We have all had to enlist the services of a professional at one time or another; whether it be an attorney, accountant, contractor, or anything in between. While vetting the person or service, you happen to notice something — maybe it’s in an email or on their website, but suddenly…you no longer feel as confident […]
Crowdfunding or fundraising websites, such as Kickstarter, YouCaring, and GoFundMe are quickly becoming a popular source for donations where ordinary people may raise money from others for anything from new inventions to helping a neighbor or family member in need. Over time, crowdfunding has morphed into a platform to request finances for anything from the […]
Google’s algorithm weighs a host of factors when determining which sites to rank at the top, so it makes sense that it wants a comprehensive overview of the sites it recommends through its algorithms. Establishing a Google My Business page on their platform and consistently publishing posts is an easy opportunity to help Google become […]
In the past, trusts often were drafted with little flexibility. Now, more and more, trusts tend to be drafted with increased flexibility and there are even ways to change trusts which have become “irrevocable.” There are several ways to modify a trust, including by a Trust Protector, by a procedure under the state’s version of […]
Over the years I have learned a great deal from observing the coaching that takes place in our Peak Performers meetings. When I first joined the Academy as an Event Coordinator, my role in the program was to coordinate the logistics of the meeting space and look after our Peak Performers and Co-Founders to ensure […]
When problems arise in an estate plan, often the source is a lack of clarity. Tom Petty died in 2017 and left a fortune estimated by Newsweek to be around $38 million. Petty did some things right, but he could have done better. What did Tom Petty do right? First, he planned. Most people just […]
To say “thank you” to our blog community for being such valuable members of the American Academy community, we’ve decided to give away a few of our most popular training sessions from last year so that you can stay on top of the “legal/technical” issues that power your practice. The first session is a two-part […]
What if you could give your children assets in a trust and they could use them and yet they’d avoid estate taxation at their death? That’s what a “Generation-Skipping Transfer” Trust, or “GST” trust does. It is a trust which is designed to avoid estate taxation at the death of the beneficiary. During the life […]
I can admit that I am bit addicted to my smartphone. I have everything I could possibly need at my fingertips! There’s some comfort knowing I’m not the only one out there who has this addiction. If you Google ‘smartphone addiction’ there are articles and websites abound that talk about it. The worst part is, […]
The “Kiddie Tax” is a tax on the “unearned” income of a child. In other words, it applies to the child’s income from interest and dividends, but not from wages from a job like their paper route or McDonald’s. The Kiddie Tax has been around since 1986 and applies to the unearned income of a […]
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