If only I had a dime for every attorney who’s told me “My search rankings are awful! I Googled myself and/or our firm and we didn’t come up on the first page,” I would be writing this blog while sitting on my own private tropical island. While I do understand the desire, I can’t be […]
In the past, trusts often were drafted with little flexibility. Now, more and more, trusts tend to be drafted with more flexibility and there are even ways to change “irrevocable” trusts. This is the first of a three-part series. This first part examines ways of building flexibility into a trust. The second part examines using […]
For the past several years we’ve seen a notable increase in the number of natural disasters occurring on American soil. Needless to say, almost every one of these disastrous events has caught us by surprise. In 2005 a bad situation was made worse when levees were breached in downtown New Orleans’s sending a flood of […]
The federal estate and gift tax exclusion is set “permanently” to $5 million, adjusted for inflation. However, if you die between now and the end of 2025, the exclusion is doubled to $10 million, adjusted for inflation. Its inflation adjusted to $11.4 million in 2019. But, the federal estate and gift tax is the same […]
We have entered full-force event planning mode at the Academy these couple of months as we are gearing up for our annual Spring Summit the first week of May in Atlanta, Georgia. Although putting on an event can be lot of work, the outcome is often well worth the effort. In a world of heavy […]
Sometimes people seem to think that if they don’t plan for death, it just won’t happen. In fact, 58% of American adults have no will, no trust, and no estate plan at all, according to a recent study by Caring.com. Unfortunately, whether you plan for it or not, death is inevitable. If you have no […]
The World Wide Web officially turned 30 years old on March 12, 2019. As one of the roughly 3 billion users accessing over 1.5 billion web sites, I am thrilled to be able to use a simple, free web browser to access these sites. But I often wonder if I am using the best web […]
A new proposal regarding estate taxes has been introduced in the U.S. Senate. S.B. 309, the “For the 99.8% Act,” is sponsored by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The bill would exempt the first $3.5 million of an individual’s estate from estate taxation. (Under current law, the exemption is $5 million, doubled to $10 million through […]
Management of your law firm’s directory listings and legal profiles is vitally important to ranking highly in local search and one of the most important directories in the legal niche is AVVO. AVVO, now part of the Martindale, Nolo, and Lawyers.com brand, is an online platform where consumers can search for attorneys, research their backgrounds, […]
This is the third article in a series. The first article focused on the use of UTMA / UGMA accounts. The second article focused on 529 plans. This third article focuses on ABLE accounts. ABLE accounts are like Section 529 plans. But, while 529 plans are for education expenses, ABLE accounts (under Section 529A) are […]
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