Getting season tickets is a long game for New Yorkers, and everyone knows someone who waited decades before getting them. I’ve had my New York Jets season tickets for many, many years, and hope to pass the tickets to my sons. But the sporting world has become more complicated than it was. Will professional sports […]
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MEDICAID ALERT: New Medicaid Community Care Look Back Rules Start October 1, 2022
If this sounds familiar, you’re right—recent years have seen many extensions of rules regarding Medicaid. But for New Yorkers, this most recent change to Medicaid Community Based Care is a result of a New York State’s 2022-2023 budget and not the pandemic. There has always been a five-year lookback period for Medicaid applicants seeking coverage […]
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Top Six Reasons to Delay Having an Estate Plan
Despite two years of COVID, two-thirds of Americans still lack an estate plan It doesn’t make sense but is true. While we’ve never so closely known life’s fragility and know the importance of having a will, trust, or Power of Attorney, only a third of Americans have actually sat down with an estate planning attorney […]
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When Can You Use E-Signatures on IRS Forms?
In the past two years, many traditional processes in the world of taxes and the law have been transformed by necessity, using digital signatures, or e-signatures, for many financial and legal documents. With many offices and courts re-opening and returning to pre-COVID processes, the IRS has recently reported that it will continue to allow taxpayers […]
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The House passed “SECURE 2.0’ on March 29 – Now It’s Up To the Senate
The other day, we sent out information about the SECURE Act and your estate plan. Now the law is on the verge of changing again. The Securing a Strong Retirement Act (H.R. 2954), known as the SECURE Act 2.0, was approved in the House on March 29 with the most bipartisan approval in recent memory […]
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Should You Change Your Estate Plan Because of the SECURE Act?
Here’s another reason estate planning is not a one-and-done event. For most people, life is constantly changing. But the laws around estate and tax planning are also changing. Starting in 2022, a new rule, part of the SECURE Act of 2019, may affect estate plans from 2022, especially for those beneficiaries of an IRA or […]
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New York Allows Remote Notarization of Trusts, Wills and Related Documents
As of February 25, 2022, New York State has joined several other states making it legal for notaries to perform Remote Online Notarization (RON). Remote notarization was temporarily authorized by Executive Order 202.7 in March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Governor Hochul has signed Senate Bill 1780C into law, making this permanent. The law […]
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Why Should I Update My Estate Plan?
Estate plans need to be updated every few years or a significant life event like birth, adoption, death, marriage, divorce, relocation, or the sale of a business or real estate. Even after years of a global pandemic, about half of all American adults still don’t have a will. A recent report by Caring.com revealed those […]
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Compare and Contrast: Medicaid Asset Protection Trust and Medicaid Annuity
The prospect of a spouse needing nursing home care is one of the biggest financial worries for couples. With some facilities on Long Island now charging more than $600 a day, even with long-term care insurance policy benefits, the monthly out-of-pocket cost of a room in a nursing home can easily exceed $6,000. For couples […]
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SECURE Act 2.0 and Qualified Longevity Annuity Contracts (QLACs)
The SECURE Act 2.0 continues to be revised, and it’s likely to dominate the House Ways and Means Committee ahead of the midterm elections. It seems likely that the retirement proposal may be combined with some of the expired parts of the 2017 tax law, creating a tax package acceptable to both sides. But the […]
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