My Family Life Plan

Alzheimer’s Miracle Cure on the Horizon? – Hanover Family Estate Planning Center

 

 

Are you or someone you love at risk for Alzheimer’s in the future? What if the disease could be “cured” before it struck? There may be hope on the horizon, as reported in a New York Times article titled, “New Drug Trial Seeks to Stop Alzheimer’s Before It Starts.”

While nearly two years away from having even preliminary data, researchers have isolated the genetic family bearing the Alzheimer’s blueprint and are working on a new experimental drug that could cure the problem before it strikes millions bearing the offending gene. These breakthroughs take time.

In the meantime, it’s necessary to make financial and legal plans as if the miracle drug won’t come to pass. Accordingly, long-term care financing (e.g., long-term care insurance and/or elder law planning) ought to be considered, along with implementing (or refreshing) your most fundamental legal instruments (e.g., powers of attorney and advance health directives).

As always, consult competent financial and legal counsel before proceeding. This is not a DIY (do-it-yourself) exercise. Too much is at stake.

Reference: The New York Times (May 15, 2012) “New Drug Trial Seeks to Stop Alzheimer’s Before It Starts”

Patrick J. Kelleher is a South Shore, MA resident and estate planning attorney serving and protecting families and businesses in the South Shore, MA area. For more information on estate planning visit our firm’s website at www.MyFamilyLifePlan.com where you can check out our Blog, free Newsletter library, free Estate Planning Channel on Youtube and sign up for a Free e-Newsletter!

If you have any questions or would like to schedule a consultation please call Attorney Kelleher at 781-871-PLAN (7526) or by email at Pat@myfamilylifeplan.com

Also serving the following communities South of Boston; Quincy, Milton, Braintree, Randolph, Holbrook, Weymouth, Scituate, Norwell, Hingham, Cohasset, Hull, Hanover, Pembroke, Duxbury, Marshfield, Plymouth, Rockland, Hanson, Halifax, Plympton, Carver, Abington, Whitman, Kingston

This article is not intended to provide legal or tax advice or create or imply an attorney-client relationship. No information contained herein is a substitute for a personal consultation with an attorney.

Business Owners – Exiting Gracefully– Hanover Family Estate Planning Center

 

If you’re a small business owner, then you probably speak of your business and your life in the same breath. There’s nothing wrong with that. In fact, you are in good company.

All told, your business is one of the biggest challenges and accomplishments in your life. That said, it’s rare that the business is the only fulfilling thing in your life. In addition, do you really want to continue working in and on your business until the day you die, with no retirement or with old-age eventually getting in the way?

With your life and your business so intertwined, it makes it all the more necessary to plan properly.

The Wall Street Journal took up this matter in a recent article titled Preparing to Leave. I recommend this article to your reading list because it both warns of mistakes and offers solutions.

To whet your appetite, here are the “mistakes” identified:

1. Creating a business that’s too dependent on the owner.
2. Ignoring the tax benefits of planning ahead.
3. Incorrectly valuing the business.
4. Rushing to accept a rich number.
5. Hiring your brother-in-law to do the deal.
6. Underestimating the emotional impact of selling a business.

Like those old movie matinees, I am going to leave you pondering the solutions to these “cliffhangers.”

In the end, only you know when to hold’em and when to fold’em when it comes to the continuation of your business. However, don’t delay. You, your loved ones and others dependent on the business will be glad you didn’t.

Reference: The Wall Street Journal (April 29, 2012) “Preparing to Leave”

Patrick J. Kelleher is a South Shore, MA resident and estate planning attorney serving and protecting families and businesses in the South Shore, MA area. For more information on estate planning visit our firm’s website at www.MyFamilyLifePlan.com where you can check out our Blog, free Newsletter library, free Estate Planning Channel on Youtube and sign up for a Free e-Newsletter!

