Latest Blog Posts

GAO: Some veterans hide assets to get need-based pension — and some companies prey on vets. See this article from the Dayton Daily News by staff writers Josh Sweigart and Andrew J. Tobias and contact Forbush Legal Offices--your local professionals for veteran benefits planning....

Realistic inheritance conversations a “must” with grown children: Given today’s fluctuating retirement resources in the mix of unexpected medical issues, the economic crisis, and debt-laden graduates (your grown children) thrown into a rough job market, the professionals at Forbush Legal Offices help you put the right planning tools in your retirement mix....

Approximately eight million Americans own long-term care (nursing home) insurance, purchased to help cover the escalating costs of long-term nursing care – whether in-home care, assisted living, or nursing home care....

The GAO study reinforced that for-profit nursing homes – which account for more than two-thirds of nursing homes nationwide – had more frequent and serious deficiencies than non-profit homes....

Even the best laid plans can face unexpected bumps. So what happens when a trustee or beneficiary needs to alter the language of an irrevocable trust and can't turn to the settlor for help because he or she may now be deceased? The answer is a legal proceeding known as a trust reformation....

7 Steps to Take When Inheriting a Retirement Account....

In the fourth year of a depressed real estate market, experts say thousands of seniors remain unable to move into senior housing because they can't sell their homes quickly enough or for the price they need....

Market volatility may be tough on the nerves, but it could be a boon for wealthy families looking to shelter assets from taxes while helping their children....

The point of long-term disability insurance is to replace your income if you're disabled and unable to work for an extended period of time — maybe a few years or maybe until you qualify for retirement benefits at age 65....

Here's what's important: it doesn't matter if you have a diagnosis for your aging parent or not. It matters how your aging parent functions. It matters how you deal with what you see....

Wealthy individuals in the U.S. will find it easier to cut their estate-tax bill as a result of a provision for using their deceased spouses' exemption credit....

Nursing home residents may soon face higher costs and reduced services, as planned Medicare spending cuts take effect this fall....

With long-term care insurance policies, the costs of assisted living facilities, in-home care and private nursing homes are covered. And, in many cases, these policies offer inflation protection, too. But since not many eligible consumers are signing up for policies, the companies that offer them are trying to make them more palatable. ...

Still, for all [women] have achieved — with our careers, managing our finances, sharing child rearing and other household responsibilities — we're not as savvy about estate planning as we ought to be....

The bottom line, however, is that the IRS is watching, and you should be very careful and get good tax and legal advice before you make that gift....

A California appeals court holds that a woman who purchased an endowment life insurance contract that repaid her premium and dividends during her lifetime and did not pay a death benefit is not entitled to Medicaid because the contract is not a life insurance policy. Lind v. Maxwell-Jolly (Cal. Ct. App., No. C061912, July 28, 2012) (unpublished)....

On August 5, 2011, the IRS published long-awaited guidance for executors of estates of people who died in 2010. Notice 2011-66 explains how these executors can opt out of the estate tax, and Revenue Procedure 2011-41 explains the special tax rules that apply to assets when executors opt out of the estate tax. ...

If there's any lesson to be learned from the recent debacle in Washington, D.C., it's this: Don't run your personal finances the way the U.S. government does. "Don't live beyond your means, and don't increase your debt levels, especially when heading into retirement," said Greg Rosica, a tax partner in the personal financial services group at Ernst & Young and a contributing author to the Ernst & Young Tax Guide 2011. "Don't emulate the federal government." – "How the Debt Deal Will Affect Retirees"...

Some estate planners have suggested that portability makes it unnecessary to continue to draft estate plans that include credit shelter trusts. This reported demise of the credit trust reminds me of Mark Twain's famous observation, after his obituary had been mistakenly published by the New York Journal, that "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated." Like Mark Twain's "death," it seems to me that reports of the demise of the credit trust are greatly exaggerated....

The federal government recently overhauled one of its web services to help families better evaluate nursing homes....