Articles

Make sure your loved ones can get your medical info

If you’re in the hospital, you probably want certain family members and trusted friends to be able to get information about your condition or prognosis. But to make sure this happens, you may need to plan ahead. A federal law called HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) is designed to protect your health care privacy, and says that medical personnel can’t disclose your health care information to unauthorized people. Only a small number of people

What to do if you have an Obamacare plan and become eligible for Medicare

If you or someone you know has a marketplace health care plan under the Affordable Care Act (an “Obamacare” plan), and you’ve reached the age of 65 or are close to it, it’s important to look carefully at your options. Not making the right decision could be costly. In the vast majority of cases, the smart approach is to terminate the Obamacare plan and sign up for Medicare. But many people are unaware of this fact,

Be aware of these tax deadlines

A new year means tax return filing season has arrived once again. Among the tax deadlines you may be required to meet in the next few months are the following:

Keys to effective cash management

Add cash management to your list of business goals for 2016. Commitment to effective practices and techniques can be the key to keeping your business operating on a sound footing. Some tips: Reduce lag time. Reducing the time between sending out invoices and receiving payment may take the form of giving incentive discounts to customers who pay early. On the expense side, aim for just-in-time inventory to reduce holding costs.

Standard mileage rates reduced for 2016

Business. Starting January 1, the standard mileage rate for driving a vehicle for business purposes is set at 54 cents per mile. That’s down from 57.5 cents in 2015. Medical and moving. The rate for medical and moving mileage decreases from last year’s 23 cents a mile to 19 cents a mile. Charity. The general rate for charitable driving remains at 14 cents a mile.

Tax extender act renews tax breaks

In mid-December, Congress renewed a long list of tax breaks known as “extenders” that have been expiring on an annual basis. This year many of the rules are retroactive to the beginning of 2015, and you can benefit from them as you prepare your 2015 federal income tax return. In addition, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, which was signed into law on December 18, 2015, makes some of the rules effective through

Plan for the possibility of Alzheimer’s disease

Did you know that 47% of people over age 85 are affected by Alzheimer’s disease? The numbers are high enough that any older person planning for their estate should consider the possibility that they may become intellectually incapacitated at some point. Of course, a critical step in planning for incapacity is having a durable power of attorney document in place that allows someone to handle your financial affairs if you’re no longer able to do so.

Audrey Hepburn’s sons battle over her memorabilia 22 years later

When actress Audrey Hepburn died in 1993, she owned a storage locker containing memorabilia of her career – costumes, photos, awards, scripts, posters and the like. In her will, she directed that the contents be divided equally between her two sons. But some 22 years later, the two sons (who had different fathers) still can’t agree on how to divide the goods. The older son, who is now in his mid-fifties, has filed a lawsuit and

IRS tax crackdown might actually end up helping

IRS officials have been indicating for a few months now that they’re about to start cracking down on certain estate planning techniques that have been popular in recent years. But ironically, this might actually help a number of clients to save on their taxes. The issue involves family limited partnerships and LLCs. A technique that many wealthy people have used in the past is to create a family business structure of this type, and then give

Two trustees may be better than one

A trustee has two important duties – managing the assets in the trust, and distributing them to the beneficiaries according to the donor’s wishes. But it can be hard to find one person who can do both things well. An aunt or uncle might be the perfect person to know how to distribute assets to family members, but might not have a lot of financial acumen. An investment advisor might be very skilled at growing the

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