With Your Family in Mind

By California law, employers are required to maintain worker’s compensation insurance.  Failure to do so exposes the employer to significant fines and penalties.  The Bureau of Labor Standards Enforcement monitors and enforces employer’s compliance with worker’s compensation laws.  This agency employs field enforcement agents who look for employers that have employees but fail to carry worker’s compensation insurance. 

There are times in our lives when we simply do not know what to do.  We know that we need to do something.  We are just not quite sure what that “something” is.  We know that we need to make a decision – but what decision?  We know that we need to move forward – but how?  As uncomfortable and stressful as it may seem, the reality is that there are simply times in our lives when we do not know what to do. 

Setting goals is a first step to investment planning.  The next step in setting your investment goals is: What is my time horizon?  In other words, when will you need the money?  Are you investing for your child’s college education in 17 years, or for your retirement in 30 years?  Or is your goal to buy a house in three years, or start your own business in five years?
Long-term or short-term?

Guardians are the individuals that you have nominated to care for your children in the event you are no longer able to do so.  A living trust can incorporate provisions for guardians that are intended to minimize the potential financial and emotional hardships on the guardian and the guardian’s family.  

The revocable living trust is designed to achieve two important goals: avoiding probate and (for some married couples) avoiding Federal Estate Tax.
Many people ask their attorneys whether placing their assets in such a trust will protect those assets from creditors.  The answer is, not absolutely, but maybe – at least temporarily.

No doubt that divorce is a very serious matter.  Like many things in life, it is a process.  Divorces can be horrible.  But not every divorce has to be.  Often I will counsel my clients that they need to make decisions in their divorce as they would in a business transaction.  That is, they need to leave the hate and animosity out of the decision making process all together.

Today, a baby boy needs a family to provide love and support to him while his parents obtain treatment for substance abuse.  He is four months old and unable to understand the unfortunate reasons he has to be in a new environment.  With kindness and nurturance available by Inner Circle Foster and Adoptive parents, this child will find the protection and comfort he requires. 

People seem to have higher stress levels than ever these days, despite the fact that we have so much technology around us it is supposed to make our lives easier.  Everyone seems to be going around in a stress induced frenzy!
Most of the time, a bit of stress is a good thing.  We need stress to make us do things.  If we didn’t have the stress of worrying about getting to an appointment on time – would we bother going? 

Captain Paul Becker of our SCV Sheriff’s station addressed the city council regarding our community’s drug issues.  There are some alarming statistics to consider.  January 2009 to May 2010:
• 450 drug related arrests
• 12 lives lost to overdose of heroin/prescription meds

“The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.” - Peter F. Drucker
At the Center for Cooperative Divorce we engage in a type of mediation that involves interest-based negotiations.  This negotiation strategy has been defined as achieving a “win-win” solution to disputes.  The focus in developing consensus agreements takes into account each party’s “underlying interests.”  These include the needs, desires, concerns, and fears that are important to each party.

As stated in last month’s article, the federal estate tax expired at the end of 2009, and this has created a serious problem in allocating capital gains tax.  While the federal estate tax has disappeared in 2010, so has the “step-up” in basis.  
Suppose you purchased shares of stock many years ago for $25,000, and they’re now worth $100,000.  If you had died in 2009, your heirs would get those shares with a “stepped-up” basis of $100,000, so if they sold them right away, they wouldn’t owe any capital gains tax. 

The Magazine of Santa Clarita readers always send me great questions about the voiceover business.  This month, a voice actor asks about ISDN.  
Q: I need to know some basic info about doing an ISDN session.  I just landed a job with a big company that should take about an hour of recording time.  I’ll be driving to Burbank this coming week to a recording studio that’s set up for ISDN. 

As a recent graduate, or one who’s nearing graduation: Congratulations!  You’re on the verge of entering the workforce, and are poised to make decisions that will impact you for the rest of your life.  As you explore your career options, why not choose a career that will positively impact not only you, but those in your community as well?  Consider this: a career in financial services offers:

When a bankruptcy case is filed in any Chapter, an Automatic Stay is created preventing creditors from taking certain actions.  While the Stay is in effect, creditors cannot demand payment on debts, file lawsuits, attempt to collect on judgments through wage garnishment or otherwise, and they cannot continue foreclosure or repossession actions.

Nearly one third of all adults in the United States are unpaid family caregivers for a loved one needing assistance, and with the expanding senior population, this number only promises to grow.  There are resources available to help offset or supplement the cost of long-term, in-home care.

What does it mean to be our authentic self?  Is it what our parents told us, or our mates?  Our friends, coworkers, the media, employers, family or culture?  Is it the person that we were told we were supposed to be?  Is it someone we invented and created in order to fit into society?  Possibly, or is it our unique expression and self-validating opinions and beliefs about ourselves?  Well, both may be true, and we also have the choice to embark on an inner journey to reconnect to our true inner being, our core and become whole.

After a hard recession we examine our choice in careers.  Although many industries experienced layoffs, hiring freezes and cuts our industry seems to provide a more stable and safer harbor.  Healthcare manages to expand with all sorts of different venues of occupation weather in billing, assisting, or front office work healthcare is always necessary. 

It happened again, someone came to a Tuesday evening ACTION Parent & Teen Support meeting in tears.  “My son is drinking,” says the mom.  “The Sheriff called me from the hospital emergency room.  Your son is drunk; drunk to the point he has poisoned his body.  The doctors tell me he could die, please get here quick.”