May 11
According to a 2007 survey of adult residents of the U.S. found that 55% don’t have a will. Fifty-two percent of Anglos have wills, compared to only 32% of blacks and 26% of Hispanics. Forty-one percent of people have living wills, up from 31% in 2004, and 38% have designated someone as a health care […]
May 8
With all the talk about GM, Chrysler and other huge American icons filing bankruptcy, the question arises, what happens to my stock in these companies if they file? The answer, in most cases, is the stock becomes worthless. Stockholders are owners of the company. As such, they come last when a company is liquidated. Creditors […]
Apr 11
Most of the time estate planning is boring and dull. But occasionally there is high drama. Take the case of Brooke Astor, matriarch of New York’s high society and heir to the Astor name. Before she died at age 105 in 2007, Mrs. Astor changed her will to benefit her son, Anthony Marshall and her […]
Mar 24
We’ve only had the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) for three and one-half years, since fall, 2005, and already Congress is starting to think about tinkering with it. As well they should. It should never have been enacted in the first place. BAPCPA (fondly known as Bappa-Crappa) took nearly eight years to […]
Mar 4
We got a first look at President Obama’s proposed budget this past weekend. There are good and bad things in it. And a couple of really bad things. An earlier post questioned what would happen with the estate tax, assuming it was retained and didn’t expire as the Bush Administration had proposed. As expected, the […]
Feb 20
There’s a sense of inevitability that Congress will amend the Bankruptcy Code to allow judges to modify home mortgages. Currently, in a Chapter 13, all a debtor can do is catch up on his or her back payments. In the meantime, he has to keep his ongoing payments current. Under proposals in both theHouse and […]
Feb 10
Today it’s time for a change in topics. With the economy the way it is, bankruptcies are soaring in the United States. So we’ll look at the different types of bankruptcy relief. There are two types of bankruptcies avaialbe for individuals. The first is Chapter 7. This is also called a straight bankruptcy. In a […]
Jan 16
Starbucks has announced that it is no longer matching employee contributions to their 401k plan. Fed Ex and Motorola have said they’ll do the same. Smaller companies have or will follow suit. The reason, of course, is the economy. Employers are no different from individuals; in lean times they have to cut costs and cutting […]
Jan 13
President-elect Barack Obama announced recently that he intends to continue the estate tax (dubbed the “Death Tax” by opponents) instead of letting it expire in 2010 as originally planned by the new Bush administration in 2001. Under the current provisions of the estate tax, estates over $3.5 million are taxed at 45%. Estates under $3.5 […]
Dec 6
What is Elder Law and how does it differ from estate planning? Elder law is a field of law that deals with legal issues unique to the elderly, such as Medicare and Medicaid, powers of attorney, living wills, medical directives and “end of life” issues that no one wants to talk about. It can include […]
