Beneficiaries

The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the fiscal year 2020 could bring change for our country’s Gold Star families and survivors of fallen veterans. If passed, it could repeal a law nicknamed the Widow’s Tax that currently, “affects more than 65,000 military families nationwide, costing each an average of about $11,000 per year,” in lost compensation. Under current law, surviving...

When we take vows with our spouse, the future and an inevitable loss of your loved one seems lightyears away. Years of marriage can entwine two people so that daily life becomes inconceivable without one another. From large decisions like building a home and raising a family, down to who holds the Netflix password or reminds the other to take their daily vitamin – spouses depend on each...

CunninghamLegal – The Living Trust Lawyers This is an informative article from California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR) on how your home and other assets impact Medi-Cal eligibility. CANHR Website Medi-Cal eligibility requires that an applicant (and his/her spouse) have a limited amount of assets. Your home is exempt from consideration as a resource when you or your spouse...

CunninghamLegal – The Living Trust Lawyers Trust Administration – What’s that? This is a question we get on occasion from clients.  The terms trust administration or trust settlement refer to the process of following through with the trust provisions and distributions after someone has died.  This process may involve helping the trustees (often a family member) with gathering and...

CunninghamLegal – The Living Trust Lawyers This is an eye-opening article from Forbes on the cost of caring for aging parents. You might be surprised to read that it costs families more to care for a frail older adult than to raise a child for the first 17 years of her life. Planning for these costs now will prepare you and your family for the future. Read the entire article here: Costs...

CunninghamLegal – The Living Trust Lawyers When I was going to law school, I often received calls from family members and friends with legal questions they had ranging from contracts, landlord-tenant issues, divorce, personal injury, workers compensation and the list goes on. I would try my best to help answer someone’s legal question, but I quickly realized that it is impossible for an...

Disinheriting a person it sounds easy but in practice can be difficult to accomplish. The first step is to determine whether the disinherited person is in line to inherit anything in the first place. Put it in Writing Generally speaking, if a person does not create a Will or trust prior to death or incapacity (think stroke, dementia, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s) that person’s wealth is...

When you think about the price of having kids, the costs that come to mind may include things like child care, camp, braces and college tuition. What probably doesn’t spring to mind are mortgages, car payments or personal loans. The reality, however, is that your bank account will likely continue to be tapped long past the day your kids turn 21. According to a 2015 Pew Research Center report,...

Readers often ask me about do-it-yourself estate planning. Lawyers want to know how to discourage clients from using books or software and websites that spew out documents for free or for a fraction of what they charge. Meantime, consumers ask, “What’s wrong with that?” The trouble with do-it-yourself planning is that even if your situation seems simple, there are many oddball things a layman...

Good News! Recently, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced the new limits for estate and gift taxation. These are the amounts that you can give tax free during life or at death in your will or living trust. Unfortunately, the annual gift exclusion stays at $14,000 – the amount that you can give (per person, per year) without having to file a Form 709 gift tax return. This means a...