“Hey, when am I going to get my money?” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard beneficiaries ask that question when they’ve been named in a Will or Trust. It’s not uncommon for the beneficiary to put pressure on the executor or trustee to speed up the process. And if the person settling the estate caves to the [...]
Celebrities are often placed on a pedestal because of their success and their extraordinary talent—people like Elvis, Aretha Franklin, Prince, Michael Jackson, Howard Hughes, Pablo Picasso, Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix. They were gifted and they made boat-loads of money doing what they did best. But making money has no correlation to handling money. And in the case of everyone [...]
Gifting is a great financial planning tool, especially at the end of the year. Alhambra's Bob Williams goes through the basics.
You need more than a Will or Trust to round out your estate plan. Alhambra's Bob Williams lists other Must Have planning documents.
In 2012, the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) established, for the first time, a permanent estate tax and gift tax exemption. The exemption is the amount an individual can pass on at death without paying estate taxes. The legislation set the exemption at $5 million per person, indexed for inflation. Five years later, Congress decided the exemption was not large [...]
If you’ve been gifting money each year to people you love, or using gifting as a planning tool, it’s about to get even better. In 2023, the amount you can give away takes a healthy jump and as long as your generosity doesn’t exceed the limit, you should stay off the IRS radar. In 2023 the new annual exclusion moves [...]
Woe to the person who inherits a Health Savings Account. Alhambra's Bob Williams describes the pitfalls and what to watch out for.
The Health Savings Account has been a wonderful addition to the financial landscape of people who are eligible for one. They’re often thought of as a way to pay for qualified medical expenses with pre-tax money during your working years for things like deductibles, copays, and non-covered items—in other words, things not covered by insurance. You can’t make contributions to [...]
It’s been pounded into us that having a successful retirement requires advance planning—financial planning, Social Security planning, retirement income planning, and estate planning. And now, there’s another component to be considered—planning what happens in the event you have a decline in mental capacity. The Administration for Community Living estimates there are 54.1 million Americans who are 65 years old or [...]
My, how things have changed. When I was growing up, if you found out someone had a trust, well, that person must be rich—they must be a millionaire (that’s back when a million dollars was really worth something). Today, though, trusts of all kinds are a common planning tool providing specific benefits to a multitude of situations. But boil it [...]
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