Recent Blog Posts
Your Fabulous First Year of Retirement
In less catastrophic times, estate planning lawyers used to tell their clients to follow the four percent rule. They said that you can expect 25 years of retirement, and if you only spend four percent of your retirement savings per year, you will have enough to last the rest of your life. More recently,… Read More »
In Praise of Old Folks’ Homes
If you are old enough to have a stable job, you are old enough to be cringe. Since both of these describe you, it stands to reason that you have read the latest research on happiness. A recent article in the New York Times says that what determines how happy we are is not… Read More »
Twilight of the Starter Homes
This charade of Baby Boomers freaking out about the indifference of Millennials toward the various trappings of adulthood that Boomers once held dear has gone on for long enough. It isn’t about “kids these days” anymore, since the oldest millennials are fast approaching the horizon of the AARP mailing list. Every generation grows up… Read More »
Senior Medicaid Isn’t Just for Nursing Home Residents
In Maryland, as in many other places in the United States and the world, we have an aging population. Meanwhile, the generation that is currently approaching retirement age has never known the financial safeguards that their parents’ generation enjoyed. This means that we are likely to see an increase in demand for applications for… Read More »
Stuck: A Housing Affordability Crisis Story
No one likes to move from one apartment to another, but when people stay in their same apartments, they usually have plenty of complaints about their housing situation. Even rent-controlled apartments become unaffordable after a while. Under the current rent control laws in the District of Columbia, landlords can raise rents by up to… Read More »
Medicare: So Many Moving Parts
If you are looking for a way to boost your self-confidence, consider congratulating yourself on your longevity. You have been receiving correspondence from the AARP for such a long time that their magazines and oversized postcards, clearly designed for the generation that takes print media more seriously than online content, no longer make you… Read More »
What Is Trust Litigation?
Estate planning websites are full of encouragement for the prospective grantors of trusts. They tell you how much money you and your heirs can save on taxes if you transfer money to them through a trust, as opposed to just letting them inherit it from your estate through probate. If you are afraid of… Read More »
Outside General Counsel
Everyone knows that businesses have to follow the law, but there is no need to lawyer up unless someone sues you, right? Wrong. With legal disputes, especially those involving businesses, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Big businesses know this. The biggest ones have entire compliance teams that pore over… Read More »
How Landlords Can Cope With a Renters’ Market
After all these years, everyone is so fed up with financial long COVID that we have practically stopped talking about it. Renters have all but given up on their dreams of eventually owning a home; for as long as anyone can remember, the choice has been between taking on more buy now pay later… Read More »
The Five Wishes and Your Estate Plan
The most important parts of your estate plan have nothing to do with money, at least not on the surface. Anyone who has ever gotten a medical bill knows that medical decisions are financial decisions. In general, the more money you have, the healthier you are, because you can work in jobs with a… Read More »
