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21 Dec 2020 Tax Tips for the Gig Economy

Posted at 20:00h in Blog, Business and Finance

What has the IRS cooked up for us this year? I was reviewing some of the tax changes for 2020, and it seems like the big changes came last year as part of the Trump administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. What did get my attention were some cautionary items...

21 Dec Former Linebacker, 42, Now Losing his Last Big Game to Dementia

Posted at 19:48h in Blog, Wills And Revocable Living Trusts

T.J. Abraham is a big guy who played football throughout high school and college. An offensive linebacker, he loved the tough-man fraternity of the team, the getting hit, clanking helmets, getting back up. He saw stars, he threw up, but he got back back in it. “I probably got my...

21 Dec Prescription Drugs to Fight Aging—Entirely Experimental

Posted at 19:35h in Blog, Senior Services and Hospice, Wills And Revocable Living Trusts

Meet Dr. Alan Green. He has a tiny but lucrative practice in Queens. His patients travel from around the country to get prescriptions to drugs they believe will fight aging. Who are his patients? An estimated 5% are fellow doctors. Others have backgrounds in science or are in the upper-income...

29 Nov The Gig Economy: The Winners and the Losers

Posted at 19:43h in Blog, Business and Finance

California has passed legislation that could help hundreds of thousands of independent contractors become employees. It would provide the opportunity to earn a minimum wage, overtime pay and other benefits. Yet this legislation is highly controversial. Uber, for one, doesn’t think the law’s provisions apply to its drivers. They’re just...

29 Nov Aging in Place: Growing Older at Home

Posted at 19:32h in Blog, Senior Services and Hospice

Living Trusts are an important service for us, and creating a Trust often inspires people to get serious about life planning. Many of those who are retired or who are nearing retirement begin to make plans for what they hope will be the next twenty or more years. Health and...

29 Nov ‘Tis the season for Holiday Scams

Posted at 19:21h in Blog, Wills And Revocable Living Trusts

I dodged a scam this week from a company that called to renew my subscription to McAfee, my antivirus software. They directed me to a website and told me I had to pay $420 for a two-year subscription. This felt a little hinky, but then, I’ve had a computer virus...

22 Oct Socially Conscious Investing: Taking a Bigger Role in 401k’s

Posted at 17:34h in Blog, Business and Finance

Peter Rothstein likes that his job has a social purpose. It expands clean energy to mitigate climate change. Best of all, he will soon be able to support that mission in his retirement plan. Socially conscious investing is gaining ground. Identifying 401k offerings that support environmental, social and governance (ESG)...

22 Oct A Drug-Resistant, Deadly Fungus Is Plaguing Nursing Facilities

Posted at 17:03h in Blog, Health

Called candida auris, this fungus is highly contagious, drug-resistant, and it’s plaguing nursing facilities. Half of the patients who contract this disease die within 90 days. It’s so difficult to eradicate that many facilities have stopped accepting patients infected with it. Public health officials struggle to contain the pathogen, while...

22 Oct The Fed: Helping Us Save for Retirement

Posted at 16:50h in Blog, Business and Finance

The government is responding to statistics showing that current generations are not saving for retirement. Unlike their thrifty parents, many baby boomers are alarmingly ill-prepared for retirement. Many other employees are more focused on present financial needs than future ones. The implications of generations of people who are unable to...

22 Oct Divorce and Pets: Who Gets the Dog?

Posted at 16:39h in Blog, Divorce

A recent New York Times article tells the story of a divorcing couple who amicably divide all community property. The problem was Zoe, a Jack Russell terrier, that “Jim” brought to the marriage. Technically, Zoe belonged to him. In North Carolina, a community property state, pets are classified with “stuff”,...

24 Sep Initiating Difficult Family Conversations About End-of-Life Planning

Posted at 10:05h in Blog, Wills And Revocable Living Trusts

The reluctance or downright unwillingness to talk to parents and grandparents about the difficult topic of end-of-life planning is one that frequently arises in our offices. It ranges from “Mom’s a terrible driver and shouldn’t be behind the wheel, but nobody will confront her” to “Dad’s health is deteriorating, and...

23 Sep The Early Days of the Opioid Crisis: How It Might Have Turned Out Differently

Posted at 03:59h in Blog, Health

An article in The New York Times tells the tragic story of addiction and its effect on a Virginia coal mining town that has already seen its share of hard times. But it’s more than that. It’s about the lawmakers who had a chance to do the right thing to make...