Avoiding bushwhacks includes avoiding probate court. I know I am repeating myself here, but this is a common area of misconception. The downsides of probate court are numerous. The attorney fees, which they often refer to as ‘administrative expenses’, can be 5-7% of the value of your probate estate. For example, if you have One... [Read More]
Category: Estate Taxes
The Family Business – Statistics, Structure and Unique Estate Planning Issues
This blog follows up our last blog regarding families and their transitions of assets and businesses. Sometimes those families are famously like the J. Paul Getty family or the Biltmore Estate Cecil family. Sometimes it is the family down the street with the dry cleaning store on the corner. In this blog we explore how... [Read More]
Succession: Getty and the Biltmore Estate
Estate planning often involves business succession planning as well. Parents create a business that grows over time, employs many people and becomes part of the local culture and in some cases, expands into the region or country or even worldwide. While we often think of the personal inheritances and personal assets in estate planning, when... [Read More]
How to be Reactively Proactive in the New Year
For many of us our New Year’s Resolutions include Getting Organized. We have a tendency over time to become reactive, as opposed to being reactively proactive. We often have a tendency to be like a rudderless ship at sea bouncing around as opposed to deciding which actions we want to take to make ourselves better... [Read More]
Estate Planning is NOT about taxes, laws or assets: it’s about You
What is Estate Planning? Surprise! Estate Planning is not taxes, laws or assets although these are the subjects you hear about the most. Yes, it’s governed by state and federal laws and yes, we lawyers talk a lot about what to do to make sure your loved ones receive what you intended and yes, it’s... [Read More]
I Don’t Want To Be A Burden
“I don’t want to be a burden” is a phrase I often hear from my Estate Planning clients. They don’t want to be a burden to their family or loved ones. They have seen how other seniors, whether they are friends or family, have been burdens to other family members who have taken on the... [Read More]
The 100th Year Anniversary of Federal Estate Tax
September 8, 2016 will mark the 100th anniversary of the Federal Estate Tax. The Federal Tax taxes your assets when you pass on and they move from one generation to the next. There is no tax under the exemption amount, but once you get above that amount, there is a Federal Estate Tax. In the... [Read More]
Estate Planning With A Volatile Market
Volatile swings in the Stock Market have a tendency to freeze many of us. There is a sense of a lack of control, concern for the future, and for some – outright fear. We know historically that the Stock Market moves up and down and that when it is down it is a good time... [Read More]
What We Really Fear in Our Estate Plan
Many clients come into the office concerned more about the delay, costs and publicity of Probate Court, or potential tax issues. But as they start to open up about their real concerns about leaving inheritance, the concerns are about what if they become mentally disabled? What if their spouse remarries – will their assets go... [Read More]
Tom Benson Declared Competent
A Court in Louisiana declared 87-year-old billionaire Tom Benson (owner of NFL Saints and NBA Pelicans Professional Sports Teams), mentally competent. As discussed in my blog of June 8, 2015, titled “Saints Owner Tom Benson Completes the First Week of Competency Trial” that issue was being litigated. The Court ruling allows Mr. Benson to continue... [Read More]