We will all face the inevitable some day. No one likes to think about their eventual passing, but loved ones can be spared anxiety and uncertainty about your final wishes if you take time now to preplan your cemetery and funeral arrangements.
If nothing else, recent events have brought us face-to-face with mortality. Although none of us knows when death will overtake us or a loved one, we know that someday it is going to do exactly that. We can deny the inevitable, or we can prepare for it. By preparing for death, we can make that transition much easier on ourselves and our loved ones.
Receiving an inheritance is like winning the lottery. What could possibly be wrong with that? Callie Rogers, age 16, won $3.1 million in a British lottery. By the age of 22 she was broke, living with her mother, and working three cleaning jobs. William Post won $16.2 million in the Pennsylvania Lottery in 1988…
It is not just families who disagree about the interpretation of legal documents. There seems to be tension among estate planning attorneys in regard to recommending that clients write down their heartfelt intentions to accompany those documents. Many lawyers believe that it is the form that is most important — that the written legal language will communicate their client’s heartfelt wishes. Others believe that, no matter how carefully written, the form alone cannot transfer intention.
Another way to consider gifting assets is to set up a charitable trust. Trusts can help you manage highly appreciated assets in a more tax-efficient manner while, in some cases, allowing you to split assets among charitable and non-charitable beneficiaries
Before you panic about the new “Hawai‘i Aid in Dying Law,” it’s a great law but not for the reasons you may think. Governor Ige signed the Our Care, Our Choice Act on April 5, 2018 and it will become law on January 1, 2019. The new law’s purpose is to establish a regulated process whereby a mentally competent adult resident of Hawai‘i with a terminal illness and less than six months to live may choose to end life with a prescription.
