Recent Blog Posts

Estate Inventory During Maryland Probate
Your work as the personal representative of a deceased family member’s estate is probably not as difficult as you fear it will be, but it still requires organizational skills and a considerable investment of time. You probably will not have to deal with disputes about undue influence or long-lost distant relatives coming out of… Read More »

Estate Planning, Washington DC Style
Did you hear that millennials are leaving the DC area in droves? There’s no one left here but us. Are we really so old that the Millennium, at which time we were already young adults, was more than 20 years ago? Where did the time go? Our hair is turning gray, and our children… Read More »

Choosing A Business Entity Type Is An Act Of Estate Planning
Estate planning lawyers always say that estate planning is about planning for life, not just planning for death. If you love your line of work so much that you never want to retire, then spending your days playing golf or walking on the beach probably does not sound appealing enough to motivate you to… Read More »

Non-Compete Clauses Are Overrated, Especially For Small Businesses
When you operate a small business, you have so many responsibilities that require your undivided attention that airtight employment contracts are not a priority. You would like to offer your employees a written contract, because doing so gives you an advantage over competing businesses with which those same employees might apply for jobs. When… Read More »

Complying With Maryland’s Pay Transparency Laws
It is in the best interest of employees for employers to be transparent about how much they pay employees in a certain role. Most companies fall far short of the ideal of paying the same salary to all employees who perform the same duties, and there are often justifiable reasons for this, but employers… Read More »

Are Mortgage Buydowns A Win-Win Situation Or A Shady Gimmick?
Nowhere besides the Washington, D.C. area is it more obvious that, during the pandemic, people with cushy, salaried jobs used the months of working from home to save up money to buy real estate. With no commuting expenses and no opportunities for dining out and recreational travel, the upper middle class turned those budget… Read More »

Disputes Between Businesses And Landlords Linger After The Pandemic
A new strain of COVID, even more contagious than the previous ones, may be making its way to the DC area, but people are going to approach things differently. No one seems especially interested in holing up at home and doom scrolling for an entire winter or partying just to be defiant. This time,… Read More »

Real Estate Investing Is Not A Game
Some people approach investing as a game, as if the uncertainty about whether you will gain or lose money from the investment, and how much you will gain or lose, is part of the fun. If this is your approach to investing, then buying real estate properties and renovating them in order to generate… Read More »

What Is The Penalty For Lying To Customers And Business Associates?
There is truth, there are lies, and then there is the special mix of reckless optimism and implausible tales that makes business school happy hour fun. It would be an exaggeration to say that every lie you tell in the context of your job can get you fired or sued. For example, if a… Read More »

Can You Inherit Bitcoin?
Most people focus on a narrow range of items that can make a person wealthy, such as cash, real estate properties, gold, and stocks. It is easy to scoff when someone boasts about their wealth in a form that you would not think of as valuable. Laugh all you want at the coupon clippers… Read More »