My Spouse Just Died. What Do I Do?
I’ve written about this before, but I recently had an experience that reminded me of all the financial things that have to be handled when a spouse dies. In this case, a long-time client of mine died on a Monday. On Tuesday his wife called. She said, “You always told me to call you if anything happened to Steve. Well, [...]
JTWROS May Not Be the Best Way to Help Mom or Dad
In the old movie The Princess Bride, one of the primary characters constantly uses the word “inconceivable.” Eventually, one of the other characters says, “I do not think this means what you think it means.” The same thing applies to using Joint Tenants with Rights of Survivorship (JTWROS) as an estate planning tool. There are times when JTWROS is [...]
Estate Lessons from the Queen of Soul
When Aretha Franklin, the Queen of Soul, died in August 2018 she left behind a legendary career and a massive music legacy that touched millions of people. She also left an estate worth $80 million and a legendary family controversy because no one could find a Will, a Trust or any kind of estate plan that outlined her wishes. [...]
Estate Planning When Your Spouse is Dying
Having estate planning conversations with a spouse is not always the easiest thing to do because it’s a reminder of the inevitable. It can be even more difficult when one spouse is dying and the other spouse realizes there are estate issues that need to be addressed before death occurs. What should you do? Review estate plans currently in [...]
Medicare and the Health Savings Account Penalty
The benefits of Health Savings Accounts for people who are eligible are tremendous. You get to make pre-tax contributions; you get to withdraw money tax-free to pay for qualified health expenses. You may even have an employer who makes contributions to your HSA. And in retirement, if you have money left in the account, there are even more qualified expenses, [...]
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