Given that many people will need some form of support from long term care services in their older years, it's critical to understand how this might impact your retirement savings and other financial situation. A consultation with a dedicated estate planning lawyer can help you to clarify some of these questions. A recent study found that 7 out of 10 people aged 65 and older will need some form of long term care Read More
What to Consider If You Are a Snowbird?
If you’re one of the people who spend the warm part of the year in New Hampshire or Maine but seek Florida during the winter, be sure you know how this could include some of your existing estate planning or elder law documents. If you spend the good part of the winter in Florida, it's important to think about how this could potentially impact your estate planning. Snowbirds often split their time between two places Read More
Why Do Most People Create an Estate Plan?
Before you can create the documents, strategies and tools that form the basis of your estate plan or elder law plan, you need to know your objectives. This will help to guide your conversation with an estate planning lawyer and ensure that you select the strategies and tools most aligned with those goals. Some of the most common objectives include: Saving on income taxes right now. Providing for surviving family Read More
How to Plan Ahead for Family Belongings in Your Estate
The task of handling a loved one's estate can be very overwhelming physically and emotionally. Any of the heirs to your estate might have to take time away from work or even be involved in important planning tasks like the funeral. There is also all of the items that belong in your estate planning inventory that could be sorted through. You can do your due diligence and make things easier for your loved ones by Read More
Should Asset Protection Planning be Part of Your Estate?
Looking at the big picture of protecting your interests during your life and after, estate planning includes long term care planning and elder law issues, estate planning strategies, and determining whether asset protection planning belongs, too. Asset protection planning is not a strategy that you use to respond after a threat, such as a lawsuit, emerges. It’s best used well in advance of any threat to diminish the Read More
How to Pick the Right Nursing Home in NH
Does your New Hampshire based family member need support what other family members can provide or keep up with? You’re not alone. Even a family member who has been relatively healthy can experience disability or sudden illness that makes it difficult or impossible for them to live on their own. The selection of the right nursing home requires a lot of care and consideration. It’s never an easy choice, as you’re Read More
How to Keep Your Estate Plan Up to Date
Have you already done the work of sitting down with an estate planning attorney in your area and pulling together these important documents? Congratulations, because you've done more than most people when it comes to their estate plan. But the truth is that your work doesn't stop here. Establishing the initial estate plan is only half of the process. Your estate plan should evolve over the course of your life much Read More
How to Use Goals to Accomplish Your Estate Planning
You can’t put together an estate plan to accomplish your intentions if you don’t know what those intentions are. While it might be hard to think through those issues for the very first time, it’s an exercise that is well worth it. The very first step in getting your estate plan in order is making the decision to move forward on this important project. It might not necessarily be completely easy or accomplished in Read More
When Should I Update My Power of Attorney?
Many of the same events that would prompt you to update your estate planning documents like a will should cause you to reconsider whether or not your power of attorney still makes sense. This can include recently having gotten married and wanting to designate your spouse as your agent, getting separated or divorced from your current spouse, a child or other family member who is grown in maturity and has shown they Read More
Does a Trust Take Care of Everything in My Estate Planning?
A trust is an important tool that makes a lot of sense in its various forms for the right person. However, it is a mistake to assume that an estate planning trust will accomplish each and every one of your estate planning goals. Most sizeable estate planning strategies incorporate a revocable or an irrevocable trust in some format and it's important to recognize what this process actually means for you as well as Read More
