All children are a blessing. From the day they are born, you begin making plans to ensure that your child or grandchild has a bright future. What will their interests be? What job will they have? Who will they marry? While these are common concerns for most families, for those with a special needs child or grandchild, taking steps to …
Many of us do not start thinking about life insurance until we get our first full-time job and the company’s human resources representative asks us if we want to enroll in the employer’s group life insurance policy. Most people think “Why not?” and sign up, naming a family member as the beneficiary of their policy, and then never give it …
You have recently divorced your spouse and the judge has signed the divorce judgment. Now what? Although you may feel as though you have spent enough time and money on lawyers, there is one last attorney you need to talk to: an estate planning attorney. If you and your former spouse had estate planning done together previously, it is necessary …
Part of protecting your loved ones when you pass away is making sure that you have a proper estate plan in place. Another aspect is making sure that the right amount of money is available to carry out your goals for their futures. Life insurance has helped many people provide for their loved ones in the way they had envisioned. …
It is uncommon for agriculture producers and business owners to consider estate planning and succession planning for their agriculture operation in the midst of a divorce; however, divorcing farm families should consider this while negotiating the division of marital assets. These assets may include the farm or ranch business and its assets. After all, divorce is one of the Big …
Life insurance is a way to increase an estate’s value just by paying a monthly premium. In the case of a farm, the life insurance can be taken out by the parent, or by a child on the life of a parent. This can help alleviate complications that can arise if certain children wish to take over the farm and …
The National Business Institute (“NBI”) will be having a substantive webinar on October 3, 2012 from 11:00am to 6:00pm ET (that’s no typo – it’s a 7 hour webinar…). It’s a little pricey for a webinar but if you are interested in this topic (like me) then I think it’ll be worthwhile. Topics for the webinar include the following: (1) …
Many people think that “estate planning” is really just hiring a lawyer or downloading a program off the internet (which I do not suggest) to draft a Last Will and Testament. However, it’s more complicated than that. A good estate planning attorney will have you complete a questionnaire giving him/her information on your family tree, assets and liabilities in order …
Okay, so it’s not the most exciting New Year’s Resolution but it may be a whole lot more doable than dropping 30 pounds in 2012. On page 5 of this month’s Grassroots newspaper by New York Farm Bureau (“NYFB”) includes a nice submission by A. Edward Staehr of NY FarmNet about coping with a disaster (including grief counseling, recreating lost …
I read a great article in the Agriculture Law Update from the American Agriculture Law Association (“AALA”) by Kevin Alerding, Esq., a Partner at Ice Miller, LLP in Indianapolis, Indiana, about reviewing estate plans. Alerding recommends that folks review their estate plan once a year. I think this is good advice so it becomes part of your regular routine. Perhaps after you …
I don’t know what it is about the first of the year, but it is always hectic. This has certainly been a busy first week of 2010. I have been catching up on my reading and came across a great article in last month’s newsletter from Barrett Easterday Cunningham & Eselgroth LLP, an agriculture law firm located in Dublin, Ohio. Russell Cunningham is …