by Christine | Apr 18, 2012 | IRS, Offers In Compromise |
So many taxpayers are trying to make deals with the Internal Revenue Service to settle tax bills that the IRS is facing inventory backlogs and processing delays, leaving taxpayers unsure if or when their tax liabilities will be resolved. In honor of federal “Tax Day,”...
by Christine | Apr 17, 2012 | Elder Law, Healthcare, Marriage, Medi-Cal Long Term Care, Medicaid, Medicare |
There’s another layer of rules for families in which the person hoping to get government help paying for long-term care has a spouse who is still living independently. States are treating such “well” spouses in dramatically different ways. Marriage is a unique...
by Christine | Apr 16, 2012 | Depression, Elder Law, Medicare |
Depressed people are more likely to receive diagnoses and be treated in primary-care settings than elsewhere. Research shows that elderly people, in fact, prefer to deal with their primary-care provider on mental health issues. In that context, coverage of depression...
by Christine | Apr 14, 2012 | Estate Planning, Roth IRA, Small Business |
“I usually root for the taxpayer, but this case was an exception. When I think it borders on the self-evident that a favorable tax plan does not work and it turns out that it does, I am very embarrassed. As it turns out the Tax Court and now the Ninth Circuit agreed...
by Christine | Apr 13, 2012 | Estate Planning, Small Business, Succession Planning |
Your “estate plan,” however, should not be your farm’s succession plan. Succession planning is a “process” – “not an event,” … an estate plan is a piece of the process that is succession planning. Farm and family. Perhaps more than any other kind of industry or...
by Christine | Apr 12, 2012 | Estate Planning, Facebook, Wealth Transfer |
There’s nothing illegal about what these executives did. In fact, the Facebook registration statement and others that FORBES examined read like a playbook of how the ultra-rich and even the moderately wealthy can operate within the law to transfer vast sums and...
by Christine | Apr 11, 2012 | Estate Planning, Trust Amendment, Trusts |
I just received an update from the State Bar of California the Trusts and Estates Section regarding a recent case King v. Lynch – filed April 10, 2012, Fifth District (Cite as F062232). The court held that "(t)rust amendments were properly...
by Christine | Apr 11, 2012 | Estate Planning, Inheritance, Probate, Wills |
Brooke Astor’s only son saw his inheritance slashed in half and had his control of the estate’s powerful charitable contributions stripped away as part of a settlement that ended a bitter, five-year dispute over the family’s millions. One of the more public and famous...
by Christine | Apr 10, 2012 | Elder Law, Hospice, Medical Directives, Palliative Care |
It takes strong doctors to stand up to [the kind of verbal abuse that palliative care doctors have to put up with], to explain that courts and ethics committees have approved care that’s intended to reduce suffering, to point out that the patient’s own wishes are...
by Christine | Apr 6, 2012 | Small Business, Succession Planning |
“I’ve heard recently about the federal gift and estate tax window of opportunity for asset transfer, and was wondering if that impacts succession planning. Will there be greater tax benefits for me to leave the business in 2012, rather than 2013?” Success in business...
