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Question: Should people of all ages have a health care proxy and other medical documents? Response: Yes. Even though you’re less likely to become ill or especially demented when [...]

When you get a job with benefits, you may well be offered a 401(k) plan and/or life insurance. Even if you’re just getting started in your career, name beneficiaries who would receive these [...]

Question: I would like to leave $10,000 cash to a dear friend in the United Kingdom upon my death. Can this be done? If not, can I send her a cashier’s check in the near future? Response: [...]

Question: I have a question about my mother’s two-family house. It’s amazing that she has survived the pandemic and will be turning 104 in September. She is in a nursing home and is covered [...]

Question: My cousin’s only son, David, who is 33 years old, just received notice that he has qualified for SSDI, retroactive for a year and a half. He had a brain tumor at age 12. The good [...]

Question: My brother-in-law passed away. His sister was his power of attorney and a trustee of a special need trust. After she became p-o-a she changed his beneficiary of an iron worker’s [...]

Question: I am my mother’s primary caretaker, and my sister and I pay a friend to care for my mother several hours a week when I am not home. (I reside with my mother.) I will be returning [...]

Question: My durable power of attorney has the phrase: “it shall not be deemed to be self-dealing on the part of my attorney-in-fact herein to make gifts, transfers or dispositions to or [...]

Question: My mother died at age 93. Her husband is in an assisted living facility. She had financial and medical powers of attorney. I am the successor agent on both. His Medicaid pays most of [...]

Question: If I want to leave someone money from my mutual funds, does that have to be in my will or can I just make that person a beneficiary of that fund or partial beneficiary? Will that be [...]