February 7, 2012 – June 9, 1870 Born Charles John Huffam Dickens in Portsmouth, England, Mr. Dickens brought us the classic works of Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and A Christmas Carol. 2012 was the 200th anniversary of Dickens’ birth and also the 142nd anniversary of his death. Dickens suffered a […]
If you are one of the millions of parents who own a life insurance policy, you may have your child named individually as a primary or contingent beneficiary if you were to pass away while the policy was still in effect. However, naming a child individually, especially under the age of eighteen, can have unintended […]
May 2012 was a big month for Facebook co-founder, Mark Zuckerberg, with his company going public and his surprise wedding to longtime girlfriend, Priscilla Chan. Zuckerberg and Chan were able to pull off a very private and intimate celebration but what followed was a flurry of news reports speculating about the financial planning that had […]
April 16, 1867 – May 30, 1912 Earlier this year, marked the 64th anniversary of Orville Wright’s death. However, today is the 100th anniversary of the other Wright Brother’s death – Wilbur Wright. Wilbur was the older of the two Wright Brothers but died much earlier at the age of 45. Wilbur died of typhoid […]
For insured’s under the misperception that their life insurance policy is iron clad simply because they pay their annually billed premium, these folks may be in for an abrupt and expensive surprise. Many policies are designed to stay in force only on the basis of critical assumptions being met or exceeded over the life of […]
Suppose your aging mother asks your sister to take care of her finances and help her to balance her checkbook. You live out of town, and think it’s a great idea. To make things easier, your mother adds your sister as a joint owner of her bank account. When your mother dies, her Will leaves […]
PART IV: HOW? DETERMINING THE TOOLS. “When an artist of talent makes a painting or a sculpture, he is always aware of the potentials and limitations of his materials; the better the artist, the more likely he is to know just what he can and cannot do with them.” ~Bruce Cole, Art Scholar and Senior […]
Our good fortune has continued with expanded growth in the markets. This is typical of an election year and if history is any indication, there should be more of this to come. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up over 13,000 and the NASDAQ Composite has reached a new high as well (much of this […]
July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862 Today is the 150th anniversary of Henry David Thoreau’s death. He died at age 44 – probably just scratching the surface at all he had to offer the world. To say Thoreau impacted lives is an understatement. For a touching op-ed on Thoreau’s influence, you can read Michael […]
My clients frequently claim that their number one goal in establishing an estate plan is to “avoid probate.” Upon further discussion, I discover that most have a number of misconceptions regarding what probate actually is. Probate Probate is, quite simply, the legal process by which assets owned by a decedent are transferred to the rightful […]
We previously discussed the options available to a surviving spouse inheriting a qualified retirement account. This article will address the options available to a non-spouse beneficiary inheriting a qualified retirement account. Just for a brief reminder, for purposes of this article, the term “retirement account” will be used to encompass all qualified retirement accounts, meaning […]