A recent study shows that in 2011, 5.1 percent of American children between the ages of 5 and 15 were identified as disabled. That amounts to more than 2.3 million children with special needs. The study also shows that only 20.7 percent of working-age adults with disabilities had a full-time job that year, compared to [...]
The unlimited marital deduction allows a person to transfer any amount of funds to a spouse free from tax. However, if your spouse is not a U.S. citizen, your estate cannot use this marital deduction without a Qualified Domestic Trust (QDOT). QDOTs were designed to stop noncitizen surviving spouses from leaving the country with a [...]
When it comes to estate planning, one size doesn’t fit all, especially if your spouse is not a U.S. citizen. This is the first of two blog posts focusing on what you need to be aware of if your spouse is a noncitizen. If your estate is below the federal estate tax exclusion threshold ($5,250,000 [...]
George Steinbrenner had great timing. He was born on the Fourth of July and died in 2010, a year that there was no estate tax in the country. If Steinbrenner had died in 2009 when the estate tax threshold was $3.5 million and the rate 45 percent, the billionaire’s heirs would have had to pay [...]
You may be struggling to pay your mortgage and may not remember the last time you could afford a nice vacation without realizing that, according to the government, you’re a millionaire. Most people are surprised by the value of their gross estate. Although the amount that is exempt from federal estate taxes is currently $5,250,000 [...]
Managed long-term care services in New York are available for those over the age of 65 and younger people with disabilities or chronic illnesses who do not have sufficient income to pay for the care they need. All of these plans accept Medicaid. There are three types of managed long-term-care service plans in New York. [...]
Following a great deal of speculation regarding the possibility of a will contest, actor James Gandolfini’s will has been filed for probate with apparently no problems among his heirs. The former Sopranos star, whose estate is estimated at $70 million, arranged for most of his assets to transfer to his beneficiaries outside of probate. The [...]
According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, more than 120,000 people in the United States are waiting for an organ and 18 of them die every day. A single organ donor has the potential to save as many as eight lives. In 2012, approximately 2,250 donors were between the ages of 50 [...]
The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that more than five million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease and that by the year 2050 that number could triple. It also claims that one in every three senior citizens today dies with Alzheimer’s or some other type of dementia. What is dementia? Dementia is a broad term used to describe a [...]
Anthony Marshall made headlines again this past summer when the 89-year-old son and heir of deceased philanthropist Brooke Astor was released from jail on medical parole. Otherwise known as the “octogenarian fraudster,” Marshall was convicted in 2009 for crimes connected to the mishandling of his mother’s estate, including tricking her into changing her will for [...]