Year: 2014
Bill and Hillary Clinton are making headlines for their use of the qualified personal residence trust or QPRT — lovingly pronounced “kew-pert” by tax geeks — to save on estate and gift taxes. According to Bloomberg News, the Clintons drafted two (Qualified Personal Residence Trusts) QPRTs in 2010, divided the ownership of their Chappaqua, N.Y. home into […]
All sorts of things can change over the course of our lives—and some of those changes may affect existing estate plans. Experts recommend that you review your estate plan every few years to confirm whether it needs updating. Things change over time. New tax laws, more grandchildren, an aging estate executor … the list goes […]
New studies are providing more current cost estimates. “What we found was shocking,” Mandell said. “This is a huge hit on families.” The costs to care for a child with special needs is on the rise, as reported in a new study in the medical journal JAMA Pediatric. The study found that the total lifetime […]
Passing down your home is so much more than just a transaction. It’s a delicate process that affects your entire family—and with good reason. The timing of creating an estate plan doesn’t necessarily coincide with a certain age. As pointed out in a recent Forbes article, titled “Passing Down Your Home? 3 Steps To Creating A […]
“It takes money to make money.” What drives long-term investments to succeed? We all know the saying “It takes money to make money,” but how exactly does it work? Here are three ways your investments can grow. Dividends. According to a recent Forbes article, titled “Essentials of Powerful Long-Term Investing“, owning stock can often mean […]
All too often, people go to great pains to write a will and put other estate-planning documents in place, only to have a court invalidate them. Are you sure your will can hold up in court? Review these three points to make sure your will is ironclad in the eyes of a judge. You Must […]
When it comes to retirement investing, the dangerous moving part is — you. According to a recent Forbes article titled “Avoid This Common And Dangerous Retirement Blunder“, when the retirement account balance hits a large figure like $100,000, people begin to think about borrowing against their 401(k) for a new car or a vacation. That […]
Recently, we were forced to watch a painful family feud play out in the media over how Casey Kasem should be cared for in his final days. This type of internal family strife is not uncommon even among non-celebrity blended families who may not have considered the consequences of naming one child, a new spouse […]
In a unanimous ruling written by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court said inherited IRA money not received from a spouse isn’t protected in bankruptcy proceedings. The Supreme Court ruling applies to inherited IRAs but not to other types of retirement accounts. It also clarified instructions in the Bankruptcy Code, as millions of baby boomers begin […]
Recently rock legend Sting made headlines when he declared that his six children would be receiving little to none of his estimated $300 million fortune. Financial Planner Kevin McKinley argues that there are ways to give your children money without you having to worry about them becoming trust-fund brats. Sting’s motive for not leaving an […]
