Research the Archives

• February 2009:

  • Joint Tenancy Traps

  • JTWROS Alternatives

• March 2009:

  • Supplemental Needs

  • Securing Security

• April 2009:

  • Marital Matters

  • Non-Citizen Spouses

• May 2009:

  • Solo Solutions

  • Premarital Planning

• June 2009:

  • Estate Planning for Unmarried Couples

  • Estate Planning for Married Couples

• July 2009:

  • Elder Law Elements

  • Long-Term Care Insurance

• August 2009:

  • Unique Estate and Financial Challenges for Women
    Women face unique Life and Estate Planning Issues, and yet too often their own needs are overlooked. They are too busy taking care of everyone else -- their families, their careers, parents, social causes.

  • Daughter Syndrome
    On page three we examine the Daughter Syndrome. After a woman rears her children and cares for her parents, in-laws and husband … who is there for her? These days it is prudent to have a plan to care for the caregiver, given our mobile society.

• September 2009:

  • Estate Planning Challenges for Blended Families
    Is your family a blended family? If so, then you face unique inheritance challenges, to include disinheriting your ex-spouse, providing for your new spouse and your own children, and protecting their inheritance.

  • Estate Equalization
    Equalizing an estate among members of blended families is particularly challenging. Among the issues to be considered when doing estate equalization planning are how to avoid disinheriting your new spouse while still providing for any children from a prior marriage. Insurance premiums and legal fees are cheap compared to the costs of disinheritance.

• October 2009:

  • Admirable Estate Administration
    Have you appointed trusted family members, friends or professionals to serve as the fiduciaries of your estate plan upon your death? If so, our lead article is a must-read as we review some of the responsibilities (and liabilities) they will face.

  • Treasure Hunt: Asset Inventory
    Every youngster, at one time or another, dreams of going on a treasure hunt. However, the fiduciaries of your estate will not find inventorying your assets to be nearly as exciting. In this article we provide tips for making the job easier (and less expensive) for your trusted fiduciaries.

• November 2009:

  • Seasonal Solutions: The Stages of Life & Estate Planning
    To everything there is a season. So it is with your Life & Estate Plan. This article uses a Seasons of Life theme to illustrate how your Life & Estate Plan may change with your personal and financial circumstances over your lifetime.

  • The Three P's of Proper Estate Planning
    Here we review the process of organizing your legal affairs as they pertains to your estate planning documents. As you will see, it is simply a matter of identifying your Three P’s and properly implementing your estate plans.

• December 2009:

  • Procrastination & Estate Planning
    Why doesn’t everyone have their final affairs in order, especially in light of the likelihood of incapacity and the certainty of death? This article takes aim at the chief culprit: procrastination.

  • Finding Fiduciaries
    In this article we consider the critical process of selecting and appointing appropriate fiduciaries to handle your financial affairs when you cannot. In fact, this is one of the first (and most important) planning decisions you must make.

• January 2010

  • Business Owners Beware
    The survival rate of family businesses from generation to generation is rather dismal. To help prevent your business from becoming an unfortunate statistic tomorrow, we review some common challenges for you to address today (before it is too late).
  • Buy-Sell Financing
    One fundamental key to the survival of a family business is a properly funded Buy-Sell Agreement (BSA). In this article we consider three basic BSA flavors and the means available to finance their terms when triggered.