ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: to find out if i joint power of attorney over my dad now that my brother is not avaialble to care for my dad, or is my sister in law ATTORNEY ANSWER BY MARGARET L. CROSS-BELIVEAU: A Power of Attorney is not filed with any type of court. You must track it down through your family members or through the attorney which prepared it for your father. If you can’t find a copy or
If you lease your home to someone for a week or two through Airbnb, HomeAway, FlipKey, or some other short-term rental service, do you have to report the income on your taxes? Maybe! The answer can be complicated. In general, the key question is whether you lease your home in this way for more than 14 days a year. If you do, then you have to report all of your rental income on your federal income
Aside from child custody, the most emotionally charged issue in a divorce is usually who gets to keep the house. For most couples, a house is their most valuable asset, and it has an enormous symbolic value as well. But while couples often fight over who gets the house, keeping the house isn’t always the smartest plan. In some cases, the better route is to jointly sell the property, split the proceeds, and then buy or
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: I am the Executor of the Estate. I have never had to deal with this issue. Also what has to been done with her guardians now that she has passed away? ATTORNEY ANSWER BY MARGARET L. CROSS-BELIVEAU: The conservator’s authority over your mother’s assets ended upon your mother’s death. The conservator will still have to file a final accounting with the court. Your mother may or may not have had assets which need to
91-year-old Olivia Cruz died of sepsis caused by wounds developed sitting stationary in her feces and urine while under the care of her son, Filip. When paramedics were called to her home after she suffered a stroke, they were overwhelmed with the odor of urine and rotting flesh. A jury ultimately convicted Filip of wantonly or recklessly permitting serious bodily injury to an elder under his care and with wantonly or recklessly committing abuse, neglect, or
There’s a new product on the market called “longevity insurance.” This is really just a new name for an old concept, the deferred annuity. Unlike most annuities, which are purchased with a lump sum and begin paying out soon afterward, these policies typically don’t begin paying anything until some 10 or 20 years after you buy them. Sales of these annuities were up 35% last year from a year earlier. The idea is that, if you
A growing number of older people don’t have a spouse, children, or other close relatives. One of the biggest concerns in such a situation is how to prepare in case the person eventually becomes disabled or incapacitated. Such a person could, of course, give a power of attorney to a friend, and assume the friend will take care of things. However, friends the same age might die or become incapacitated themselves. They might be overwhelmed with
When you’re deciding how to divide your assets among multiple heirs, it’s very important to consider who will pay your estate’s debts out of their share. Two bequests that look equal in theory might be very different in practice once debts are taken into account. Generally, when a person dies, his or her outstanding debts must be paid out of “probate assets.” This means the assets that pass to someone according to the person’s will. But
The Supreme Court’s recent ruling extending same-sex marriage throughout the U.S. has changed the estate planning landscape for gay couples. The biggest change, of course, will be for couples living in states that didn’t recognize same-sex marriage before the decision. But the ruling is also important for couples in states that previously permitted same-sex marriage, because in the past, their estate planning had to take into account the fact that they might travel, own property, or
In the past, estate planning was mostly about reducing the impact of the federal estate tax. The tax was so onerous, and potentially affected so many people, that the goal was to avoid it like the plague. One way to reduce estate taxes was to put assets into an irrevocable trust. The tax savings could be accomplished in a number of ways, but the key was that, when the person who created the trust died, the
Attorneys licensed to practice in Florida | Massachusetts | New Hampshire
Business Law | Civil Litigation | Elder Law | Estate Planning | Family Law | Probate & Trust | Real Estate | Tax
