Many people own property in more than one state, such as an ocean-side vacation home or a rental property in a former home state. It is important to think about how that property will be handled after you pass away. Through proper estate planning, you can help minimize the burdensome ...

Real estate can be owned in several different ways. The form of ownership, or how your property is titled, can determine how much control you have over it, how vulnerable your property is to creditor claims and lawsuits, and what will happen to it at your death. Individual Ownership One ...

Noncitizen spouses are treated differently than US citizen spouses for estate and gift tax purposes.[1] They do not get the unlimited marital deduction. Married US citizen spouses can generally transfer unlimited amounts of money between each other during life or upon death in various qualifying ways without any gift or ...

Many famous figures have argued that how a society treats its most vulnerable members is a measure of its humanity and moral character. As Mahatma Gandhi famously observed, a society is ultimately judged not by its wealth or power but by how it uplifts those who need help the most. ...

Disability is often treated as a remote possibility, something that happens to other people. Yet one of the most persistent blind spots in planning conversations is disability risk. Disability is not limited to conditions that we are born with. It can arise for anyone, at any age, across income levels, ...

Most of us have been on a plane and heard the preflight safety instructions that include some version of the oxygen mask principle: Secure your own mask before assisting others. Why do they emphasize this point? Because you cannot effectively help someone else if you are struggling to breathe. Millions ...

Experts warn of a growing national crisis unrelated to politics, the economy, or the usual headline grabbers. It is a caregiving crisis, and it now touches nearly one-fourth of American adults. That means that either you are already feeling the strain of caregiving, or there may come a day when ...

An 80-year-old widower relied on his adult daughter for help with his daily life and finances for more than a decade. During that time, she managed his finances under a valid financial power of attorney, handling savings, pension income, and proceeds from the sale of his home. What began as ...

Progressive Insurance recently rolled out a series of commercials featuring “backup” quarterbacks stepping in to handle everyday challenges, such as ordering food, giving advice, and even parking a trailer. After the “backup” salvages the situation, each commercial ends with the same line: “If only there were backups in real life.” ...

Well, that doesn’t seem right. It usually starts with something small. A strange email from a bank you do not recognize. A new credit card account you do not remember opening. A password reset link you never requested. A notice from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) that someone has already ...

In 2013, British IT worker James Howells accidentally threw away a hard drive while cleaning his house. Only later did he realize that it held the private key to 8,000 Bitcoin that are now worth hundreds of millions of dollars.[1] For more than a decade, he has tried unsuccessfully to ...

Today, so much of what once existed in material form now lives entirely online. Our photos, finances, business operations, and even our identities are stored on devices and platforms and in cloud accounts. Without proper planning, these valuable digital assets can easily be lost or become inaccessible after we die. ...

Each year, my first blog post focuses on updates to estate tax laws that take effect in the new year. Before diving into the details and numbers, I want to pause to wish everyone a happy new year and to express my sincere gratitude to my clients and centers of ...

Creating an estate plan is typically a private matter, not something you share in detail with everyone in your life. After all, what you choose to do with your money and property is your business. Your partner might know what is in your plan, especially if you created it together. ...

More couples than ever are building deep, lasting relationships without ever walking down the aisle. Whether by choice, circumstance, or principle, many Americans are opting out of marriage—but not out of commitment. Data indicate that cultural norms regarding marriage in the United States have undergone significant shifts over the past ...