UNIFORMITY OF LAWS Many laws across the country are the result of non-profit civic minded legal entities. The American Legal Institute is perhaps the most well known of these groups. Not all laws are “laws” in the traditional sense. Some are written by these legal entities and the various states…
CLOSING PERCEIVED LOOPHOLE Congress created the generation skipping tax almost 40 years ago in 1976 and ushered in an age of increasing complexity for the tax code, always complicated and cumbersome, to fix a problem perceived at the time (and since) of avoiding taxable events by transferring assets to “several…
GOOD FOR CERTAIN SUBSET OF POPULATION A health savings account is another way to save your money, tax free, for an inevitable expense that everyone will have to face and deal with eventually. Unfortunately one of the variables of retirement is that you will never know how much you will…
ROBIN WILLIAMS UNIQUE ESTATE PLANNING GENIUS This blog discussed some of the aspects of Robin Williams estate in the past. Mr. Williams will be remembered for a long time due to his many accomplishments, with a long, funny, inciteful and compassionate comedic wit. While it seems fairly certain that Mr.…
DISTANCE AND PROFESSIONALISM The New York Times ran an article on December 23, 2015 discussing the distance that the average American lives from their mother. As revealed in longitudinal study published in 2010, half of Americans live 18 miles or less from their their mother. As shown in the graph…
ROTH IRA ACCOUNTS ARE FUNDAMENTALLY DIFFERENT This blog explored the topic of inheriting an individual retirement account (IRA) in a previous blog. It is necessary to explore the topic of inheriting a Roth IRA, as a Roth IRA is fundamentally different from a traditional IRA. Some of the differences between…
CREATE A GLOBAL PLAN TO GO INTO EFFECT TODAY If you are a parent, stepparent, grandparent or caretaker of a special needs child you need to prepare for the day when you are no longer able to physically and financially care for your special needs loved one. While it is…
STILL TAXABLE Death and taxes, the old saying goes, are the only two things in life that are guaranteed. Taxes unlike passing away, can at least be deferred, mitigated and reduced. If your total estate is less than $5.45 million (2016), it is logical to believe that an individual retirement…
TRUST SETTLOR GIVES UP CONTROL When a settlor creates a trust, he/she passes title of the property or asset to the trust or gives cash money to the trust, wherein the trustee invests the money as a fiduciary or manages the asset or asset in issue for the best interest…
DAVID BOWIE BONDS As the world learned, David Bowie passed away on January 10, 2016. Mr. Bowie was always on the leading edge of creativity, an advocate for meaningful social change and a musical genius to boot. He started his musical career at the same time as the Beatles,…