If you have created a health care power of attorney or a health care proxy, taking the time to decide on a responsible agent may require you to look beyond your spouse or close family members. A good health care agent is someone who has particular traits that not everyone possesses. Here are three traits you want your agent to have. The ability to make levelheaded decisions. If it ever falls to your health care agent to make medical decisions on your behalf, that agent will likely have to … [Read more...] about Look Beyond Family When Choosing a Health Care Agent
Estate Planning
How Does a Power of Attorney End?
When you create a power of attorney, you give someone else the ability to make your decisions for you. Whether you’re giving limited power of attorney or general power of attorney, it’s important for you to understand how and when these powers end. Incapacitation A power of attorney is a document that allows you to delegate your legal authority from you (the principal) to your agent, also known as an attorney in fact. In order to make a power of attorney, you have to be mentally sound and … [Read more...] about How Does a Power of Attorney End?
Widow Can’t Access Deceased Husband’s Savings Account
A story out of Jacksonville, Florida highlights some of the problems that can occur if you don’t take the time to adequately address estate planning issues. Julia Bolena, a widow who would have been married to her husband for 53 years, recently tried to access her deceased husband’s Wells Fargo savings account. Even though she and her husband had been married for half a century and she was listed as a joint account holder on her deceased husband’s checking account, the bank prevented her from … [Read more...] about Widow Can’t Access Deceased Husband’s Savings Account
What is Elder Law? 3 Essential Issues
As we get older, not only do our needs and desires change, but so do the laws that affect us. The term “elder law” refers to the legal issues that elderly people most commonly have to deal with. While not all elderly people will have to deal with all elder law issues, here are three essential elder law topics that you should be aware of. Incapacity Planning Our bodies break down over time, and even the healthiest of us can fall victim to a sudden injury or illness that leaves us unable to … [Read more...] about What is Elder Law? 3 Essential Issues
The Orphaned Estate of Roman Blum
One of the benefits of creating an estate plan is that you get to determine who inherits your property after you die. If you don’t take this step your property might, like that of New York real estate developer Roman Blum, be inherited by your state. In Mr. Blum’s case, it appears as if the man’s entire $40 million estate is going to be inherited by his home state of New York. Roman Blum died in 2012 at the age of 97. He and his wife, who died in 1992, left behind no children or any … [Read more...] about The Orphaned Estate of Roman Blum
Living Gift Strategies: 3 Tips
Many estate planning attorneys will tell you that one of the most underutilized estate planning tools available to a lot of people is the giving away of lifetime gifts. Like inheritances, giving lifetime gifts is subject to key tax provisions that, once you understand, you can devise a plan to take advantage of. If you haven’t already talked to your attorney about developing a gift strategy you should do so soon, but here are three tips you’ll want to keep in mind. Tip 1: Understand your … [Read more...] about Living Gift Strategies: 3 Tips
2013: The Time Has Come to Review Your Estate Plan
While there are many people who have taken the time to create an estate plan and devote time every year to keeping it current, others are not so conscientious. Some people created their estate plan years ago and have not taken any time to review it since. While reviewing your plan usually isn’t on the top of your year’s to-do list, if you haven’t updated it recently you will want to do so as soon as possible. If you don’t remember, the early part of 2013 saw some fairly important changes in … [Read more...] about 2013: The Time Has Come to Review Your Estate Plan
50s and 60s Icon Annette Funicello Dead at 70
If you grew up in the United States during the 50s and 60s, especially if you were an adolescent boy, the name Annette Funicello conjures up immediate images of a fresh-faced, lively girl who appeared on your television set every weekday as one of the original members of the Mickey Mouse Club. Ms. Funicello, after spending the last several decades suffering from multiple sclerosis, passed away in on April 8 at the age of 70. When she joined the Mickey Mouse Club in the 1950s she was only 12 … [Read more...] about 50s and 60s Icon Annette Funicello Dead at 70
Three Things You Should Know About Long-term Care Insurance
Obtaining and maintaining long-term care insurance is an expensive undertaking, so be sure you gather as much information as possible before you commit to a plan. The following paragraphs contain three things that you should know about long-term care insurance. First, while purchasing this insurance is not right for everyone, you should know how your care will be paid for if you forgo purchasing insurance but wind up needing long-term care. If this occurs, you will be paying for your care out … [Read more...] about Three Things You Should Know About Long-term Care Insurance
Life Insurance and Estate Planning
Life insurance has many varieties of policies, and each variety has its pros and cons. This flexibility makes life insurance an ideal form of estate planning. Some of the different varieties and uses of life insurance are: 1) Term life insurance is a short-term policy, generally 5 to 10 years. Term life insurance offers a low monthly premium, although it does not accumulate a cash value, even though the premiums typically increase each year. 2) Whole life insurance has a death benefit for the … [Read more...] about Life Insurance and Estate Planning
