by Paige Fuoco | Dec 8, 2021 | All Articles, Estate Planning, Family Law, Power of Attorney, Probate, Trusts, Wills
If you want to make a gift to family members but have exceeded the annual gifting limit, there is another way. Payments for a family member’s education or health care expenses are exempt from the gift tax. The annual gift tax exclusion for 2020 and 2021 is $15,000....
by Paige Fuoco | Dec 8, 2021 | All Articles, Estate Planning, Family Law, Power of Attorney, Probate, Trusts, Wills
The beginning of a new year is a good time to take a look at your estate plan to make sure it is up to date. Less than half of people actually have any estate planning documents in place and many of those people may have outdated documents. Documents that were created...
by Paige Fuoco | Dec 8, 2021 | All Articles, Estate Planning, Family Law, Power of Attorney, Probate, Trusts, Wills
You have planned your life carefully. With your spouse you have drawn up a will and established trusts to organize your estate after your deaths. You have made decisions about the guardianship of your children should anything happen to you both before they come of...
by Paige Fuoco | Dec 7, 2021 | Estate Planning, Power of Attorney, Trusts, Wills
Being able to make health care decisions for ourselves is so important to us, but what happens if you become incapacitated and are unable to voice your opinion? If you don’t have a health care proxy or guardian in place, state law chooses who can make those...
by Paige Fuoco | Nov 9, 2021 | Estate Planning, Power of Attorney, Trusts, Wills
If a pet owner puts a request in her will that the pet be put to death, should a court respect the request? Not necessarily. In 2012, a Chicago judge reversed a death sentence that had been hanging over Boots the cat for months. The feline’s owner, Georgia Lee...
by Paige Fuoco | Oct 26, 2021 | Estate Planning, Power of Attorney, Trusts, Wills
Many people, especially seniors, see joint ownership as an easy way to avoid probate and plan for incapacity, but there are major drawbacks to joint accounts. When people own property as joint tenants each person has an equal ownership interest in the property. If one...