If you have any questions or would like to schedule a consultation please call Attorney Kelleher at 781-871-PLAN (7526) or by email at Pat@myfamilylifeplan.com

Also serving the following communities South of Boston; Quincy, Milton, Braintree, Randolph, Holbrook, Weymouth, Scituate, Norwell, Hingham, Cohasset, Hull, Hanover, Pembroke, Duxbury, Marshfield, Plymouth, Rockland, Hanson, Halifax, Plympton, Carver, Abington, Whitman, Kingston

This article is not intended to provide legal or tax advice or create or imply an attorney-client relationship. No information contained herein is a substitute for a personal consultation with an attorney.

Death & (Income) Taxes – Hanover Family Estate Planning Center

 

Of the two certainties in life – death and of taxes – the taxman always gets the grim last word. End-of-life taxes are, moreover, often considered the most onerous. For many loved ones, writing those last few checks to the IRS can be especially tough … and seem to never end. Enter the postmortem income tax return.

The death taxes are one thing, and inheritance taxes are generally another, since they are paid by the inheritor. However, as a recent article in Kiplinger makes clear, there usually is one final income tax return to file for the decedent. I recommend the article, titled Death and Taxes, for your reading.

The burden of filing this final income tax return is something you assign in your will, usually to the executor or administrator, or failing that it falls upon a survivor. If you are planning your estate or if you are administrating one, this burden is not one to be taken lightly. To make matters worse, the fiduciary is on the hook for any sins of commission or omission. If ever there was a time to retain appropriate legal, accounting and tax advice, then this is one of them.

Bottom line: The income taxes likely are the least of your taxation concerns with the estate, inheritance, gift, and generation-skipping taxes all vying for attention. Unfortunately, that doesn’t diminish the importance of income taxes.

Even if an estate will not be subject to extra taxation, this last rite to the IRS has to be observed.

Reference: Kiplinger (March 2012) “Death and Taxes”

Patrick J. Kelleher is a South Shore, MA resident and estate planning attorney serving and protecting families and businesses in the South Shore, MA area. For more information on estate planning visit our firm’s website at www.MyFamilyLifePlan.com where you can check out our Blog, free Newsletter library, free Estate Planning Channel on Youtube and sign up for a Free e-Newsletter!

If you have any questions or would like to schedule a consultation please call Attorney Kelleher at 781-871-PLAN (7526) or by email at Pat@myfamilylifeplan.com

Also serving the following communities South of Boston; Quincy, Milton, Braintree, Randolph, Holbrook, Weymouth, Scituate, Norwell, Hingham, Cohasset, Hull, Hanover, Pembroke, Duxbury, Marshfield, Plymouth, Rockland, Hanson, Halifax, Plympton, Carver, Abington, Whitman, Kingston

This article is not intended to provide legal or tax advice or create or imply an attorney-client relationship. No information contained herein is a substitute for a personal consultation with an attorney.

To comply with IRS regulations, we advise you that any discussion of Federal tax issues in this article was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used by you, (i) to avoid any penalties imposed under the Internal Revenue Code or (ii) to promote, market or recommend to another party any transaction or matter addressed herein.

The Separation of Church…And Estate – Hanover Family Estate Planning Center

 Planning your estate may seem like a simple matter of deciding who gets your stuff when you’re gone. What if you are a person of great faith and religious conviction? How does a person of faith plan for his or her estate when life (and especially life beyond) is so much more than mere “stuff”?

The problem of mixing religion and estate planning – that is, the problem of doing it well – is taken up by the Wall Street Journal in an article titled Joining Church and Estate.

If your decisions during life are guided by your faith, then likely your estate decisions will be too. For example, end-of-life, disposition of remains and even charitable giving decisions are oftentimes determined by one’s religious beliefs. These are personal decisions that directly impact you and collaterally impact others.

However, it is an entirely different matter to make religiously-motivated decisions for others. Given the numerous alternative planning strategies and tools available to plan your estate, it is possible to make (or attempt to make) religious decisions for your heirs. This is where problems can arise.

