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Tirey Law

Delaware Repeals Estate Tax

After less than a decade of having an estate tax, Delaware has repealed this tax. State legislatures around the country share a very common fear.  They are afraid that if the wealthy residents of their states do not like their state’s tax laws, they will move to other states whose laws they prefer.   That can cost the state a lot of tax revenue. Many legislators believe that it is often better to give into the tax demands of wealthy people and lose only a little revenue, rather than risk weal...

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Tirey Law

Pre-Paid Funerals

In the U.K., families are discovering that many pre-paid funeral plans do not cover all of the costs of funerals. Americans often face the same problem. Funerals can be very expensive and they get more expensive all the time.  To spare their families the expense of paying for their funerals and to hedge against future price inflation, a growing number of people are choosing to get their own pre-paid funeral plans. The U.K. has seen a huge increase in the number of people that get these plans; ...

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Tirey Law

When Is an Executor Better off Not Acting?

In most states, an executor is allowed to go back in time and authorize estate actions that occurred between the time of a person's death and the time the executor is appointed.  A case from Florida illustrates that they do not always have to use that authority. When a person passes away, there is a gap in time before a court officially appoints a personal representative, also known as an executor. However, there are often estate actions that take place during that time. In many states, the pe...

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Tirey Law

Silent Trusts

It is possible to create a trust that leaves beneficiaries uninformed about all the details of the trust and, in some cases, even the existence of the trust itself. That can have its benefits, but there are also potential drawbacks. One of the most common ways to minimize the estate tax burden is to create an irrevocable trust that delays any distributions to beneficiaries until a later date.  One of the big issues people often have with creating that type of trust is fear of telling their you...

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Tirey Law

Jenner Sisters Threatened with Lawsuit

Kendall and Kyrie Jenner recently learned that their fame does not give them a license to infringe an estate's rights to the deceased's image. It is not exactly clear what Kendall and Kyrie Jenner are famous for, but they just are. Every month or so, the Jenner sisters just pop into the news over something or other.  If other people did the same thing, no one would care because it would not be newsworthy. Maybe their skill at getting that media attention is what they're most famous for doing. Th...

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Tirey Law

The Medicaid Debate Should Matter to You

Most Americans do not think about Medicaid very much.  They think that it is just the health care program for poor people that they will not personally ever need.  If you live into old age, then you should be concerned about the debate over the program currently going on in Congress. Medicaid is an extremely expensive government program intended to provide health care for the poorest Americans. Medicaid is often an easy program for politicians to attack as too costly, because most Americans ar...

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Tirey Law

Handling Debts in a Will

People with a significant amount of debt should consider specifying how those debts should be paid in their wills.  It could save their executors and heirs some headaches. Most people will pass away owing money to someone.  It is unfortunately unavoidable for most folks in America's credit-based economy. Our debts do not simply vanish when we die, but must be paid out of the assets of our estates before anything is distributed to our heirs. Most of the time this does not create substantial pro...

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Tirey Law

Hotels for Corpses

A rapidly changing society and high costs have caused many Japanese families to forgo traditional funerals.  Corpse hotels have arisen to meet their needs. In American popular culture, Japan is normally portrayed as a very rigid and tradition-bound country.  Although in some ways the Japanese traditions remain strong, some things change in Japan just like in other countries. Japanese funeral services have traditionally been elaborate, expensive affairs.

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Tirey Law

Leaving a Legacy

You do not need to be wealthy to leave a lasting legacy and be remembered fondly after you pass away. For some people, one of the things that terrifies them most about passing away is that they might be forgotten. This is especially true for people who are not married or who do not have children. They fear that not too long after they pass away no one will remember much, if anything, about them. One way people get around this is by intentionally leaving a legacy with their estate plans.  They ...

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Tirey Law

Funeral Price Transparency

Americans are not the only people in the world who have a difficult time finding accurate funeral price information.  Australians have the same problem. One of the many small estate planning things people can do to make things easier on their families is to plan ahead for their own funerals.  By making all of the arrangements they want for their funerals and paying for everything in advance, people give their estates one less thing to worry about. At least, that is how it is supposed to work....

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