A guardian may charge fees for acting as guardian. That basic principle is not really surprising or disputable. But the notion persists that this important work should not cost, or at least be inexpensive. We have written about guardianship fees before. The subject comes back up because of a recent Florida Court of Appeals decision…
ELDER LAW ISSUES
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People close to a loved one facing death often look for help from an attorney after the loved one dies. Many estate planning attorneys provide checklists and write about what to do in such a time of overwhelming emotion and numbing grief. Contacting an attorney is low on the list. Many do not realize that…
It’s becoming a more common dispute: who gets to make the decision between burial or cremation? Can you direct your own preference in advance? What happens if there is no clear decision — who gets to decide for you? In Arizona, almost two-thirds of all funeral/burial arrangements involve cremation. That’s a higher rate than the…
That’s our new address: 1745 E. River Rd, Suite 101, Tucson, AZ 85718. We move in this month. We’re very excited. We’ve explained the upcoming move before. While we have been in the same location for over a quarter century, it’s time to move on. We need more space, and we want to be closer…
It’s the last Monday of the month, and that means it’s time for the January roundup of elder law news items. First of all, the SECURE Act was passed in late December, so the first few weeks of the year brought lots of discussion about it. We’ve rounded up some of the most interesting articles,…
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…