Author Archives: Jay Butchko
Can Life Insurance Pay For Assisted Living?
Life insurance is a euphemism on the order of the Ministry of Peace in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Just as the Ministry of its Peace spends its entire budget preparing for and engaging in wars, life insurance only pays its beneficiaries when the policyholder dies. A lot of people pay for a life… Read More »
In Defense Of Cash Gifts
If you are old enough to think about retirement and about your estate plan, then you are old enough to know that you cannot solve all your children’s problems and that money cannot solve all problems. You are probably also painfully aware of how many obstacles stand between your children and the standard of… Read More »
Estate Planning Is Both Easier And More Difficult Than You Think
Some people say that the hardest part of estate planning is admitting to yourself that you are mortal. While this may be an obstacle that leads many younger folks to get started on their estate plans, the truth is that simply saying out loud or typing in a Word document a statement to the… Read More »
How To Stop Long-Term Care Expenses From Tanking Your Estate Plan
If you can see two people from where you are right now, the chances are high that at least one of them has medical debt; approximately half of American adults have medical bills that they have not yet paid off in full. The only thing more disastrous to one’s finances than being unequipped to… Read More »
How To Provide For Your Spouse Without Triggering The Stepparent Wars
Until you have experienced it yourself, you might think that getting remarried when your children are minors is a minefield of conflict, but late-in-life romance is smooth sailing, whether or not you or your new partner has children. After all, when you get remarried late in life, all parties involved are adults, including the… Read More »
Can You Request A Change Of Personal Representative In A Probate Case?
Family businesses aren’t for everyone. You might enjoy getting together with your siblings on weekends and holidays, playing crazy eights and quoting old movies, but the idea of having to include them in your financial decisions or counting on them to meet deadline is more stressful than you care to think about. Working in… Read More »
Keep Calm And Ride Out The Market Fluctuations
The authors of Freakonomics have pointed out numerous examples of how people devote lots of energy to worrying about events that are only a remote possibility, while having no fear of situations that, purely from the point of view of probability. If the Freakonomics authors went to Florida, they would probably immediately notice that… Read More »
Your Expenses During Retirement Could Be Lower Than You Think
Beware of financial planners who start by asking you how much money you want to have when you retire; this is a gateway to unrealistic goals and to scams that promise to help you achieve them. Meanwhile, if you meet with an estate planning lawyer expecting to discuss writing a will and saving your… Read More »
Long-Term Financial Planning In Uncertain Times
When you read the news headlines, even if you can no longer stand to read entire articles about current events, it is easy to get the impression that it is futile to make long-term plans. Planning for retirement and building an estate plan implies an ability to be reasonably certain about the way that… Read More »
Transferring Property To A Revocable Trust
You do not have to be rich to set up a revocable trust. In fact, if you are watching every penny, that is an even better reason to establish one. Revocable trusts are an effective way to save money on taxes while you are alive and to pass property to your heirs seamlessly after… Read More »
