Anticipating the future: that’s what estate planning lawyers try to do. We want to get our clients’ wishes down on paper. That means we have to help them imagine all sorts of possible developments. Will tax rules change before your death? Likely, yes. But in what ways? And when will you die, anyway? How about…
People may believe estate planning should be a once-and-done affair. But things tend to change over time, and estate plans may need to change, too. Even plans that say they are irrevocable are never totally irrevocable. Change is the norm these days. The just-passed SECURE Act brought a slew of changes and new strategies to…
Late in December Congress adopted its 2020 budget. The law goes by the poetic name the “Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020“. We’ve already told you about the SECURE Act, part of the budget law. But there’s more in this complicated law. For our practices, it’s particularly important to know about the relationship between the budget…
At the end of each month, we like to take stock of elder law news and share new or interesting developments. For the December round-up, we’ve decided to do something a little different: round up the lessons we’ve learned over the past year, inspired by our own practice, cases we’ve read about, and even rumors…
Congress passed the SECURE Act last week, as part of a larger spending bill. It will become effective on January 1, 2020. You might not have read very much about it, or know how it affects you. Maybe we can help. SECURE stands for “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement.” That might have been…
“We are leaving Granada on Tuesday, and I cannot fight the feeling of flowing like a river” sings Ryan Gabrinetti in the little-known tune “Leaving Granada.” You may not be familiar with his group, Reflective Detectives. But we were drawn to the song as we contemplate, well, leaving Granada. Fleming & Curti, PLC, has operated…
Say you’ve had a really good year financially and want to share it with loved ones for the holidays. How wonderful! Many people don’t realize that gifting can affect them long after the property has been given away or that they can have some say in how that gift is used by the recipient. So…
This week we looked for cases (and stories) illustrating important principles from probate court. We found a surprising batch of cases, and wanted to share them all. Hence this probate potpourri. We have four cases (from California, Louisiana, Maine, and New York) to share with you. California: “right of survivorship” may not mean what it…
It may seem too early for the November roundup of elder law news items. But December is less than a week away, so it’s time. This month, in our survey of the elder law landscape, we stumbled upon a real-life circumstance that illustrates the conundrum that divorce sometimes creates for divorcing couples. Plus: tax updates,…
We sometimes meet with grandparents who are worried about their child’s ability to raise their grandchildren. Sometimes the grandparents are in a child custody fight. Most often they are genuinely concerned about real shortcomings. Occasionally their complaint is really about access being cut off. But last week we read a story about a grandmother and…