Recent Blog Posts
Do You Have To Pay A Deceased Family Member’s Debts?
The short answer is no, you do not have to pay the debts that a family member of yours owed when he or she died, but if it were that simple, then why do deceased people’s creditors pursue the decedents’ relatives so relentlessly? Sometimes it is because the creditors are so used to getting… Read More »
3 Unexpected Hassles Of Retiring In Florida And How To Cope With Them
Retiring to Florida sounds like a dream come true if you have only visited the Sunshine State briefly. If you are sitting in traffic in your salt-spattered car, the sky already dark on your afternoon commute, you probably dream of the colorful Florida sunsets and year-round weather. For all of Florida’s charm, there is… Read More »
Withdrawing Money From Your Retirement Account Before You Retire Isn’t Such A Bad Idea If You Are Using The Money To Pay For Long-Term Care Insurance
Millions of Americans look toward retirement with trepidation. They have no retirement savings and no long-term care insurance, and if they are close to retirement age, it is probably too late to get them. The most likely scenario for retirement is that they will live a meager existence on their Social Security income. If… Read More »
The Plight Of Florida’s Super Agers
Perhaps you have heard teens bicker with each other flirtatiously, and you have made the remark that they sound like an old married couple. When you were young, before there was reality TV or an endless stream of rage bait accessible from your smartphone, you might have read letters to Dear Abby from women… Read More »
3 Reasons That Seniors Should Declutter This Spring
For the past few years, the Internet has been raving about Swedish death cleaning, but you are old enough to see through the hype. First, you have no use for Internet fads, not when you still have a vast collection of vinyl records and a phonograph to play them, and you can text a… Read More »
If You Are Going To Disinherit Your Children, Do It The Right Way
If you disinherit your children, you are not the first person who has ever done so. There are right ways and wrong ways to disinherit your children. First, make a firm decision about whether you want your children to inherit from your estate. If the answer is “no,” then make your will unambiguous about… Read More »
Can a Letter Of Wishes Turn Wishful Thinking Into Reality?
In the course of making your estate plan, you will probably have conversations with your estate planning lawyer about the messages you wish to communicate to your family at the end of your life or after you are gone. The provisions of your will are an appropriate place to do this only insofar as… Read More »
Estate Planning Is Love, Especially For Unmarried Couples
For decades, journalists and podcasters have been talking about the various love languages, ever since a popular book identified five of them. Some people show that they care through affectionate words and others show their love through cuddles and the like. By this logic, there is a love language called “acts of service,” and… Read More »
Can You Sell Your House If It Legally Belongs To Your Irrevocable Trust?
Protecting your assets from creditor claims from Medicaid during probate is one of the most common and most practical reasons to establish a trust. If you have missed the boat on eligibility for long-term care insurance, then unless you are fabulously wealthy, there is a strong possibility that, one day, you will need to… Read More »
The Self-Consciously Incomplete Estate Plan
The scariest thing about estate planning is that death is forever. How do you make financial plans for all eternity, especially when you will not be around to implement them? It sounds like a thought experiment, the only logical conclusion to which is resignation, like the anticlimactic ending of the Gilgamesh epic, where the… Read More »