Recent Blog Posts
How To Tank Your Estate Plan: Parent PLUS Loans
Not all parents take the same approach to estate planning, but everyone who has children takes their children into account when developing an estate plan. Some live well below their means while dreaming of leaving a generous inheritance for their children and grandchildren. Others maximize their annual gift tax exclusion and set up revocable… Read More »
What United Healthcare’s New “Non-Emergency ER Visit” Policy Means For Your Small Business
The COVID-19 pandemic changed so many aspects of our daily lives, so it is no surprise that it changed how we think about healthcare and health insurance. All but the wealthiest were in a position where a health problem not covered by insurance would be financially disastrous. We started to talk about health services… Read More »
Debt Collection Has An Image Problem
As a business owner, you are well aware that you have to spend money to get money. Before you invest any money in marketing, you think carefully about which marketing strategies will give you the best return on your investment. During the pandemic, business owners have also been resourceful about seeking funding through grants… Read More »
Selling Your Debt: Possibly Good For The Bottom Line, But Definitely Bad For Your Reputation
It’s annoying to get phone calls from companies with which you have an unpaid past-due balance, but you know on some level that, by running up a bill with them, you were implicitly promising to pay it. When a collection agency calls you to pester you about a debt, though, rage is a natural… Read More »
Commercial Real Estate Investing Is Not For The Faint Of Heart
The COVID-19 pandemic made almost everyone rethink the nature of work and realize how fragile the routines around which we build our activities are. In no year besides 2020 did so many people express gratitude to delivery drivers or to supermarket employees who restock the shelves, and the list of occupations that could become… Read More »
COVID-19 Vaccinations Mean A More Productive Workforce And A Tax Credit For Business Owners
The good news is that more than 29 percent of the population of Maryland and more than a quarter of the population of the District of Columbia is fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The better news is that both Maryland and DC still have plenty of vaccine doses left to distribute. One out of every… Read More »
How To Incentivize Your Employees To Get The COVID-19 Vaccine
By all accounts, Maryland has done a commendable job of making COVID-19 vaccines available and reopening businesses for in-person activities. Still, the number of new vaccine doses being administered nationwide has plateaued. Currently, about a third of the population of the United States is fully vaccinated, which is encouraging, but hardly enough to achieve… Read More »
Section 1031 Is Changing: What Is Next For Tax Deferred Real Estate Exchanges?
Depending on which factors you pay attention to, investing in real estate is either one of the riskiest or one of the least risky investments you can make. On the one hand, there is always demand for real estate, and the real estate market always recovers after setbacks. It is unlikely to tank irreversibly,… Read More »
The Inheritance Rights Of Former Spouses
With only one exception, you, as the testator of your will, have the final decision about how much, if anything, each of your relatives will inherit from your estate. Only your spouse has the right to claim an elective share of your estate, thus overriding the provisions of your will. If the decedent has… Read More »
Protecting Your Business From Data Breaches
Did you hear about the pharmacy that paid a class action settlement to 800 patients whose identifying information got stolen when the pharmacy suffered a cyber-attack? What about the real estate investing company that paid a class action settlement to more than 1500 investors, property owners, and other business contacts who suffered financial losses… Read More »
