With Your Family in Mind

Getting a driver’s license is an exciting time for any teenager; it represents a transition into freedom and independence for the teens and their families.  It can also represent a stressful time as studies show teens are the most distracted and dangerous of drivers. 

As our population ages, abuse of the elderly is becoming a growing problem.  Elder abuse can take many forms: physical, emotional, sexual, financial or material exploitation, abandonment, or neglect.  If you suspect elder abuse, an outstanding resource for professionals and public alike is the National Center on Elder Abuse (NCEA) website, www.elderabusecenter.org.  
More than two-thirds of elder abuse perpetrators are family members of the victims, typically serving in a care-giving role and typically adult children. 

Many child-centered families are making extraordinary sacrifices to provide their youngsters with the best education and enrichment opportunities.  Children may be scheduled in classes or sports activities from the time they get home from school until bedtime.  Parents’ schedules are as impacted as their children’s due to the press of these activities.  The whole family races through life for at least six days out of seven!  This frenetic pace increases stress levels for all parties.  Parents begin to feel unappreciated and resentful, while children feel rushed and pressured. The result is more family friction and less quality time together. 

As we get older some of us are faced with the dilemma of where to live.  Do we move from our big house?  Do we go to a senior living center?  Some of these questions can get quite difficult for everyone, and we all want to make sure we’ve made the right choice.  A residential board and care home may be the best option for some.  Here are some of the advantages of living in a board and care home.

Some people leave their affairs in nice, neat packages: They consult financial and legal experts, do estate planning, and execute well-drafted Living Trusts.  They fund their Trusts, placing title to their assets in the proper form to avoid probate and possibly Federal estate taxes.

Contrary to popular belief, Valentine’s Day may be one of the most unloving days of the year for singles and couples alike.  Many singles feel totally left out of the equation on February 14.  Those not in committed relationships (good, bad, or otherwise) feel especially lonely and unloved on a day when it seems that everyone else is in love. 

So, here we are — part six!  If you have been following this particular editorial since part one, then you have seen the connection between unity and encouragement, unity and hope, unity and comfort, and unity and love.  Together we have walked through exactly why it is so important to have unity within our community. 

Imagine inviting some of your closest friends and family members over to your home to watch a video; only this is not your usual “made in Hollywood video” but instead a video of your unborn child as he/she develops in the womb.  Her due date is still 12 weeks away, but you will see her kick, wiggle her fingers, stick out her tongue, and suck her thumb!

Stop me if you’ve heard this story before: A widow with three grown children needs help as she gets older.  She wants to stay in her home for as long as possible, and she is more comfortable with her family than with outside caregivers.  One of her children never married, and has had financial and personal (read: drug) problems over the years.  This child agrees to live with Mom and take care of her.  Mom agrees to leave this child her house, which, it turns out, is most of her estate.  Also, this child is added to Mom’s bank accounts to help with paying bills.

A show of hands for those who drank and ate more than they wanted to over the holidays.  Well, that’s just about everybody.  Do you ever feel that you would like to put drinking behind you… like you’ve sort of grown out of it, but find it difficult to fully stop?  Most people quit several times for a few days or weeks or even months, but eventually a casual drink with dinner or at a social event begins it all over again. 

Wealthy people are wealthy for a variety of reasons.  However, there is one thing I can say for sure: They know how to preserve their wealth and make sure it passes from generation to generation without losing unnecessary amounts to the courts and to the government.  They engage in proper “Estate Planning.”  Want to get wealthy?  Then you should take a page from their playbook and employ the same tools they use.   They aren’t wealthy by mistake.

“The arts are not the pretty, but irrelevant bits around the border of reality.  They are the highways into the center of a reality which cannot be glimpsed, let alone grasped, any other way.  The present world is good, but broken and in any case incomplete; art of all kinds enables us to understand that paradox in its many dimensions.”  N.T. Wright.

Appellate practice is different from trial court practice.  Different rules apply.  Family law cases are different than civil appeals because with family law, there is no jury.  The court makes all of the determinations of facts and law.  In a civil action, the court decides questions of law while the jury makes findings of fact.  The judge instructs the jury on the law.

With all the economic troubles individuals and businesses face today, myths about bankruptcy seem to be circulating. Here are a few of my favorite:

13-week course at Crossroads Community Church

Debt is all around us.  With credit cards, school, car, and home loans, it’s no wonder more than 70 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck.  In America, close to 50 percent of marriages end in divorce, and money problems are the number one cause.  Financial Peace University(FPU) has a long history of helping families successfully confront these problems head on.

California Law states that all employers are required to maintain workers’ compensation insurance.  Failure to do so makes a business vulnerable to penalties and fines.  When employees suffer injuries on the job, they usually file claims for workers’ compensation.  Once filed, employees receive payment in lieu of the wages they would have received.  In addition, employees are entitled to medical treatment at no cost to them.

As we look toward 2009, I believe that one of our main objectives for the year should be making up, in our minds to do our part in society to promote unity and peace among the people around us.  If each of us determined within ourselves to just promote peace and unity to the people around us, I believe we would see something very awesome begin to happen right in our community.

Everyone agrees that our country is in turmoil.  We all have high hopes for our new administration in Washington and will undoubtedly see significant change in estate taxes, long term Medi-Cal and Medicaid benefits, social security, and Medicare benefits.  Our current laws and laws to be enacted in the years to come will have a direct impact on the need for proper estate planning.  Everyone should plan for several possibilities, including: 1) long-term care and the possible need for Medi-Cal/Medicaid in the event of a serious illness or injury, which would require expensive skilled nursing care, and 2) the elimination or minimization of estate taxes.