Author Archives: Jay Butchko
No, Medicaid Is Not the Only Way You Can Afford Long-Term Care
It is scary to think about old age and death, but it is even scarier to think about the financial future that most American consumers, including many with salaried jobs, can face. You might despair of ever saving enough money for retirement to sustain you through 20 or 30 years of retired life, especially… Read More »
Social Media Influencer Agreements and Breach of Contract Disputes
Cranky old journalists like to make it sound like being a social media influencer is not a real job. Whether the products that influencers provide, namely videos and other content formats that promote brands, are beneficial to society is a matter of opinion, but from a legal standpoint, social media influencers are just like… Read More »
Getting Out of a Business Partnership
Entrepreneurs thrive on the constantly shifting alliances of business entities and partners. Many successful business people have bought and sold ownership interest in multiple companies over the course of their careers; they may have even established some new business entities, alone or with partners, or dissolved some business entities. The breakup of business partnerships… Read More »
Can You and Your Spouse Write One Will for Both of You?
You and your spouse act as a team regarding all your property and all your responsibilities. There is no keeping score or hiding things from each other. It’s “our” bank account and “our” Christmas bonus, without regard to who contributed what. When it comes to caring for your elderly parents, the phrase “in-law” is… Read More »
Why and How to Store Valuable Estate Items
Call it minimalism or Swedish death cleaning, but some people seem to think that you should get rid of as much stuff as possible now so that you can live and die clutter-free. By this logic, if your adult children would rather receive money than tangible property as a Christmas gift, then they would… Read More »
How Can Small Ecommerce Businesses Compete With the Big Guys?
The COVID-19 pandemic did not break us entrepreneurs, but it taught us things about ourselves that we didn’t know. Entrepreneurship always requires you to adapt to changing conditions, and local businesses that were able to pivot to ecommerce during the pandemic managed to attract a new clientele while keeping the old one. Of course,… Read More »
Maryland Escheatment Laws
You have probably heard stories of estate research firms that try to match cash-strapped people with the estates of long-lost relatives who have recently died, and from whom the clients could inherit. The whole business sounds sleazy, from the sense of entitlement required to ask perfect strangers for large sums of money, while striking… Read More »
Can Third Party Logistics Services Help Your Small Business?
Entrepreneurship blogs will tell you that there are $10 per hour tasks, such as printing shipping labels and sticking them on boxes, $100 per hour tasks, such as making a promotional video for your new product, and $1,000 per hour tasks, such as negotiating a long-term deal with a new client. They will encourage… Read More »
The No Surprises Act, Two Years On
It is rare to hear good news these days about the physical or financial health of the American public, or especially about the cost of healthcare, but a recent report by the Urban Institute offers an optimistic view of the No Surprises Act, which was signed into law in 2021 and went into effect… Read More »
What Personal Representatives of Estates Should Know About Probate for Snowbirds
So, your parents just told you that they plan to designate you as personal representative of your estate. You will have a chance to talk to them about their estate plan in more detail soon, because they are just about to drive back to Maryland from Florida, where they have just finished spending the… Read More »
