Author Archives: Jay Butchko
If You’re Old Enough To Plan A Vacation, You’re Old Enough For An Estate Plan
Summer fun can be had in Florida at any time of the year, but most of the time Floridians are too busy to enjoy it. You spend 51 weeks out of the year stuck in Florida’s horrendous traffic, commuting from one of your gig economy jobs to another or shuttling your children to and… Read More »
Why Would You Want Someone Else To Be The Owner Of Your Life Insurance Policy?
Young people often buy life insurance policies with modest payout amounts. Uttering the words, “I don’t want to be worth more dead than I am alive” is often the first symptom of a mid-life crisis. For people who have yet to receive friendly greetings by mail from the AARP, life insurance policies are tied… Read More »
Mutual Will Agreements In Florida
You and your spouse have been married for decades, and you do everything together. Both spouses’ names are on your bank account, and you own your house as tenants by the entirety. You children never give much thought to which cousins are on Mom’s side of the family and which are on Dad’s side. … Read More »
Who Should Act As Personal Representative Of Your Estate?
Even if you do not own anything that anyone would want to inherit, you still need to write a will. At minimum, your will should include instructions about the final disposition of your remains, meaning whether you want your body to be buried or cremated and where you want the final resting place of… Read More »
Florida Law Criminalizes Financial Abuse Of The Elderly
Florida’s reputation as a destination for retirees precedes it, but it is merely a stereotype that all of the seniors in Florida can afford to live in posh condominiums in Aventura and to board a cruise ship headed for even warmer locales every time the temperature in Florida dips below 65 degrees. Elderly people… Read More »
Estate Planning Is Your Best Defense Against Gray Divorce
Maturity is a key ingredient in successful marriages, and so is being honest with yourself and with your spouse about finances. Conflict about money has tanked the relationships of many couples who married in the springtime of their lives with the highest hopes; one advantage to getting married when you are older and both… Read More »
Storage Of Estate Items Before, During, And After Probate
People sometimes talk about building generational wealth and buying stuff as though they are two mutually exclusive uses of money. Yes, you can often avoid the temptation to make impulse purchases by thinking of how the money can benefit your descendants if you keep it in the bank instead of spending it. It is… Read More »
Are You Sure You Want To Qualify For Medicaid Nursing Home Care?
Setting unattainable goals is a recipe for stress and disappointment, so the advice to aim lower is not always misguided. Likewise, wealth acquisition is not a main goal of retirement; in fact, being free of the pressure to keep up with the Joneses is one of the joys of retirement. Estate planning lawyers often… Read More »
Unless You Plan Carefully, Your Plans To Help Your Children Financially Can Backfire
Creating generational wealth is one of the most common reasons that people cite for contributing money to their own retirement savings accounts. The goal is to save more money than you will need to spend in your lifetime, so that your children can inherit the rest. Of course, you don’t have to be an… Read More »
What Is Escheatment, And How Can You Avoid It?
When friends try to encourage you to get started on your estate plan, they often say things like, “If you don’t do X, the state will take your property.” Their advice has a grain of truth, but they usually word it so vaguely and misleadingly that it comes across sounding like those email forwards… Read More »
