Guest Contributor Articles
When a loved one dies from a wrongful or negligent act of another, knowing where to begin the legal process can be difficult. When you bring a wrongful death case in Minnesota, there are a few things that you should know. First, there are strict time limits on how long you have to initiate the […]
If you are a parent of a high school student who will be going off to college soon, or you are starting college yourself, there’s a good chance you’re thinking about applying for financial aid. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 66% of all undergraduates received some form of financial aid in 2007—08. […]
What happens when one dies without a Health Care Directive and has specific wishes regarding the disposition of his or her body? What happens when a dispute occurs amongst remaining loved ones who have differing opinions about the disposition of the deceased’s body? These are important questions to examine when considering whether or not to […]
“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” – Unofficial creed of the United States Postal Service Each and every time I’m called-upon to settle an estate, one of my first tasks is to change the decedent’s mailing address. I do this – […]
Statutory Presumptions Minnesota statutes provide a set of default interpretations for some of the language used in Minnesota wills.1 Unless a will includes language to the contrary, these statutes provide interpretations for things such as what property can be passed via will, what happens when a beneficiary dies before the testator, how and when gifts might […]
Did you know that well over half (up to 80% according to some sources) of all life insurance policies issued, lapse prior to the insured’s death? Most policies are designed, purchased, placed and funded with the expectation that at death (an unknown time), the life insurance proceeds (a known amount) would be paid to a […]
In my previous post, I discussed the basics of a guardianship. In this post, I discuss terminating a guardianship when the Ward has regained mental capacity. For example, perhaps the Ward has a brain injury from an accident or a stroke, but after a couple years of therapy she has recovered enough so that a […]
Although you may earn too much to contribute to a Roth IRA, there is no income restriction to convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. What is a Backdoor Roth IRA? The Backdoor Roth IRA is an indirect way to contribute to a Roth IRA when your income is too high to contribute directly […]
Trustee A trustee is a fiduciary with a high degree of responsibility. As a fiduciary, a trustee has legal duties that he or she must perform. As discussed in Maggie Green’s series of posts, those duties include loyalty, impartiality, and recordkeeping. A trustee must act out of loyalty to the beneficiaries and not to further […]
Given the prevalent role families play in providing long-term care, insurance may not always seem necessary. However, as briefly discussed in my last post on the basics of long-term care insurance, the true value of long-term care insurance involves protecting the wellbeing of loved ones. Even though spouses and adult children are often willing to […]
A rabbi trust is a type of non-qualified deferred compensation plan set up by an employer for the benefit of an employee. Rabbi trusts get their name from a 1980 IRS private letter ruling that approved the use of these trusts. In that case, a congregation wanted to set up a trust for the benefit […]