How much does “marriage” matter when it comes to estate planning? The recent California court ruling on gay marriage has thrown marriage and its meaning once again into the limelight, and has many people thinking about what marriage means on a legal level. Anyone who pays taxes knows that your marital status matters to the [...]

In our last post we wrote about what matters most when choosing a long-term care living situation, suggesting that it’s not always the place that matters most, but the mind-set of the elderly person who will be living there, and how involved that person is in the decision-making process. However, this does not mean that [...]

Anyone who has been following our blog knows that the expiring Bush tax cuts (including the repeal of the estate tax this year and the tax’s reinstatement next year) have given lawmakers no end of trouble as they struggle and debate—and debate and struggle—to agree on new tax legislation moving forward. In fact, The Wall [...]

Free Medi-Cal and Estate Planning Seminar. Don’t lose your home and savings due to catastrophic illness in the family. Join us on August 14 at 10:30AM at the Mar Vista Public Library in Marina del Rey. Speakers are Joseph C. Girard, Esquire and Walter C. Whitaker. Call (310) 823-3943 to reserve your space today.

Our country may be facing a simultaneous growth and recession… unfortunately, according to journalist John Leland, the two seem to be at odds. What we are referring to is the growth of the elderly population and the recession of funds available to help this aging community pay for the care they need. The economic downturn [...]

Common superstition says that famous deaths come in threes, but the death of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner on July 13 makes four billionaire deaths in 2010. It’s hard to deny the significance of such events in a year when there is no estate tax. According to the Associated Press Steinbrenner’s family is set [...]