Life insurance plays a vital role in many estate plans. It provides salary replacement for a family if a heart attack or tragic car accident takes the life of a breadwinner. These policies may also be a part of a business or ranch/farm succession plan. Generally, life...
When is the right to time do business continuity planning if you are a sole owner or have a family business you would like to eventually hand off to children? It’s right now. Here is a story that illustrates the importance of starting the process right away. A...
Approximately 44.2 million Americans are paying off student loan debt and it is hanging around longer than ever. Whether it will survive you will depend on the type of student loan. Did you cosign on student loans for a child or grandchild, return to earn another...
A caregiver or child who lives closest to an elderly parent may exert influence in an effort to get a larger inheritance. It's a problem when pressure - whether overpersuasion, coercion or manipulation - leads to a change in the terms of a will that favors the...
Medicaid provides health care insurance for 4.6 million seniors across the country, including long-term care costs. Most of these seniors also receive some medical benefits from joint enrollment in Medicare.Sorting out eligibility for these programs can be...
We regularly represent and advise people who have been appointed by the court to be personal representatives responsible for the administration of estates of people who have died. One scenario in this context arises when someone who is not domiciled here in Colorado...
In our series on trust basics, we have talked about formation documents as well as the different types of trusts and their purposes. Once you have completed all the up-front work and have a trust, you must fund it. Tied in with funding a trust may be the need to...
Colorado does not levy a state tax on your estate and the federal estate tax exemption is currently $5.49 million per individual in 2017, so why consider filing an estate tax return? Portability. This provision in the tax code allows for the transfer of any unused...
The names of various trusts may sound like another language. Others may make you feel like you are lost in acronym soup, CRT, ILIT or a TSNT. Even the length of the trust instrument itself can vary based on your needs. One beneficiary might mean it is simple and...
Some of the misperceptions about trusts are that they are too burdensome or expensive. In many situations they provide a cost-effective vehicle to plan for the needs of a surviving spouse and smoothly transfer assets to the next generation. How do you determine...
