Many parents make gifts or loans to their children. Often they give more money to one child than to others, perhaps because one child has a greater need. If you do make a significant gift or loan to one of your heirs, you should modify your will to address it. The reason: If something happens to you, it might be unclear to your heirs what the effect of the gifts or loans should be on their
Almost three million children in the U.S. between the ages of five and 15 have special needs, according to the latest Census figures. Parents of these children need to use extra care in planning their estates. For most people, estate planning is about making sure your assets go where you want them to, and minimizing inconvenience and taxes along the way. But parents of special needs children face an additional challenge because they have to make
Medical offices and other businesses that are subject to the federal HIPAA medical-privacy law will have to comply with some new rules from Congress. The changes include: ► If a breach of privacy occurs, you must now notify the affected individuals within 60 days. (Before, you only had to try to limit the negative effects of a breach.) If the breach affects more than 500 people, you must report the incident to the U.S. Department of
If you’re thinking of using a text-message advertising campaign for your company, be aware of the possible legal hurdles. Recently, a company called Nextones began giving away free ringtones. In order to get one, customers had to agree to receive text messages from Nextones affiliates. Nextones then licensed its list of customers to publisher Simon & Schuster, which used it to blast text ads for a Stephen King novel. The problem? According to a federal court
Employers who use tests to hire or promote employees now face a tough dilemma if those tests end up significantly disfavoring minority workers. If the employer uses the test results, it could be sued by the minority workers on the grounds that the test had an unfair impact on them. On the other hand, if the employer throws out the test results, it could be sued by the non-minority workers on the grounds that they did
If a customer owes you money but is going under, who does it have to pay first: you…or its owners? This is a significant issue in a recession. A key test case in Wisconsin was supposed to provide a clearer answer, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court split 3-3 and couldn’t make a decision. The case involved a company that made stereo speaker parts. The company (the largest employer in the county) defaulted on its loans and
Many people wonder about passing along their assets to a child who tends to overspend and hasn’t show an ability to manage money. They worry that such a child will blow through an inheritance quickly and wont have the money to live on as he or she gets older. Fortunately, there are ways to provide for such children while at the same time protecting them from themselves. For instance, you can put assets into a trust
When a person dies, the value of his or her estate for tax purposes is its value at the date of death. However, the tax isn’t due until nine months after death. If the value of an estate plummets in the nine months after a person’s death, this can create very bad consequences for the heirs – namely, a large amount of tax is due but the assets that will be used to pay the tax
More than a million people suffer a slip-and-fall injury each year, and some 16,000 die as a result. Slip-and-fall injuries often result in significant legal awards against a business, so it’s wise to take precautions. A recent study by the insurance company CNA makes the following recommendations for commercial property owners:
Increased paperwork audits could lead to fines; are you in compliance? The Obama administration has announced that it intends to focus its immigration enforcement efforts on companies that hire illegal workers, by stepping up its audits of I-9 forms – the employment eligibility documents that businesses must fill out for every employee. This is a change from the Bush administration, which had placed more emphasis on arresting illegal workers as opposed to levying penalties on employers.
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