Estate planning involves many more details than most people realize at the start, and the process is unique because throughout your life most of the planning that you do is for your own benefit. However, when you are planning your estate, your efforts are largely for the benefit of your loved ones. The specific nature of your wishes does … [Read more...]
Long Term Care Costs Skyrocketing
As people continue to live longer lives and the capabilities of the medical industry expand, the need for careful long term planning becomes all the more important. Demographic statistics tell us that the segment of the population that is at least 85 years of age is growing faster than any other. If you retire at the typical age you now have … [Read more...]
How Gift Giving Fits Into Your Estate Plan
Many people are aware of the fact that the estate tax was repealed for 2010 but it is back in force in 2011, and this would not be big news if it just came back in the same form that is was in the last time we saw it. However, the exclusion amount is going way down, and this is going to result in many more estates being potentially subject to the … [Read more...]
Estate Planning As A Process
It is not uncommon for people to put off planning their estate for a couple of different reasons. For one, it seems like something that really isn't necessary until a point that is way off in the distant future. And for another, they may feel as though they don't have a clear picture of exactly what they are going to have at the end of their lives. … [Read more...]
Giving Back With Donor Advised Funds
Two of the wealthiest men in world, Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, recently issued a challenge to the nation's richest individual's asking each of them to give at least half of their wealth to charitable causes over a period of time. When you look at the size of the federal budget deficit, the rate of unemployment, and the rising poverty rate in … [Read more...]
Estate Tax Set To Return In 2011
Due to a provision in the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 there was no estate tax in 2010, and there are few of us that object to tax relief in any form. However, it does seem rather unfair that the estates of people who passed away during this one year escape a tax that everyone else has had to pay since the estate tax … [Read more...]
