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The Driving Talk: How to Talk to Your Elderly Parents About Driving
Adult children face many difficult conversations with their parents, but the hardest may be how to talk to their elderly parents about driving. Before approaching this sensitive topic, it's best to understand what driving means to them -- and it goes much deeper than...
Bills, Debts and Taxes: Will your debts die with you?
So, who pays your debts when you’re gone? Your spouse? Your kids? What happens when someone dies, leaving debts and not enough money to pay them? The Good News About What Happens to Debts When You Die Here’s the good news: No one else is required to pay your debts, as...
How to Choose an Excellent Estate Planning Attorney
A recent survey on estate planning showed that 53% of respondents said it's difficult to find an advisor they trust. We understand how hard it is to choose an estate planning attorney. After years of working with many, many clients, we feel pretty good about knowing...
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Save Your Family Extra Anguish After You Die: Prepare a Will
Tarina, our Client Relationships Coordinator, hears it all the time, “I wish I hadn’t put off planning for so long. I just feel so much better now that we have a plan in place.” Do you want to make things easier on your family? Or more difficult? Good planning will...
6 Ways to Save the Family Farm
When you pass away, what will happen to your farmland? Maybe it’s land that has been in your family for generations. For many families, saving the family farm is important. Without a specific estate plan in place, the land is at risk. You may even know families like...
An Exclusive Look at Dave’s Office
[Update: Dave's office has changed as the firm has grown, but it still says a lot about what he values and the foundation he's built the firm on.] Most clients never see what you're getting to see here - me in my office! That may seem strange, but clients don't get to...
Planning Lessons to be Learned from Mickey Rooney
A week after actor Mickey Rooney passed away, a court has decided where he will be buried. Sadly, and once again, Hollywood provides another teachable moment about the hazards of poor planning. Here are two of the biggest issues the media has covered, and how they...
The Funny Birthday Hat: 5 Reasons Why Family Traditions Are Important
If you are friends with me on Facebook, you've probably seen the birthday hat. I wore it for my birthday a couple weeks ago. It's really tall and colorful -- kind of like something The Cat in the Hat would wear, only this hat has Mickey Mouse on it. Like many...
Do You Like to Gamble? Advice for Those Who Haven’t Planned Yet
Michelle and I don't gamble very often. But when we do, watch out! A few years go, the kids went to the grandparents' and we spent the weekend in St. Louis. We were staying near Laclede's Landing at a new hotel near the Lumiere Place Casino. The evening after we...
The Greatest Threat to Estate Planning
Our garage almost filled up with water bottles a few years back. You know the big blue ones you put on top of a water cooler? I kept forgetting to put the empty ones out for pick up, but they kept giving us new water. Pretty soon we had at least 15 water bottles...
What’s Your Next Step in Planning?
Bailey has noticed that I talk to other cars a lot when I'm driving. When someone's being slow I might say, "Come on out there, buddy, pull right out there." Or "come on, you can do it," when they hesitate just a little too long before pulling out so I can go. As with...
Estate Planning is Like… Working a Puzzle
Bailey and I bought some puzzles at our neighborhood garage sale a while back. We started work on a 100-piece jigsaw puzzle of Mickey Mouse and Goofy, but something was wrong. Pieces were missing -- a lot of pieces! In fact, we counted and there were only 57 of the...
Think You’re Not Eligible for VA Benefits? Think Again…
Many people are surprised that they qualify for aging Veterans services without having to have a service-related disability. The Veteran's Pension and Survivor's Pension Programs offer benefits that can be used by a Veteran or their surviving spouse to help with costs...