February Review: Rich, Famous & Elder Law
It’s almost the end of February, which means it’s time for us to survey elder law news and share items we think are interesting or entertaining. This month, we’re struck by the number of developments involving the rich and famous, both living and gone. So that’s our focus for February. February’s Most Famous Faces For […]
Good Beneficiaries Keep Tabs on the Trustee
We hate to say it, but beneficiaries should never blindly trust their trustees. Good beneficiaries pay attention to the process. The trustee-beneficiary relationship works properly only if beneficiaries are engaged and looking out for themselves. Yes, the trustee legally owes duties to the beneficiaries a whole bunch of ways. But it’s the beneficiaries who must […]
January Review: Avoid Mistakes & Acquire a Talley?
It’s the end of the month. That’s when we like to survey the elder law landscape and share interesting or useful items that surfaced over the past few weeks. Here’s our January review: January’s Planning Tips Here are eight common estate planning mistakes from AARP. The most common errors we see out of those eight: […]
If You Help, Don’t Do It Like This
A recent case out of Maryland illustrates that helping an elderly parent can lead to criminal penalties and (gulp) jail time. Don’t help, at least not like Sharon Shivers did. As the Maryland Court of Appeals tells the story, Sharon and her dad, John, had a “somewhat strained” relationship for many years. John found out […]
Damar Hamlin Illustrates POA Importance
Football fans everywhere stood stunned last Monday night when Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field. He was resuscitated, then carted off to the hospital. He’s now recovering from the cardiac arrest, talking and breathing on his own. But for several days, he was sedated while his medical team assessed his condition. Hamlin’s […]
Top Ten Elder Law Lessons from 2022
At the end of each month, we take stock of elder law news and developments and share them. For the December review, we look less to outside news and commentary and instead think about what we (or others) have learned or wish we (or others) had learned before something unfortunate happened. Here are some lessons […]
Dead Celebs: Why Fight Over Who’s Executor?
It sure seems like families of dead celebrities fight a lot. And the battles are sometimes over not a lot. Like who should administer the dead celebs’ estate. Take rapper Takeoff and actress Anne Heche (who we’ve written about once or twice already).
November’s Elder Law Items of Interest
Turkey. Done. Pie. Done. Black Friday. Done. Next? December. But first, our review of elder law items of interest from November: Estate & Tax Planning The estate tax exemption will take a relatively big jump in 2023. It increases to $12.92 million per person from $12.06 million in 2022. That’s an extra $860,000 to plan […]
Estate Tax Revenue Jumps for 2021
Something surprising happened in 2021: Estate tax revenue increased. Though the estate tax exemption has never been higher, the amount collected almost doubled from 2020 to 2021, from $9.3 billion to $18.4 billion, recent IRS data indicates. Experts suspect it’s the combination of pandemic death rates and market gains in stocks and real estate. Some […]
Halloween Review: Scary? Not so Scary?
Boo. Here’s your Halloween edition of our monthly review of developments in elder law. Some are scary, but others not so much. The IRS: Not So Scary? We may another year to figure out RMDs from inherited IRAs. The SECURE Act changed the payout requirements for a decedent’s IRA, and many were surprised when the […]
