Estate Planning Pop Quiz

Posted by Robert L. Arone August means school is back in session or just around the corner, signaling the return of new school supplies, homework, and pop quizzes. Try your hand at this estate planning pop quiz to see if your knowledge of estate planning makes the grade. Question #1: True or false? The only people involved in an estate plan are the client and the estate planning attorney who drafts the documents. Answer: False. Many advisors such as financial planners, certified public accountants (CPAs), and insurance agents play an important role in the estate planning process. For example, one of the first steps in creating an estate plan is understanding what property the client owns. This may include tangible property such as real estate, vehicles, and collectibles, as well as intangible assets such as retirement accounts and insurance policies. A client’s advisors can help the estate planning attorney understand everything the client owns

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Helping Clients Protect Themselves and Their Loved Ones This National Safety Month

Posted by Robert L. Arone For over a quarter of a century, the National Safety Council has recognized June as National Safety Month. An objective of National Safety Month is to raise public awareness of the top safety and health risks in the United States. One of the lesser-known but considerable risks Americans and their loved ones face are the financial and emotional repercussions that can accompany incapacity or death. A revocable living trust is a legal tool that can keep clients and their loved ones safe from the costs, uncertainty, and confusion that may result upon a client’s incapacity or death. A Revocable Living Trust Protects the ClientLike every person, a client is at constant risk of suffering a disastrous accident or illness that may render them incapable of caring for themselves or their loved ones. Their incapacity could be temporary, or it could last until their eventual death. The

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Three Things You Can Do to Help Clients with National Moving Month

Posted by Robert L. Arone The month of May means not only the end of the school year and the beginning of summer but also the beginning of the busiest moving season of the year. That’s why May is National Moving Month. Your clients have a lot to think about when moving: along with organizing and packing up all of their belongings, there is also starting and stopping utilities, mail forwarding, updating voter registration, and so on. While the ever-growing number of items on their moving to-do list may be overwhelming, there are three important things you can do to help any client in the process of moving: (1) make sure they know where their important documents are, (2) help them set a moving budget, and (3) continue as their advisor, or connect them to a new advisor. Make Sure They Know Where Their Important Documents Are In all of the chaos

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Help Clients Celebrate Earth Day with These Environmentally Friendly Burial Options

Posted by Robert L. Arone When it comes to death and what to do with a deceased’s remains, most people think of only two options: burial or cremation. However, these options are not particularly environmentally friendly. Burial, which is arguably the worst option from an environmental standpoint, uses an estimated 100,000 tons of steel, 1.5 million tons of concrete, 77,000 trees and 4.3 million gallons of embalming fluid every year.[1] Some of that 4.3 million gallons of carcinogenic embalming fluid likely leaks into the earth, polluting our water and soil. Cremation, often considered the greener option, is not much better. Some estimate that one cremation uses about as much gas and electricity as a 500-mile road trip and gives off around 250 pounds of carbon dioxide.[2] For those clients that are more environmentally minded, here are some nontraditional, eco-friendly burial ideas. An added benefit is that many of these environmentally friendly ideas

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Entity Options for Your Massachusetts Small Business

Posted by Robert L. Arone You know your business better than anyone else: whether that be a professional, trade, occupation, dog-walking, catering, or custom-made crocheted goods. But when it comes to giving your business the best legal and tax footing, you may feel a little lost in what choices there are and the benefits and costs of each choice. In this article, I will give a simplified overview of a few business structures available to Massachusetts entrepreneurs and small business owners. Each has its own benefits and drawbacks regarding registration procedure, tax structure, and personal liability. Some choices are better for taxation and some for liabilities and some structures cost more to maintain. Sole Proprietorship A sole proprietorship is, in many ways, the default legal structure for a Massachusetts business. A sole proprietorship has, as the name would suggest, a single (“sole”) owner (“proprietor”). The procedure for setting up a

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