Recent Blog Posts

Bad News Beneficiaries for Non-Probate Assets
If your estate plan includes some non-probate assets, you are off to a good start, but complacency is the enemy of every estate plan, so don’t assume that you have all your ducks in a row just because you bought a life insurance policy years ago when your employer offered it to you as… Read More »

A Farewell to Real Estate Love Letters
When you were young, older people probably told you that the best thing about being old is that you no longer care as much about what other people think, and therefore, you no longer have to try so hard to impress people. In your own life, you can probably be grateful for the ways… Read More »

Beneficial Ownership Information
Paperwork is an inescapable reality of operating a business. Being good at paperwork is not enough to enable you to generate demand for your products or to make your products affordable when materials are expensive and consumers are on a tight budget, but no one ever tanked a business by filling out too much… Read More »

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 »