With Your Family in Mind

 Have you ever thought of becoming a foster parent or wanted to adopt a child in need of permanency? Koinonia Family Services is now serving the Santa Clarita and San Fernando Valleys, and is looking for families who want to provide safe, caring, and nurturing homes for children who are in need...

 Divorce proceedings are multi-faceted and involve multiple areas of potential dispute. From an initial separation, issues arise with respect to establishing a parenting plan, temporary financial support, maintenance of debt, securing and itemizing assets. Further into the process, issues arise...

 Comfort Keepers In-Home Care is very excited to partner with Grandpad, a technology solution to connect family members. We’ve talked about being observant when visiting aging loved ones. You may notice a lack of confidence, which can be as a result of physical and/or cognitive changes that may...

 There are many different kinds of Trusts, and each serves a different purpose.  Trusts are not “one-size-fits-all” documents.  The appropriate type of Trust should be selected and designed only with the assistance of an experienced Elder Law/Estate Planning Attorney.  The Attorney should...

 When couples make the decision to legally separate or dissolve their marriage, they have more options than to just muddle through it on their own or retain attorneys and go to battle. Discovering what those alternatives are is part of the education process we offer couples as they embark on...

 An estate plan technique that was very popular some years ago, is still present in many people’s trusts, especially if they have not reviewed their estate plan in a while.  This technique - called a “bypass trust” may no longer be necessary because of changes to our federal estate tax. Not...

 One of the most useful, flexible and cost-effective legal devices available is the Revocable Living Trust. If properly drafted and funded, a Trust can enable us to avoid probate and perhaps save hundreds of thousands of dollars of Federal estate tax. Its successful implementation depends not...

Over the past couple decades, there’s been a seismic shift in the estate tax landscape coupled with the fact that people are living considerably longer. Before 2010, California estate planning was almost always focused on reducing transfer taxes, among other things. There are countless...

 Many people want it know the secret to financial success.  Whether they should be saving more, protecting more, investing more, spending less… everyone wants a magic bullet to set them on the road to financial success.  The hard part is– I can’t give that to them. At Thrivent Financial, we...

Over the past couple decades, there’s been a seismic shift in the estate tax landscape coupled with the fact that people are living considerably longer. Before 2010, California estate planning was almost always focused on reducing transfer taxes, among other things. There are countless...

There are two types of support in California.  One is child support and the other is spousal support.  There are two types of orders in California dissolution cases.  One is a temporary order during the pendency of the case, called a pendente lite order.  And the other is an order after...

 Founded in 2007 by clinical directors Danielle Sheehy and Jody Stiegemeyer, Behavioral Learning Center, Inc. provides behavior analytic services to children and adults with developmental disabilities and related conditions. Intervention is provided to our clients across school, home, and...

Jared Client, age 45, was divorced. He shared custody of his two daughters, age 10 and 12, with his ex-wife. (She was a loving mother, but Jared didn’t trust her with money. Her well-developed talent for spending was not matched with a talent for budgeting or saving. Jared was still paying off...

The oldest of America’s 75 million baby boomers are turning 70 this year.  This means the IRS will soon be requiring them to start cashing out their tax-deferred retirement savings accounts.  How you handle these withdrawals can have a profound effect on your own retirement and on what you...

 Bitter are the tears of a child: Sweeten them. Deep are the thoughts of a child: Quiet them. Sharp is the grief of a child: Take it from him. Soft is the heart of a child: Do not harden it. –Pamela Glenconner Does divorce traumatize children? The answer depends on two factors: the child’s...

 Time, again, for my annual sharing of an important message. Holidays are a wonderful time of the year, and frequently they are the one or two times a year we are able to spend time with parents or other aging loved ones. If we do see them daily, sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees,...

On Veteran’s Day, Americans remember the men and women who served in the United States Armed Forces and honor those who lost their lives serving and fighting for our freedom. But lives and health were not just lost on foreign soil.  We now know that toxic contaminations from hazardous chemicals...

 Have you ever thought of becoming a foster parent or wanted to adopt a child in need of permanency? Koinonia Family Services is now serving the Santa Clarita and San Fernando Valleys, and is looking for families who want to provide safe, caring, and nurturing homes for children who are in need...