Talking with aging parents about their finances, their wishes, and the future, is never an easy conversation. When it became clear that her mother was starting to suffer from memory loss, Gwen started to speak with her mother about finances, accounts and final wishes. While she felt uncomfortable pressing her own mother for information, in […]
A survey conducted by the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, National Council on Aging and UnitedHealthcare reveals a frightening statistic in the United States of Aging survey. 97% of professionals supporting people 60 and older believe that seniors will not be able to afford their health care costs as they age. Only 3% […]
Certain assets, including life insurance, IRAs, 401(k) plans and other retirement accounts pass directly to beneficiaries outside of your will. Typically, brokerage accounts pass only through your will, and then only after probate. But there is a way to ensure that brokerage accounts transfer at death to your beneficiaries. A recent item in Kiplinger’s, “How […]
Ensuring that your assets are passed on to heirs in a way that you wish is not always easy because of the many options available and the fact that the tax laws are always changing. While certain facts are relatively fixed – i.e., beneficiary designations on life insurance policies and retirement plans avoid having these […]
While some estate planning is better than none, most Americans don’t speak with their heirs about basic issues – like where the wills can be found – and most wills are not updated. A recent study from the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College, estimates that between 2007 and 2061, as much $59 […]
The Internal Revenue Service has won a settlement of $388 million from the estate of Detroit Pistons owner Bill Davidson. According to the IRS, the estate owned more than $2 billion in additional taxes. To gain some perspective: in 2013, the US Treasury took in a total of $12.7 billion in estate tax revenue. Davidson, […]
Estate plans are more about reducing the stress on your heirs and ensuring that the assets you leave behind are distributed as you wish than they are about money. Instead of focusing on a list of bank and investment accounts, trying thinking about those you love, and what you wish to leave to them after […]
Of all the hated taxes in the U.S. tax code, the estate tax is handily the single most hated tax, particularly among wealthy families who must pay it. In an effort to preserve wealth across generations, these families rely on the use of complex strategies to transfer wealth to grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other descendants. The […]
In the Supreme Court decision Obergefell v. Hodges, the constitutional right to same-sex marriages in all 50 states was affirmed. Tax, estate planning and employee benefit opportunities in the 13 states that previously did not permit same-sex marriages are now legal. The ability to claim state income tax refunds, the elimination of having to pay […]
Fraud cases involving elderly clients are on the rise, with nearly half of the CPA financial planners who participated in the survey, around 47%, saying they have seen an increase in financial fraud in the last five years. According to a recent On Wall Street article, titled “Elder Fraud: 9 Tips to Protect Clients,” there are two […]