Category Archives: Estate Planning
Seniors Need a Plan for Dealing With the Maryland Winter
Early career professionals, as well as older folks in truly high-powered jobs, tend to come and go from the Washington, D.C. area with every change of presidential administration, but those of us who have lived here since our college days, or even longer, consider it home. The idea of retiring somewhere that is more… Read More »
Estate Planning With an Abundance Mindset
The estate planning advice that is most visible to Google is geared toward people who are much wealthier than you will ever be. The amount of money you would have to give away before maxing out your annual gift tax exclusion eligibility, and the amount of money that would still have to be in… Read More »
Life in an Alzheimer’s Disease Hot Zone
Retiring to Florida is not for everyone. No matter the season, it is obvious that Maryland is home. The beach isn’t far away, but neither is the Kennedy Center. A hurricane or tropical storm comes our way approximately once per decade, whereas in Florida, people are boarding up their windows and evacuating from multiple… Read More »
How Much Care Do You Get in a Maryland Nursing Home?
Building your estate plan means acknowledging the possibility that you may one day require residential care in a nursing home. Nursing homes are designed to provide care for people who require help with two or more of the activities of daily living, namely eating, mobility, dressing, bathing, using the toilet, and personal care such… Read More »
Is a Second Act Career Right for You?
Most jobs do not have a mandatory retirement age, which means that, if you are lucky enough to have enough job stability that you do not lie awake at night and worry about whether your job will still be around next year, you spend your nights doing mental calculations to figure out how your… Read More »
It Isn’t the End of the World If Your Surviving Family Members Have to Declutter Your House
Decluttering is a lot of work, even if you are in the mood for it and are keen to receive the reward for doing it, such as a house that looks tidy or having less stuff to pack when you move. It is very hard to motivate yourself to declutter simply because you have… Read More »
No, Medicaid Is Not the Only Way You Can Afford Long-Term Care
It is scary to think about old age and death, but it is even scarier to think about the financial future that most American consumers, including many with salaried jobs, can face. You might despair of ever saving enough money for retirement to sustain you through 20 or 30 years of retired life, especially… Read More »
Can You and Your Spouse Write One Will for Both of You?
You and your spouse act as a team regarding all your property and all your responsibilities. There is no keeping score or hiding things from each other. It’s “our” bank account and “our” Christmas bonus, without regard to who contributed what. When it comes to caring for your elderly parents, the phrase “in-law” is… Read More »
Why and How to Store Valuable Estate Items
Call it minimalism or Swedish death cleaning, but some people seem to think that you should get rid of as much stuff as possible now so that you can live and die clutter-free. By this logic, if your adult children would rather receive money than tangible property as a Christmas gift, then they would… Read More »
Maryland Escheatment Laws
You have probably heard stories of estate research firms that try to match cash-strapped people with the estates of long-lost relatives who have recently died, and from whom the clients could inherit. The whole business sounds sleazy, from the sense of entitlement required to ask perfect strangers for large sums of money, while striking… Read More »
