You're Never Too Young To Plan For younger individuals, the topic of estate planning is very low on their priority list. After all, if your young...
Eldercare Lawyer Blog
Per Stripes: Understanding Inheritance by Class
PER STIPRES, PER CAPITA, JUST TELL ME HOW MUCH I GET "My mother's Will left her estate to the children, `per stirpes,'" says the woman who has come...
New Tax Law
NEW TAX LAW The Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (the "Act") is law. The estate tax will be repealed, maybe. Under the Act,...
New Jersey Estate Tax Revisited
NEW JERSEY'S DEATH TAX: WHAT ARE MY OPTIONS? In a recent column, I discussed the fact that the state of New Jersey enacted a new law that modified...
New IRA Rules
THE IRS HAS SIMPLIFIED RETIREMENT Allowing a person to leave their money in a retirement account, such as an individual retirement account (IRA), is...
More on the Right to Die: Legal Updates
THE RIGHT TO DIE The battle in Florida continues to rage over whether or not Terry Schiavo should be removed from a feeding tube. Terry Schiavo is...
Living Wills Don’t Work
LIVING WILLS DON'T WORK A new study reveals that living wills don't work. For most people, this may come as a surprise, since the concept of a...
Living Trusts Are Complicated
CHANGING THE TERMS OF A LIVING TRUST I've written about revocable living trusts before. As you might remember, I'm not really a fan of living...
Living Trust
DO I NEED A LIVING TRUST? In most, if not all, of the estate planning seminars I present, someone asks about Living Trusts. It seems as if everyone...
The Joys of Having a Will
THE JOYS OF HAVING A WILL Wills get a bad rap. In the first place, Wills are associated with dying, and nobody wants to think about that. Secondly,...
Why Adding Someone to Your Bank Account Isn’t Always a Simple Fix
THE BEST MADE PLANS ... "My mother recently passed away, and my sister says she is keeping all of the money that my mother had at the bank," says...
Joint Account Dangers
PUTTING YOURSELF IN HARM'S WAY "Isn't it true that you don't need a power of attorney if you have one of your children's names on your accounts?"...
I Want to Discuss Elder Law
I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT ELDER LAW "I wanted to meet with Mr. Callinan to discuss elder law," said the voice on the other end of the phone. My law clerk...
I Don’t Want a Will — Do I Really Need One?
I DON'T WANT A WILL The other day, I was presenting a seminar to a local group of seniors. I was talking on the subject of estate administration, or...
Hippa Regulations
HEALTH CARE PRIVACY Has someone you known ever been a patient at a hospital? Typically, friends and family will call the hospital and ask if the...
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Recent Posts
Making the Tough Decision About a Loved One’s Care
Few moments are harder for families than realizing a loved one may no longer be able to live safely or manage things on their own. The conversations can be uncomfortable, and the decisions can feel overwhelming. But avoiding the issue usually makes things harder...
Activating Your Estate Plan
A core piece of advice that I give to almost all of my clients is to have their basic estate planning documents—a last will and testament, a financial power of attorney, and an advanced health care directive—in place. After clients sign these documents, they often...
Medicaid Handlers Aren’t There To Help You
In the past five years, I have seen a dramatic increase in the number of non-attorney Medicaid Application Handlers (“Handlers”). As the name states, the Handlers are not attorneys and cannot provide any form of legal advice without committing a crime—the...
What Is a Spendthrift Trust?
What is a “spendthrift trust”? It’s a question I hear frequently from my clients. I find that more and more clients are interested in having trusts as part of their estate plans. Today, I want to explain some of the basic concepts surrounding trusts and, in...
Can I Get a Step-up?
Recently, a financial planner asked me if I thought the federal government was going to eliminate the “step-up” in basis for assets of an estate. I thought it was a distinct possibility. Currently, when an individual dies owning certain assets, those assets receive a...
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Sea Girt (732) 974-8898 Middletown (732) 706-8008