If you have adult children then you know that it’s more than just credit limits and investment accounts that have been affected by the slow economy; companies also are tightening their belts, and people of all ages are finding it harder to get (or keep) jobs. As a result, more and more adult children have been moving back in with their parents.

Of course every parent wants to do what’s best for their child, but Ruth Mantell of the Wall Street Journal writes in her article that in this case, being tough may be what’s best. This isn’t to say that you should refuse if your out-of-work child comes to your door asking for help, but that parents or grandparents need to do what’s necessary to protect themselves before they welcome their adult children back home. “With job losses continuing to mount, older Americans’ wallets are being stretched by their own children,” Mantell writes, but having your adult children back in your home can actually be a good experience for all—if you know what to expect and take the right steps first.

In her article Mantell offers five useful tips to help keep the peace and keep your finances secure, including suggestions such as making sure everyone knows who is boss (you as the homeowner), asking for household contributions (even if all your children can afford is a token financial contribution or a contribution of manual labor), and especially preserving your retirement plans at all costs.

Although the practice has fallen out of style, multi-generational households used to be the norm. It may not be the ideal situation today, but with the right communication, and with everybody on the same page, temporarily sharing the house with your adult children can be an acceptable—and maybe even rewarding—experience.

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How often do you and your spouse talk about the financial aspect of your retirement? For that matter, how often do you talk about finances in general? New Research by Fidelity has found that an alarmingly high number of couples barely communicate about their finances at all. In fact, “only 15 percent of couples feel confident that both of them could assume responsibility for their joint finances if necessary”.

Retirement planning is one of the leading areas in which spouses have a failure to communicate, according to the research. After the recent market turmoil, people have new and greater concerns about their ability to retire comfortably, but they aren’t talking about it. And lack of communication means a lack of planning: “Although couples agree about their top financial concerns in retirement, they have not developed better planning habits. In fact, nearly 10 percent fewer couples report they had completed critical plans – be that a retirement plan, an estate plan, or a will — as compared to 2007.”

Although the temptation to bury your head in the sand may be strong, talking with your spouse—and then with a trusted professional—to create quality retirement and estate plans is essential, and will bring incredible comfort and security to you and the rest of your family. If talking about finances is not something that comes naturally to you and your spouse, a good way to get started is to make an appointment with a professional who can lead you through the process together.

Talking about money doesn’t have to be scary. Learning together and making plans for the future will not only strengthen your financial situation, it can also strengthen your relationship.

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We write a lot on our blog about the separate pieces of an estate plan, the unique financial challenges facing adults these days, or each of the many individual concerns we face in the course of keeping up with the present and planning for the future; but today we want to look at the big picture. We strongly feel that planning for the future—really taking care of your family and loved ones—is not about individual pieces, it’s about seeing how those pieces fit together and make up the whole. Which is why, whenever we can, our firm takes a comprehensive approach to protecting your family and your future:

Providing for young children: We know that one of the hardest things to do as a parent is to try to imagine your child’s life without you. We also know that getting over that hurdle and choosing the best guardians for your child and creating a trust designed for their unique needs can bring a world of comfort.

Providing for elderly parents: Baby boomers are not called “the sandwich generation” for nothing. Having an attorney who can help you with the guardianship of minor children and then turn around and help you understand the ins and outs of Medicare for the benefit of your aging parents is not only convenient, it’s essential.

Planning your own retirement: The process of creating an estate plan forces you to get all of your ducks in a row, including your retirement and investment accounts, and we can help. In addition, our firm can help you understand (and execute, if desired) a Retirement Trust, which not only extends your retirement fund past its initial payout date, but gives you more options for distributions.

Saving for college: We can help you make sure that your college-age children will have the wherewithal to follow their (and your) dreams for education in the event that anything happens to you. An education trust is the perfect way to provide for your children’s schooling.

Investing in the future: The future is the business of an estate planning attorney, whether it be protecting your life insurance policy for your family, saving your property from probate fees, or minimizing your taxes.

We know that it’s not easy finding someone you can trust with your family security and finances. Our compassion and expertise make us more than just an estate planning firm, a probate specialist, or an elder law firm—we’re your family law firm.

