Facebook’s Legacy Contact
by Charles W. Brown Jr. Good news! Thanks to a recent policy change, you can now update your Facebook page after you pass away. Well, to be more accurate, you can select someone to update your page after you pass. In response to a high number of requests, Facebook has created the option to allow […]
Three Keys About Estate Planning
In 2015, you can leave gifts to other individuals upon your death worth up to $5.43 million free of any federal estate taxes. This is the so-called estate-tax exemption. If married, both you and your spouse are entitled to separate $5.43 million exemptions. If one spouse dies and does not use up his or her […]
Estate Planning Can Save A Bundle
The expense of dying as well as the time leading up to it can be very costly. View image | gettyimages.com Preplanning for your death and the time leading up to it can save you thousands, says story on uppermichigansource.com. The initial step is to speak to an elder law attorney, the article says. Such […]
Let’s Eat Grandma! Let’s Eat, Grandma!
(Commas save lives)
I saw this t-shirt in the Sky Mall magazine a few years back and completely cracked up. Crazy as it may seem, punctuation, grammar, and correct usage of legal words and phrases can save thousands of dollars on litigation and estate administration costs. For example, last month I had a client whose father had prepared […]
Include Online Accounts In Estate Plan
All the accounts you access online — even such accounts as Facebook — should be part of your estate plan. View image | gettyimages.com A story on business-news.thestreet.com says all those accounts and their passwords should be included in your estate planning. It suggests your spouse or another trusted person have your password for financial […]
Protecting Against Taxes
When the ball dropped on New Year’s, it signaled more good news for the fairly wealthy and their heirs — the exemption from federal estate taxes jumped to $5.43 million for those who die in 2015. View image | gettyimages.com That’s up from $5.34 million last year. Still, most folks don’t need to worry about […]
The Importance of Beneficiary Forms
Did you know that a beneficiary form, such as life insurance beneficiary form, supersedes beneficiaries who are named in someone’s will? Are you surprised? Recently I attended a seminar where 5 out of 6 people thought the exact opposite-that a will supersedes a beneficiary form. One attendee commented, “That’s not intuitive. I thought a will […]
Congratulations! You graduated. Welcome to Adulthood
When I graduated from college my sister gave me the Dr. Seuss book “Oh the Places You’ll Go.” It is my 4-year-old son’s favorite book. There are some real gems in that book. A realization that life is not as easy as it may seem, and is not always fair, so it is usually best […]
Who Owns Digital Assets?
These days, most of us have our music, movies and books on our computers or our phones. But what will happen to these collections once the owner dies? You may want your heirs to have these collections, but it isn’t that easy to pass them along since there are no physical copies. User agreements with […]
Another Lesson From My Mom About Documents
My family (me, my husband, son, and mom) went to Colorado to visit my sister this summer. Several days into our vacation, my mom was not feeling well and asked to go the emergency room. She was in cardiogenic shock and was life-flighted to another hospital within hours. Now my mom volunteers at my law […]