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If you are considering making a significant charitable donation, making a direct gift of appreciated stock or mutual fund shares may be a great way to avoid capital gains taxes, maximize your charitable giving income tax deduction, and maximize the value of your...

While different people have different preferences, there are a number of factors that affect a person’s quality of life as they get older whether they live at home, with younger relatives, or in a care facility. Perhaps the most important factor that improves a...

While the idea of do-it-yourself estate planning may be tempting, the risks of things going wrong more than outweigh any potential savings. What may seem like a reasonable estate plan at the present moment may end up becoming unreasonable over time. If a person...

One modern aspect of estate planning that can get overlooked is what happens to a person’s online accounts after they die. If left unmentioned in your estate planning documents, a person’s executor, spouse, or other beneficiary may be unable to access a decedent’s...

Social Security presents people with a choice as to when to take Social Security retirement benefits. People can elect to take retirement benefits as early as 62 years old, at full retirement age, or as late as 70. The drawback to taking retirement benefits as early...

The recent deaths of Carrie Fisher at the age of 60 and George Michael at the age of 53 are a reminders that death or incapacity does not necessarily wait until old age to strike. If even wealthy, well-connected individuals still seemingly in the midst of productive...

When planning for the support of children with disabilities a living, or stand-alone, special needs trust can be an important tool. On a basic level, a special needs trust is a trust designed to receive and hold assets while still allowing the trust beneficiary to...

The accumulation of a lifetime’s savings, increased likelihood of diminished mental capacity, and an increased physical dependence on others make the elderly popular targets for financial exploitation. This post will discuss some of the signs that an elderly loved one...

Included in the 21st Century Cures Act, the legislation known as the Special Needs Trust Fairness Act was signed into law earlier this month. In short, a Special Needs Trust can now be established by a disabled person directly. A Special Needs Trust is a specific type...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) had issued a new regulation that would have effectively banned mandatory arbitration clauses in nursing home admissions contracts. A previous blog post discussed some of the problems with forced arbitration in...