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Unless you keep your estate plan updated regularly, then it is likely that your final wishes may not be carried out exactly as you want it to do when you pass away. Wealthy people do not have a good excuse for not planning for their estates.  People who have means need to make sure that after they pass away their heirs can inherit their fortunes in a way which minimizes the amount of taxes to be paid to the federal and state governments. When that is not done, much of the value of an estate ca...

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration has recently recommended that the IRS needs to do a better job of scrutinizing estate and gift tax returns. Few people think of the IRS as being too lenient or not diligent enough in its work.  The public perception of the agency tends to be that it is too hard-nosed.   The IRS is also sometimes portrayed as being unfair in that it does not audit everyone.  Not every tax return is thoroughly scrutinized.  How the IRS chooses what to look in...

Technology makes it easier to determine who actually wrote a particular text.  That has implications for what courts will accept as valid wills, as an Australian case illustrates. One of the first historical challenges that estate law needed to sort through was how to determine whether a document submitted as a will of a deceased person was actually what the deceased intended to do with his estate and not something someone else had made up.  Making that determination was not easy, since the de...

With estate tax repeal possibly looming on the horizon, some are starting to warn that it could hurt charities to repeal the tax. At this point, it is unknown whether the estate tax will be repealed.  President Trump would like to repeal this tax and Congressional Republicans are generally in agreement with that. Any estate tax repeal would come out of a larger tax reform or tax cut package, however. To reach an agreement, the President and Republicans will likely need to drop some of their pl...

Since Hugh Hefner passed away, rumors have been circulating that he did not have much money left.  These rumors come from a misunderstanding about how Hefner held his wealth. For the past few years, Playboy Magazine has seen its circulation decline.  To curb this slide, the magazine has tried format changes, but they had little effect.  This created speculation about the personal fortunes of the magazine's founder, Hugh Hefner. Many people assumed he was struggling personally as well.  When he...

The population in the U.S. is getting increasingly older.  There are known issues associated with this that lawmakers do not have on their radars. In the next couple of decades, the U.S. will undergo a dramatic shift in demographics. As the Baby Boomer generation continues to reach the age of retirement and longevity for seniors continues to rise, the population of the U.S. will be much older on average than it ever has been.

Many elderly people have a difficult time finding reliable transportation.  Ridesharing companies hope to be able to accommodate them. Transportation for seniors has always proven to be a difficult problem.  Once elderly people are no longer able to drive for themselves, they have to rely on alternatives.  If they are lucky, a nearby relative or friend will be regularly available.  Not all seniors are that lucky. Some cities, government agencies and charities have attempted to address the prob...

The development of hospice care was a big improvement over how end of life care used to be handled. Hospice care must now adapt to new circumstances and pressures. It used to be that people were given life-saving medical treatment up until the very moment that they passed away.  Everything was done for them that could be done.  Not only was this very expensive, it was also often against the wishes of patients themselves. An idea began to take shape.  When death is inevitable at some point, pat...

The American health care system is built on the premise that the more care and medicine provided, the better the care.  A growing movement believes that is not always true for the elderly. As people get older, they develop more and more long-term diseases and health conditions.  By the time someone becomes a senior citizen, it is common to have multiple daily prescription medicines to take. There are also many procedures that doctors want to perform.

You’ve decided to talk to an estate attorney about your estate plan.  That’s a smart move.  The information your attorney will give you can sometimes seem overwhelming.  As a first step, it’s helpful to know some of the terminology in advance so that your meeting isn’t quite so much to take in at once. Testator – A person who has made a will.  Sometimes a woman who has made a will is referred to as a Testatrix. Grantor – A person who conveys property through a trust.  This person whose wishes a...