Steve will teach a one hour Continuing Education class to CPAs, Accountants, Financial Advisors, and Insurance Professionals on needed uses of Life Insurance in Estate Planning that are often overlooked. This one hour class will offered at One North Pack Square, the Biltmore Building, Asheville, N.C., at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, September 26, 2012. Contact... [Read More]
Tag: estate planning
Regardless of the Election
Regardless of the outcome the federal and state elections, Probate Court Costs in North Carolina can be up to $6,000.00 per person or $12,000.00 per couple. Administrative costs, much of that including attorney’s fees, will still average 5% to 7% of your assets that move through Probate Court. The average time to move through Probate... [Read More]
What About the Election?
The outcome of the Presidential Election is unlikely to resolve the Tax Code in 2013. As most people know, the Bush Tax Cuts of 2001 are set to expire on January 1, 2013. It has been long anticipated that there would be a one year extension of those tax cuts. The Republicans in the House... [Read More]
You Have to Tell the Truth
An experienced, relationship based Estate Planning Lawyer needs to know the truth before they can do good Estate Planning for you and your loved ones. That skilled, relational Estate Planning Lawyer needs to be able to know and understand you and your loved ones’ strengths and weaknesses, goals and concerns, and the real truth about... [Read More]
You Have to Know the Truth
If you do not know and understand the truth about how different estate planning vehicles work and are administered, you cannot make good, informed decisions on what you want. If you do not understand that certain estate planning vehicles push your assets through Probate Court, the result will not be what you or your loved... [Read More]
Have an Experienced Estate Planning Lawyer Do Your Estate Plan
Beastie Boys musician Adam Yauch recently passed on. He added handwritten language to his Will in an attempt to limit the use and sale of his image or music for advertising and commercial purposes. This was not done properly by an experienced estate planning attorney, but was only a handwritten addition on the Will document itself... [Read More]
Keep Your Estate Plan Current!
Thomas Kincaid, famous for being the “Painter of Light”, recently passed on. He had been separated from his wife for two years and his divorce case had not been settled. Mr. Kincaid had a girlfriend that he had lived with for eighteen (18) months who he reportedly planned to marry when his divorce was final. ... [Read More]
Access to Aged Parents
Sometimes there will be friction between adult children or step parents and an aged child which will preclude access to an adult child’s parent, especially if that adult parent is in a weakened condition mentally or physically. I had a friend call me recently where the octogenarian “wicked step mother” was limiting this middle aged... [Read More]
Don’t Wait to Do Estate Planning
Some people are waiting for the Estate Code to settle. The Bush Tax Cuts of May 2001 expire January 1, 2013. At that time, the Estate Tax exemption goes back down to roughly $1 million. Therefore, any assets you own valued at more than $1 million could be subject to federal and state Estate Tax... [Read More]
Taxes Increased Under Obamacare for Investors
Forgotten in the most of the political back and forth over Obamacare, President Obama’s health care law that was passed during his first two years in office while his party held both the White House and both Houses of Congress, was that there is a tax inside that bill. Most of the news has been... [Read More]