Martinson & Beason, P.C.
When it comes to preparing your estate, there are a lot of things that require careful attention. For one, if you have minor children, who will be their guardian? Plus, who will your beneficiaries be? One decision that often gets less personal thought than it should is who will be your executor. After all, this person will be in charge of your estate and its assets once you’ve passed away.
Chances are, the second your son or daughter was of age, he or she was holding a hand out demanding the car keys. However, just because your child is legally able to drive doesn’t mean he or she should be driving. (This is a distinction that may be quite hard to explain when you’re withholding the means of transportation.) How do you know when your child is ready to take the wheel? Here are some things to look for, outlined in a recent Forbes article:
The District of Columbia took a major step this week on the path to decriminalizing marijuana. On Jan. 15, a city council panel approved a measure that would reduce penalties for possessing less than 28 grams of marijuana to a fine, likely only $25.
Social media is a powerful medium. It allows us to connect with people we haven’t seen in ages, like high school classmates. It allows us to stay in touch with loved ones, like grandparents in Florida or children studying abroad. It allows us to discover new people, products, amusements, music, and much more.
Social media is often seen as a pleasant distraction.
Planning for later in life can be confusing and difficult no matter who you are. Finding ways to make sure that you will be able to take care of yourself—financially and otherwise—isn’t easy. However, when it comes to retirement and estate planning, woman face their very own set of problems, according to a recent article in the Courier-Journal.
The financial loss by victims of elder financial abuse is now estimated to be at least $2.6 billion every year. While there are no definitive statistics on exactly how many older adults are financially exploited, most experts agree that those reported incidents are merely a small percentage of the actual number of exploitation cases. But according to the National Center on Elder Abuse, approximately 60% of all substantiated cases of elder abuse investigated by Adult Protective Services involve a family member exploiting their elderly relatives. This means that a family member is more likely to financially exploit their elderly relatives than a perfect stranger. In 2008, the American Bar Association’s Commission on Law and Aging published a “case example” that is far too familiar for those that deal in elder exploitation cases.