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People used to think that retirement was a time of placidity and relaxation, a time when all of life’s big surprises were behind you and most days and years would now bring an unchanging idyllic existence…

It seems unlikely that this was ever an accurate portrayal of any phase of human existence, including retirement, but people seemed satisfied to believe it at the time. Recent events, however, have put retirement under some serious scrutiny, and what has been found is that (especially lately) retirement is just as fraught with losses, gains, and unexpected changes as any other time of life—perhaps more!

In retirement, as with anything else, foreknowledge and preparation can make all the difference. This recent article in U.S. News and World Report entitled 5 Big Financial Changes for Retirees in 2010 can help prepare retirees for what’s ahead. And in spite of what general opinion would have you think, the news isn’t all bad! New Roth IRA rules and a suspension of mandatory retirement plan withdrawals are two changes that will work in retirees’ favor. But taking advantage of these changes could have a negative effect on your 2009 tax return if you don’t take precautions.

Contact your financial advisor or estate planning attorney for the low-down on how to best use, protect and preserve your retirement income. With the right preparation, you just may be able to have that relaxing (if not completely care-free) retirement after all.

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How are you feeling about your retirement these days?  According to Chuck Jaffe’s article in MarketWatch most people’s answer to that question is not so good. According to Jaffe, Americans are losing confidence in the market’s ability to support their retirement (with good reason), and the most common reaction to this lack of confidence is to reassess their future and plan to put off retirement a few years.  But what if your retirement date isn’t a matter of choice?

The tagline of Jaffe’s article is “Raise Retirement Satisfaction By Lowering Your Standards”, but what Jaffe really seems to be saying is not so much “lower your standards” as be educated about the market and realistic about your standards. “Getting a better handle on your future — so that you can either say today you’ll be able to live comfortably in retirement or make plans that raise your comfort level in time — requires sound knowledge of where you actually stand today. That requires taking inventory of your assets, expenses and plans.” 

This is sound advice not just in retirement planning, but in any kind of planning—including estate planning.  There is a lot of conflicting information out there, and a lot of assumptions; our firm can help you navigate the terrain and make an informed choice about your future.

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As an estate planning firm it is our job to keep our clients prepared for what’s coming. This means helping prepare them not only for the eventuality of death, but also for what is coming in life; retirement, the possibility of divorce, new children or grandchildren, and even taxes. Taxes especially are of great concern these days because of the new President and his administration, and although we don’t yet know exactly what the new administration will do on the tax front, this article from CNN’s Money.com gives us an idea of where they may be headed.

As for the others, there are many ways we can help prepare you—and your heirs—for any eventuality; whether it be to protect your (and their) assets from predators during your lives or to provide for your loved ones after your death. Please call our office to find out how we can help your family be prepared.

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If you are one of the thoughtful people who already have an estate plan you may be looking at the news stories about President Obama and his changes to the estate tax and wondering if it will affect your plan. “How long ago did I create my plan?” is the inevitable question we ask ourselves, “What has changed? Has it been long enough that I have to update it?” Well, we’re here to tell you that if you have to ask the question then yes, it’s time to update your plan.

You may think that your plan is simple, your assets haven’t changed, and so changes in the estate tax law won’t affect you, but as this article points out, it’s not just changes in the estate tax law that can impact your estate plan. “A law change that inadvertently has affected some estate plans in recent years is the law protecting medical privacy (commonly referred to as HIPAA or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). This law, while protecting your privacy, can be a problem if you become incapacitated, and someone who is supposed to act on your behalf cannot get the necessary information.” Does your estate plan include an updated HIPAA? Ours do.

Inevitable life changes are another reason to update your estate plan regularly. These include changing friendships or family relationships, the births or deaths of family members, your own changing medical needs, and more.

It’s not so hard to make an appointment with your estate planning attorney for a quick review of your plan and of changes to the law. And chances are that most years changes won’t be sweeping but small, such as the inclusion of a HIPAA or the addition of a new grandchild. Don’t let the passage of time render your plan obsolete.

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