In the extreme, you can move beyond encouraging to requiring the observance of certain religious principles, rituals, or lifelong membership in the given religion to secure any inheritance. As the Wall Street Journal article illustrates, this is where problems can arise. In short, requiring heirs to uphold religious principles they do not share can work to undermine them.

The article discusses some particularly poignant examples and real life court battles. It’s worth a read and serious consideration when trying to strike that delicate balance of encouraging without alienating those whose beliefs may differ from your own.

Reference: The Wall Street Journal (April 30, 2012) “Joining Church and Estate”

Patrick J. Kelleher is a South Shore, MA resident and estate planning attorney serving and protecting families and businesses in the South Shore, MA area. For more information on estate planning visit our firm’s website at www.MyFamilyLifePlan.com where you can check out our Blog, free Newsletter library, free Estate Planning Channel on Youtube and sign up for a Free e-Newsletter!

If you have any questions or would like to schedule a consultation please call Attorney Kelleher at 781-871-PLAN (7526) or by email at Pat@myfamilylifeplan.com

Also serving the following communities South of Boston; Quincy, Milton, Braintree, Randolph, Holbrook, Weymouth, Scituate, Norwell, Hingham, Cohasset, Hull, Hanover, Pembroke, Duxbury, Marshfield, Plymouth, Rockland, Hanson, Halifax, Plympton, Carver, Abington, Whitman, Kingston

This article is not intended to provide legal or tax advice or create or imply an attorney-client relationship. No information contained herein is a substitute for a personal consultation with an attorney.

The Conversation with Aging Parents – Hanover Family Estate Planning Center

Taking care of an elderly loved one can be difficult, especially when they are nervous about meeting of their own future needs. It’s worse when the issue is money, either for current finances or future planning. Has your elderly loved one ever told you to butt out and not worry?

This is a position many adult children with aging parents will have to face. If you’re in this situation (or fear you may be one day) a recent article in Forbes titled Has Your Aging Parent Told You to "Mind Your Own Business"? is worth a read.

For many Depression-era survivors and baby-boomers, money is an important symbol of control. In addition, for elderly parents who don’t have “enough” money, talking to them about their financial futures can be troubling. In essence, it disempowers them. Ironically, this is all the more reason it should be discussed (especially if they will be in need of medical care).

As with every dark cloud, there is a silver lining. Discussions about assets can easily segue into revealing concerns over the meaning of money, and the proper disposition of family assets, or even a family business. 

In the end, there is a psychology to old age and money. I recommend the original article and the examples therein. Practically speaking, however, your parents might have a point – have you taken care of our own (estate planning) business yet? Perhaps if you have your own house in order, you will have more credibility when addressing these issues with your parents. 

Reference: Forbes (April 17, 2012) “Has Your Aging Parent Told You to "Mind Your Own Business"?”

Patrick J. Kelleher is a South Shore, MA resident and estate planning attorney serving and protecting families and businesses in the South Shore, MA area. For more information on estate planning visit our firm’s website at www.MyFamilyLifePlan.com where you can check out our Blog, free Newsletter library, free Estate Planning Channel on Youtube and sign up for a Free e-Newsletter!

If you have any questions or would like to schedule a consultation please call Attorney Kelleher at 781-871-PLAN (7526) or by email at Pat@myfamilylifeplan.com

Also serving the following communities South of Boston; Quincy, Milton, Braintree, Randolph, Holbrook, Weymouth, Scituate, Norwell, Hingham, Cohasset, Hull, Hanover, Pembroke, Duxbury, Marshfield, Plymouth, Rockland, Hanson, Halifax, Plympton, Carver, Abington, Whitman, Kingston

This article is not intended to provide legal or tax advice or create or imply an attorney-client relationship. No information contained herein is a substitute for a personal consultation with an attorney.