Comptroller Peter Franchot invited the Financial Planning Association of Maryland to Annapolis for a symposium on House Bill 191.  House Bill 191 and Senate Bill 307 will require the Maryland High Schools to include a required course on Financial Literacy as a graduation requirement.  The bill is patterned after a similar law already in effect [...]

My new office is in Annapolis near the Harbor Center.  The office is on the third floor of the Annapolis Professional Center II.  The location is convenient to Interstate 97 and Route 50 just off Aris T. Allen Boulevard.  I am excited about the space and the ability to better serve my clients.

Our firm increasingly sees clients with large retirement account balances or large life insurance policies without a contingent or secondary beneficiary.  These assets will pass according to the beneficiary designation without being part of your probate estate as long as a beneficiary is named.  However, these assets are considered part of your total estate and [...]

The birth of a child is often the impetus for a young couple to schedule an appointment to discuss estate planning.  The process hits a roadblock when the new parents try to decide who should be named as Guardian of their children.  It is my job to help them make the decision.  Brothers and Sisters [...]

This is the time of year for graduations and we are proud that our youngest daughter graduated from Williams College.  We are also relieved of our obligation to write those tuition checks twice a year.  As an estate planning attorney I realize that the last college graduation means our estate plan needs to be updated. [...]

I just returned from three days in Grapevine, Texas getting trained on the latest features of WealthCounsel software and the latest changes in Estate Planning. The change I am bringing back to my practice is the use of Standalone Retirement Trusts to hold retirement assets. WealthCounsel has developed a trust that can hold a retirement [...]

The Maryland State Bar Association highly encourages attorneys to make their legal services available to individual who cannot afford legal assistance or to help non-profit organizations in achieving their purpose.   Here are some of the activities I have been involved in during the past year. Wills for Heroes: This program involved preparation of simple wills, [...]

You can easily write your own will, power of attorney, medical power of attorney, and living will using an on-line package.  Most of the software packages do a pretty good job for the “I love you wills” giving everything to your spouse, then to your children.  The software replicates what most general practice attorneys can [...]

Estate planning is not just for retirees.  Summer is a busy time in the office for completing wills of young parents.  Planning a summer vacation forces parents to think about who would look after their children if they both perished in an airplane or car accident. The first step of the will is to name [...]

This year’s temporary repeal of the Federal Estate Tax has created a new set of problems for those inheriting appreciated assets.  Amy Feldman details these problems in her article “Trouble For Heirs” found in the April 25, 2010 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek.  There is no Federal Estate Tax in 2010, but stepped-up basis of assets [...]