Your Young Adult Relatives Need A Modest Cash Infusion Now More Than They Need A Big Inheritance Later
Even if you are so old that you do not know the difference between Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and Tik Tok, certainly you have heard that young people are anxious and pessimistic about their finances. Yes, you can dismiss the aspirations of those teenagers who aspire to be social media influencers the way that you… Read More »
Should You Give Your Spouse Life Estate In Your House?
You can’t choose your family, and in many families, certain people only tolerate each other for the sake of a close relative that they have in common. When that family member dies, the animosity that stayed barely hidden for all those years tends to come out. If there are any ambiguities or surprises in… Read More »
Estate Planning Is Less Difficult Than You Think
Getting started on your estate plan can be intimidating. These days, most people are having trouble finding encouragement about their financial situation, and when you search for advice about estate planning online, you tend to find the horror stories first. You read about bitter disputes among family members during probate and about creditors and… Read More »
Hybrid Life Insurance: The Best Of Both Worlds
Everything is so expensive these days that it is easy to lose sight of the things that are exceptionally expensive and always has been. Imagine that you are sitting at your local diner, which is packed with retirees, all of whom are grousing about how “egg-flation” has increased the price of the senior breakfast. … Read More »