Is a reverse mortgage right for you?
If you are short on cash, have limited income, and have substantial equity in your home, a reverse mortgage may be an option to consider.
- Available to homeowners 62 or older, with limits on the amount that can be borrowed determined by your age and the value of your home.
- An attractive feature of a reverse mortgage is that no repayment is required while the homeowner is alive and living in the home.
- Money can be taken as a lump sum or as a periodic income stream.
- Interest accrues on the amount that has been borrowed, thereby reducing the equity in the home over time.
- Interest rates and loan charges for most reverse mortgage products tend to be higher than conventional mortgages or lines of credit.
- Compare a conventional line of credit as an alternative way to access cash from your home, when needed.
We would be pleased to meet with you to help determine if a reverse mortgage is appropriate for you.
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How do I protect the children of my prior marriage?
Second or third marriages with one or both spouses having children from a prior marriage are increasingly common. How do you assure that the children of your prior marriage receive a portion of your estate when you die?
- Trust your spouse to carry out your wishes at his/her death. There is an element of risk with this approach. What if the relationship between your spouse and your children becomes strained after your death?
- Provide for an outright disposition to your children of a portion of your estate at the time of your death. This will assure that your children receive the assets designated for them immediately after your death.
- Create a spousal trust for a portion of your estate at the time of your death. The terms of the trust will provide that your spouse receives the income from the trust during his/her lifetime, but the entire principal of the trust will pass to your children after your spouse’s death.
- Enter into a pre-nuptial agreement which contractually dictates the disposition of assets owned prior to your marriage.
We would be pleased to meet with you, discuss your specific family and financial circumstances, and develop a plan that appropriately balances the interests of your children and your present spouse.
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What if the healthy spouse dies first?
As we live longer, it is increasingly common to find a healthy spouse providing a significant level of care at home for an ill spouse. Although the expectation is that the healthy spouse will outlive the ill spouse, that is not always the case. Since the ill spouse cannot live at home without the well spouse, what steps can be taken to protect the couples’ asset base if the healthy spouse dies first?
- Retitle most family assets so that they are owned by the healthy spouse.
- Change the Will of the healthy spouse to provide that on his/her death the assets pass directly to the children or to an “income only” trust for the ill spouse.
We would be pleased to meet with you, discuss your specific family and financial circumstances, and, if appropriate, prepare the documents needed to implement this important type of protection for your assets.
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Maintain protection for your non-business assets.
An important reason for creating a business entity is to protect the owner’s non-business assets if the business fails. A business owner must be vigilant to assure that protection is maintained.
- Avoid giving a personal guaranty for a business obligation, if possible.
- Be certain that personal assets are not titled in the name of the business entity.
- If you have multiple businesses it often is advisable to have separate business entities for each business. If one business fails, it will not take down the other.
- In giving financial statements for the business, avoid the temptation to include non-business assets on the statement as a way of enhancing the financial profile of the business.
Maintaining the protection of non-business assets requires ongoing vigilance by the business owner. If you have questions about a business transaction and how it may affect your non-business assets, we would be glad to meet with you.
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How do snow and ice affect legal liability?
Although Southern Connecticut winters are not as consistently filled with snow and ice as they once were, we still contend with snow or ice on many days and nights in the winter months. How does the presence of snow or ice affect legal liability?
- If you are the driver of a vehicle on a road that has snow or ice, you must use a sufficient extra degree of care to keep your vehicle under control.
- If you are the owner of a home, you must clean your sidewalk within a reasonable period of time after a storm has ended.
- If you live in an apartment building or condominium complex, the person in control must clean sidewalks and parking areas within a reasonable period of time after a storm has ended.
- If you are shopping in a complex of retail stores, the person in control of the complex must clean the sidewalks and parking areas within a reasonable period of time after a storm has ended.
If you have been injured on snow or ice we would be pleased to meet with you. A thorough investigation of legal responsibility for an injury sustained on snow or ice almost always includes photographs of the area, weather reports showing precipitation and temperature during relevant time periods, and a determination of who is in control of the area where the injury occurred.
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