A List of Bad Reasons to Put Off Estate Planning
My family and I don’t own much. Can’t we put off planning until we can afford it? You shouldn’t. It is crucial to give legal authority to a person of your choice, to care for your children if anything should happen to you. You don’t want your children to become wards of the court, […]
End of Life Planning to Convey Wishes
As lawyers, we prepare powers-of-attorney documents so that when our clients can no longer act for themselves, the documents will convey on other trusted people the authority to act on our clients’ behalf. But when it comes to actually using those documents at the time of a health-care crisis, clear and powerful documents are just […]
Essential Things to Understand About Estate Planning
Estate planning may sound like the domain of the very wealthy, however, in the eyes of the law, an estate is simply the aggregate of property an individual owns, and most everyone owns something. Property ownership includes individual as well as jointly owned bank accounts, stocks and bonds, retirement accounts, real estate, jewelry, vehicles, your […]
What It Means To Be a “Fiduciary”
One day, someone you love may ask you to be a power of attorney. Your person may be planning for when they might become unable to take care of their affairs. For example, they might become disabled or incapacitated, and they would need a trusted person to step in and manage for them. This is […]
What is a Statutory Gifts Rider & Why is it Needed?
The Statutory Gifts Rider or SGR, is a modification to a power of attorney that allows the agent to give gifts. Without the Statutory Gifts Rider the agent under a power of attorney is only allowed to give gifts totaling $500 for the year for personal and family maintenance. The Statutory Gifts Rider may be […]
What does the New York Jets all time sack leader have to do with Elder Law?
Recently Mark Gastineau, the New York Jets all time sack leader, told the public that he was diagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease. Alzheimer’s disease is an awful disease that affects the brain and destroys memories and other important mental functions. He may not be able to recall family members or how to […]
The Power of the Power of Attorney
A power of attorney is a very interesting and possibly powerful document. The document gives a person you choose, your agent, the power to act for you. The powers given to the agent can be incredibly broad or very specific. For instance, you can narrowly tailor an agent’s power to act only for real estate […]