In a previous article, we discussed 529 plans as a way to help contribute toward college tuition. In this article, we provide some food for thought before you help pay for your loved one’s educational costs.
Many seniors who want to help their children and grandchildren ask, “How can I help my grandkids pay for college?”
Helping pay for college can alleviate a lot of stress that a grandchild or the parents of a grandchild may be feeling. It also makes the grandchildren happy and gives them the educational tools to forge a career and support themselves for the rest of their lives. This gift is one that many grandparents are not only happy to give, but look forward to.
Taxes are a part of life (and death) in the United States. If you earn sufficient income, then you must report that income and pay a tax on the income if it exceeds allowable deductions. One such deduction is a capital loss.
In the simplest sense, a capital loss occurs when you sell property (stock, personal property, real estate property, etc.) for less than it cost, or its basis. This loss can either offset capital gains in the year they are incurred or can be used as a deduction up to $3,000 against your ordinary income. If the capital loss is not used to offset your gains, and is greater than $3,000, then you can carry it over to the next year to either off-set gains derived in that year, or it can be used again as a deduction against your ordinary income up to $3,000.
It’s a common mistake for people to assume that after creating a trust, their work is done. If your assets are not properly titled to the name of the trust, a whole host of issues can arise when the time…
Who will take care of you and your finances and health care decision making if you become incapacitated?
The power of attorney is a financial document that names who will step in and take care of an individual’s finances if he is physically or mentally unable to handle them himself. The health care proxy does the same thing in the medical world. People often do not want to make decisions about naming a power of attorney or a health care proxy, but procrastinating is not the best option.
If you take a moment and actually think about it, you are probably registered on several—if not dozens of—websites. You make accounts associated with various websites and sign in with your unique username and password. When I started thinking about…
Last week, the world was in shock when news broke about the sudden and unexpected death of pop icon, Prince. Prince died at his residence in Minnesota at the young age of 57.
As some mourned by flooding the internet with his greatest hits, others wondered about his estate. Prince had no known children, no current spouse, and no living parents. This leaves us all wondering: Who will receive his assets? Did he have proper estate planning in place?
Under New York law, the answer as to whether you can disinherit your spouse is … not really.
In New York, there is something called the spousal right of election, which states that a surviving spouse has the right to assert his or her right to elect to inherit a portion of your net estate. As a result of this law, you cannot disinherit your spouse without your spouse’s waiver of this right.
When speaking with clients about the complicated Medicaid rules, availability, and exceptions, they often reply something like, “Wow, there’s so much to know.”
Clients come to us because we know the rules, and more importantly, we know the exceptions.
Oftentimes when creating an estate plan, it is requested that a family member or friend be disinherited. There are many reasons why one would chose to disinherit someone. Perhaps the person creating the estate plan has already provided the family member or friend with gifts during his or her lifetime. Perhaps he or she wants to avoid disqualifying the person from government benefits. There might have been a falling out between the individuals. Or there might be tax reasons for wanting to disinherit.
No matter what the reason is, it is important to understand the potential pitfalls of disinheriting someone.