General Estate Planning

Collecting art or other valuable items can be a passion for many people. Often such a pastime is more about enjoying the art or the medium itself than about ensuring financial gain. However, once [...]

Unfortunately, not all families get along. If you are having problems with one of your children, you may not want them to benefit from your estate. There are several strategies for dealing with [...]

Understanding Season Tickets as Part of Estate Planning A few days before I sat down to write this month’s column, I was at dinner with my daughter and son-in-law, when the latter excitedly [...]

Not everyone wants to take the required minimum distributions from their retirement accounts right away. If you don’t want your distribution, one option is to donate it to charity and get a tax [...]

In most states, spouses can purchase and own property separately from one another. I’d like to think that when I buy a bag of Zapp’s Crawtators that they belong to me and only me, even if I bring [...]

Parents usually want to leave their children equal shares of their estate, but equal isn’t always fair. If you plan to provide more (or less) for one child in your estate plan, preparation is [...]

If you run a small business, you know that it can keep you up at night. Staffing, bookkeeping, inventory, customer relations and so much more are all things that may have your mind racing at a [...]

If your spouse dies, you may have to decide whether or when to sell your house. There are some tax considerations that go into that decision.  The biggest concern when selling property is capital [...]

If you are about to turn 70, congratulations on reaching a big milestone.  And if you also have delayed claiming Social Security retirement benefits up till now, you are joining a select group [...]

Many people believe that joint accounts are a good way to avoid probate and transfer money to loved ones.  But while joint accounts can be useful in certain circumstances, they can have dire [...]