Joint Tenancy

Sometimes the best way to learn is from other people's stories:
In 1997, Annette Fallucco placed two accounts containing certificates of deposit (CDs) totaling $139,314 in joint tenancy with her son, James. Five days later, Mrs. Fallucco executed her will, which provided specific bequests to her son and daughter, with the residuary estate to be distributed in equal shares to her grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
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Medical Durable Powers Of Attorney

Very important information on Durable Powers Of Attorney:
Clients frequently regard Medical Durable Powers of Attorney, also known as Health Care Proxies, as “throw-away” documents when considering their larger estate plans. The traditional centerpieces to one’s estate plan are generally considered Trust documents (if applicable) and Last Wills and Testaments.
http://www.counsel1st.com/healthcare_proxy.php

QDROS and Divorce

We caution divorced spouses that QDROs are not typically included in your attorney’s original fees and not all attorneys will draft these types of orders. Most will tell you that someone else will need to be hired to do it at the conclusion of your divorce, but you may not have realized they did so at a time when you are focused on other things.
http://www.counsel1st.com/defined_benefits_plan.php

Keep Your Emotions Out Of Divorce To Protect Your Finance

No one envisions their divorce on their wedding day, but unfortunately the fact is that a lot of marriages end in divorce. When you are starting the process of divorce it can seem like an impossible feat to keep your emotions checked, but it is a necessity. This article discusses financial advice for people going through a divorce...

“You always think when you’re newlyweds that the first few years are the peak of the divorce years, and that after 20 years everything is fine and dandy,” but many divorces happen to longtime couples, said Vielka Burey-Jacas, a certified financial planner and certified divorce financial analyst in Kendall. 

Julia Landry Laviolette

Social Security, marriage and divorce

Divorcing or marrying can change your retirement or social security accounts, and it is important to note the changes before rushing into either situation. This article highlights the way marrying and divorcing can affect your finances...

If your spouse (or your ex-spouse of 10 years' marriage) passed away, you have rights to widow's or widower's payments from Social Security. But if you remarry before age 60 those payments are barred for as long as your new marriage lasts. Here's the big exception: Remarriage after age 60 doesn't count; you would still have access to the widow(er)'s payments. So if you're planning a wedding two weeks before your 60th birthday, you might want to reschedule.

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What You Don't Say Can Hurt You- Estate Planning

There are many concerns when one creates a will: not including everyone, offending a family member, and not addressing every asset are a few issues that may prevent someone from preparing a will. It is important to be very honest about your intentions, and to be very honest about your feelings regarding certain family members. Use this article for reference before taking the steps to prepare your will.

There are lots of things to weigh and some truths to confront, and as painful as the conversation may be for some families, not having it will only result in more pain later on, said Carrozza. Our lives are complicated. There are remarriages, step-children, adult kids who can't handle money or are married to dolts. There are children with special needs, grandchildren with college worries, surviving spouses who remarry and nobody likes the new wife. Our lives are messy, said Carrozza, but an honest conversation now can pre-empt problems later on.

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Hagel Explains Pay and Benefit Cuts to Troops

We represent entry level soldiers, all the way up to accredited officers. I wonder if the "cuts" will affect them all the same way?  Those entry level military members hardly earn enough to survive in the RI economy. This article goes in to detail about the cuts. 

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel met with troops face-to-face Tuesday for the first time since he introduced a defense budget proposal that cuts service members' pay and benefits.

In a town hall meeting with soldiers at Fort Eustis, Va., Hagel said that "what we're proposing we think is fair" to slow the growth of pay and benefits to allow for improvements in readiness and modernization in a smaller force after the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

His remarks were greeted respectfully by the soldiers. There was no applause, but the questions put to Hagel were direct and unemotional.

Hagel cited the Basic Allowance for Housing as an example in the Pentagon's first overall effort to pare back benefits in the all-volunteer era of the military.

"You all get 100 percent" in the BAH, Hagel told the troops. "You don't pay anything." In the coming years, troops would be asked to pay five percent of the BAH under the proposals in the Pentagon's Fiscal Year 2015 budget, Hagel said.

Hagel noted that up until the late 1990s, service members paid 18 percent of BAH.

Hagel stressed to the troops that there will be no pay cuts and, in fact, "there will be pay increases." However, the pay raises will not come at the rate troops had come to expect when defense budgets soared after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

In another cost-cutting measure, the proposed budget called for merging the current three Tricare Prime, Extra and Standard programs into one.

Hagel said "it just makes sense" that the Tricare proposals also included a "slight, modest increase in co-pays for families and working age retirees" in the range of 8-11 percent that would be worked in gradually.

A sergeant in Hagel's audience asked how the nation would respond with a smaller force "if another war kicks off."

Read More At Military.com

Poor Man's Estate Planning

There are certain instances where people feel like they have no use for estate planning, mainly because they are of meager means. Even if you do not have a lot of money, there are still other aspects to cover, such as real estate and healthcare decisions. If you have children it is even more important to set up plans for your estate, and this advice colum goes into the reasons why.


Dear Len and Rosie, My mother is a 78 and is of meager means. She has no real property but does have several thousand dollars in a Vanguard rollover IRA. She does not have a will, and I believe that there is really no need for one. I’m hoping that you can tell me that I am correct. If she chooses to name her five children the beneficiaries of the IRA, does this allow us, in the event of her death, to avoid probate? Mona 

Dear Mona, Your mother’s estate will avoid probate if the assets titled solely in her name upon her death total less than $150,000. From what you have told us, she has nothing to worry about. She can avoid probate with “poor man’s estate planning.” She should name her children as IRA beneficiaries, assuming she wants them to get the money. Anything passing upon her death by means of a pay-on-death beneficiary designation will avoid probate. And it’s good for her children too. If your mother’s IRA pays into her estate, it will be subject to income tax upon her death. But if you and your siblings inherit the IRA as designated beneficiaries, you will have the opportunity to stretch out IRA distributions over your own life expectancies. This may not mean much if the IRA is worth only a few thousand dollars, but for readers of this column who have significant money within IRA’s or other retirement accounts, it’s always important to verify that you have beneficiaries. Your mother can also name the children as joint tenants or pay-on-death beneficiaries on her bank accounts so that they will also pass free of probate upon her death.

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