When your health starts to decline as you get older, you may need support to stay safe and well. Moving in to a nursing home can allow those with cognitive issues or limited mobility to enjoy their golden years without the risks that come from living alone....
Estate Planning
Reasons a Millennial Should Do Estate Planning
Estate planning is not just for those who are nearing retirement age. People often assume that grandparents create estate plans later in life to decide where to leave their assets -- and how to do it -- and that they don’t need to worry about estate planning until...
What is a Financial Power of Attorney (or General Power of Attorney/Durable Power of Attorney)?
When it comes to estate planning there are two especially important types of Power of Attorneys (POA) used in Pennsylvania Estate Planning. One is known as a Healthcare Power of Attorney (HPOA) which allows an individual to appoint someone to make healthcare...
How to retain special needs guardianship once your child turns 18
As the parent of a minor with special needs, you have been able to protect them. However, after their 18th birthday, you will no longer automatically have that ability. If you do not take legal steps to preserve it, the law will assume your child can take care of...
What is a Small Estate Petition?
When a loved one passes away, most estates are administered through a formal probate process. When we are NOT going through a pandemic, this would involve appearing before the Register of Wills and requesting to be appointed executor or administrator using a document...
Online wills could cost you more instead of saving you money
Pennsylvania Probate laws (Title 20: Decedents, Estates and Fiduciaries) discuss everything from Intestate Succession to Elective Shares of Surviving Spouses, to inheritance taxes and the procedure for administering an estate. The average individual probably doesn’t...
Differences Between Guardianship and Health Care and Financial Powers of Attorneys
Many people get confused about the difference between guardianship, health care powers of attorneys, and financial powers of attorney. Let us take a look at the three different legal tools. What is guardianship? Guardianship gives someone else the right to make...
Estate Planning vs. Estate Administration
What is the difference? Well, Estate Planning is done during your life in preparing for incapacity or death and to make sure that your wishes are carried out. Estate Administration is done after your pass away to make sure that the planning you did prior to death is...
How Should You Encourage Family Members to Create an Estate Plan
All of us experience aging family members at some time in our lives and there is no good time to speak with them about their estate plan. Estate planning is often a difficult topic for all of us to broach, as it brings the unpleasant topics of aging and death to the...
Why Your Family Needs an Estate Plan
Fifty-seven percent of adults in the United States have not prepared any estate planning documents such as a will or trust despite the fact that seventy-six percent of adults in the United States view them as important. You may wonder why that is the case, but are...