With Your Family in Mind

Estate planning addresses two very important areas:

Students spend 30 hours or more per week in class followed by homework in the evening.  If the student is unsuccessful in their attainment of just one academic skill they can be devastated and yet they are forced to return every day to face the same struggle.  Difficulties with learning can negatively impact a student’s feeling of self-worth and undermine their confidence in themselves as capable learners. 

For more information, please call 661-255-2688.

In the process of a divorce with minor children, the parenting plan is among the most important tasks since it can have long-lasting consequences on both children and parents.  Carefully considering the situation of parents and children is important to realize dividends later.  While each situation is unique, some general observations are helpful.  This is especially true when considering the teenage minor.

This month was our wedding anniversary.  So my husband and I decided that we could kill two birds with one stone and go celebrate our wedding anniversary and our babymoon with a little trip away from Valencia.  

Santa Clarita Magazine readers send me questions every day about the voiceover business.  Here are a couple of those letters:

There is no time like the present to do estate planning.  A lot of people don’t worry about it, because they figure that they don’t have enough accumulated.  After all, currently you can leave up to two million dollars to your heirs without incurring any estate tax, and maybe no inheritance tax.  However, estate planning is no longer just about avoiding taxes.  Now the focus is on preserving and protecting the family. 

If you are watching television at all these days, you are undoubtedly seeing commercials for auto insurance.  Virtually all of the commercials promote one thing, price.  Naturally, we all want the lowest rates possible.  But is auto insurance really a commodity? In other words, are all insurance plans and their companies the same?  Will you discover a difference in benefits when you evaluate them?

Celebrate being a mom.  May was the month of the mom giving me pause to think about my own experience in becoming and standing-in, being a mother.

After marrying, I left my job, sold my condo and moved to Santa Clarita as a stay-at-home mom.  I couldn’t wait.  But the reality of becoming a mother I soon learned meant giving up a part of me.  A trim size seven, by the time my daughter arrived, I weighed 210 pounds.  My days began at 5 a.m. caring for the baby, the house and my husband.  I was overwhelmed, exhausted and lost.  Eventually, my dream-world crumbled, post-partum here we come.  Things just didn’t feel right.

What the heck is a living trust?  I have assembled the following common questions regarding living trusts for you to consider:
1. I already have a will.  Why would I want a living trust?
2. What is Probate and why should I care?
3. Doesn’t Joint Ownership avoid probate?
4. If I’m incapacitated, why would the court get involved?
5. I have a Durable Power of Attorney.  Isn’t that enough?
6. What is a living trust?
7. How does a living trust avoid probate and prevent court control over my
assets?

Celebrate the endless joys of being a father to a child in need by becoming a foster or adoptive parent.  Children’s Bureau, a licensed private foster and adoption agency, is seeking those special individuals and families who are willing to bring a child into their home. An informational meeting will be held on Saturday, June 28 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church.

The California Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Guardianship of L.V. has established an important precedent for parents who place their children under the temporary care of family members or other parties.  In Guardianship of L.V., the family was experiencing some difficulties. The father struggled with an alcohol addiction, the parents separated and the mother was hospitalized.  While the mother was in the hospital, she placed their 11-year-old daughter in the care of the child’s aunt and uncle.

The City of Santa Clarita began partnering with Child Care Resource Center last summer to remind the community that a matter of minutes is all it takes for a child to suffer tragic injury when left alone in or near cars. 

1. Thinking your will controls how all your assets pass upon your death?  Contrary to what many people think, many assets pass outside of wills.  Joint tenancy assets pass to the surviving joint tenant regardless of what your will says.  Also, if you have named a beneficiary on your life insurance policies or retirement policies and that person survives you, those assets will pass to that named beneficiary.

Many couples are surprised to learn that Medi-Cal benefits are more readily attainable than they thought.  Often times the healthy spouse can no longer care for a spouse who has been diagnosed with a major illness such as Alzheimer’s or dementia or who has had a catastrophic incident such as a stroke. 

In 1996, the Federal government passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act, requiring each state to create a centralized location to process all child support payments collected by wage assignment or garnishment.

A new tie or a wallet are certainly practical gifts for Dad. 

1.  Celebrate the success you are creating right now.  It may be true that things are not happening exactly the way you want them to: We all have those experiences.  

The issue of what to do about the estate tax when the current tax law expires in 2010 has been a subject of intense debate in Congress for the past several years, with Republicans maneuvering for complete repeal of what they deride as the Death Tax and Democrats trying to block what they view as a tax break for the rich that could cost the federal treasury hundreds of billions of dollars.