September is National Self-Care Awareness Month. The purpose of this observance is to raise awareness about the importance of regular self-care. What constitutes self-care can vary widely depending on who you are speaking to. Regardless of the exact definition, taking actions to prioritize self-care is essential to overall emotional and physical well-being and should be [...]
As grandparents, you likely love the opportunity to shower your grandchildren with gifts. In most cases, these gifts are given on holidays and birthdays and commonly consist of an item that may have been at the top of your grandchild’s wish list. While experiencing the joy on your grandchild’s face when they open a new [...]
September is recognized as Hunger Action Month, originally established by Feeding America in 2008. Hunger Action Month is an annual nationwide campaign that occurs each September to raise awareness about hunger in America and inspire action.[1] According to the USDA, more than 34 million people, including 9 million children, are food insecure. Food insecurity is [...]
Life can get hectic for parents when the school year starts. Parents often juggle many different responsibilities, which increase with the number of children they have and activities the children participate in. Most parents feel like they need to be in five places at once! As a parent, you have likely pictured what your child’s [...]
There are certain reasons that establishing an estate plan can be of the utmost importance. Having minor children or grandchildren is one of those reasons. Most parents do not have time to keep up with their own tasks, let alone consider what would happen if they died or became disabled while their children were still [...]
Your relationship with your parents and with your own children is important for several reasons, including developing an effective estate plan. Simply maintaining a loving relationship with a parent does not necessarily guarantee inheritance rights. A legal right to inherit depends largely on the legal relationship between a child and that child’s parent, the existence [...]
As summer approaches and open waters beckon, it is important to consider a unique aspect of estate planning that can often be overlooked—your boats and watercraft. These vessels bring you joy and unforgettable memories, but they also warrant special attention when it comes to safeguarding your legacy as part of your comprehensive estate plan. There [...]
Friction between family members can escalate during a scorching summer heatwave. Likewise, a flawed estate plan has the potential to breed conflict, mistrust, and financial turmoil among your beneficiaries in several ways. Lack of a plan. If you fail to create an estate plan altogether, it can lead to significant disputes and confusion among your [...]
Taxes are not just for individuals—they can impact certain types of trusts as well. Whether a trust pays its own taxes or whether the taxes are paid by the trust’s beneficiaries or the trustmaker depends on several factors. Grantor Retained Annuity Trusts If the trust is a grantor trust (a type of trust where the [...]
Prevent Excessive Accumulation The Greenbook outlines proposals on several different topics. One proposal that could directly impact your future financial security is the proposal to prevent excessive accumulations of wealth by high-income taxpayers using tax-favored retirement accounts. Tax-favored (sometimes referred to as tax-deferred) retirement accounts, such as individual retirement accounts (IRAs) and 401(k)s, were approved [...]
