Category Archives: Estate Planning
Unmarried Couples Can Never Be Too Specific About Bequeathing Assets To Each Other
In many regards, marriage is just a piece of paper. Married couples and unmarried couples are more alike than different. You live together and share life experiences, manage finances together and build relationships with each other’s family of origin, and perhaps even have children of your own together. Most of the time, society treats… Read More »
Maryland Laws About Cremation And Burial
You might have opinions about how you want people to remember you after you die, but the way to achieve most of these wishes is through your conduct when you are alive, not through the perfect funeral. Perhaps you have songs or hymns that you would like the people in attendance to hear at… Read More »
Is It Time To Revise Your Estate Plan?
Reevaluating Your Choice of Personal Representative While it is important to review your estate plan periodically, the good news is that you do not need to rewrite your entire estate plan from scratch every year. (Divorce is almost the only event that requires you to start over again from zero with your estate plan.) … Read More »
Aging In Place Probably Means Remodeling Your Home Sooner Or Later
One of the worst things about ringing in the new year is the realization that you are another year older, and another year has passed without you and your spouse talking openly with each other or with other family members about the fact that you are getting old. Getting visits from your children and… Read More »
The Grinch’s Guide To The Annual Gift Tax Exclusion
In 2020, financial stress, travel restrictions, and caution about exposure to rapidly surging COVID-19 variants put a damper on many families’ holiday cheer. This year, some of those families are determined to have a fabulous celebration, but some realized, during quiet times at home and joyous exchanges of holiday greetings over Zoom, that going… Read More »
Your Contact List Can Make Or Break Your Estate Plan
Even if you are the very antithesis of a procrastinator, the kind of person who files their tax returns in February and finishes their Christmas shopping before Thanksgiving, updating contact information can feel like a daunting task. Notifying the DMV and your health insurance company of your new address after moving into a new… Read More »
Widow Of Bakery Tycoon Withdraws Lawsuit Against Stepchildren Over His Estate
Almost everyone in Maryland has eaten a piece of bread or a sandwich bun that came from a bakery belonging to John Paterakis. His company, H&S Bakery, started out as a small family business, but by the time he died, his bakeries were producing two million hamburger buns per day for McDonald’s alone, not… Read More »
Preparing For Retirement Means Putting Away The Trappings Of Your Working Life
It feels liberating to get rid of something because you have happily moved onto another stage of your life. Donating the crib from your children’s bedroom to the Goodwill because your youngest child is old enough for a big kid bed feels like a victory, and so does trashing your shower caddy and mesh… Read More »
Maryland Just Made It Harder For Married People To Find Loopholes By Which To Disinherit Their Spouses
Marriage has always been an economic partnership, but recent generations have seen more variation from one couple to another in terms of how married couples join their finances or keep them separate. One would think that getting married late in life would mean having enough life experience to have an honest discussion about which… Read More »
Is “Early Inheritance” A Good Estate Planning Strategy?
Estate planning lawyers and financial planners may have given you the counterintuitive advice of spending or giving away as much of your assets as you can while you are alive. Yes, you need to save enough to provide for your own needs in your old age, but what do you do if you could… Read More »
