Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Estate Planning Goals for 2025
Even the scammiest for-profit colleges will teach you that the best goals you can set are attainable ones. Shooting for the moon is an exercise in frustration unless it is a front for a more modest goal, such as “outdo my previous record.” That is why, this year, you should not resolve to adopt… Read More »
The Reluctant Personal Representative
If someone is overjoyed at the thought of being the personal representative of a deceased person’s estate, it is hard not to wonder whether something is amiss. The best-case scenario is that the enthusiastic personal representative is a probate lawyer who loves his job because his personal life is so dismal that work is… Read More »
Beware of Posthumous Financial Crime
Financial abuse of the elderly is common, but this does not make it any less of an ordeal for the elderly people targeted by the abuse or for the family members who love them and worry about them. If you acted as a caregiver to a family member in his or her old age,… Read More »
Practical Concerns Count More Than Charisma for Staying in Business
If you are good looking and possess above average rhetorical skills, you can have a career as a pharmaceutical representative, but if you lack the patience for corporate life, you can sell fantasies of entrepreneurship to yourself or others. A few years ago, multilevel marketing companies that sold entrepreneurship training courses seemed to be… Read More »
Maryland’s New Rules About the Visibility of Eviction-Related Documents
Dating apps have never made anyone feel less lonely or more self-confident. An algorithm chooses someone that its robotic level of interpersonal intelligence thinks would be a good match for you. Both partners get their hopes up over the course of a text message, but when they meet in person, the only vibe that… Read More »
Tenant Screening Dos and Don’ts for Landlords
Housing discrimination is illegal, and landlords can protect themselves from liability simply by informing themselves about current legal protections for prospective tenants. For example, as of 2024, it is no longer legal for landlords to find out whether a prospective tenant has ever been party to eviction proceedings unless the proceedings resulted in an… Read More »
What the Foster House Settlement Means for D.C. Landlords
Comfortable, affordable housing is hard to find in almost all urban areas in the United States, but Washington, D.C. is one of the country’s most notoriously expensive housing markets, both for buyers and for tenants. Most of the rental units in the District are neither comfortable nor affordable. The desirable units are out of… Read More »
The Solitary Personal Representative’s Probate Dilemma
If your main motivation for getting started on your estate plan is to reduce stress on your family members, then you feel a great sense of relief once you write your will, print it on paper, and sign it in the presence of two witnesses. By designating someone as personal representative of your estate,… Read More »
Asset Protection and Your Retirement Account
Asset protection is a factor in most people’s estate planning strategy. Some people establish trusts and transfer assets to their heirs while they are still alive in order to protect their heirs’ inheritance from being vulnerable to creditor claims during probate. A simpler asset protection tool is probably already doing its job silently in… Read More »
The Changing Face of Platonic Co-Ownership of Real Estate
Anyone with a successful marriage will tell you that one of the key ingredients is to treat each other as business partners with regard to financial matters, even if you agree that each spouse also has a separate bank account for fun splurges or for financially supporting his or her own blood relatives and… Read More »
