The Law Offices of Daniel Timins Blog

Business Card Faux Pas to the Elderly

Posted on May 13, 2016

As a person who works with his share of aging clients, you would think I would be instantly aware of what daily issues affect (sometimes ail) them. However, while many aging individuals do have a noble sense of modesty, many of them do not like to share their physical and mental impairments. While I could spend weeks discussing many poorly-developed products the aging have to endure, let me focus on one of the most obvious: Your funky business card. Small / Faint / Inappropriate Font: I am stunned at the number of professionals who have business cards that have extremely small type, rounded fonts, or light printing. Any one of these three is difficult for the sight-impaired to make out.

Celebrity Estates: Prince’s Royal(ty) Issue

Posted on April 27, 2016

2016 is seeing it’s share of celebrities pass away: Glenn Frey, Abe Vigoda and Garry Shandling. But none so far, aside from perhap David Bowie, left as much of an impact on our world as Prince. And none, I would dare to say, has such a complicated estate. Prince faces several tricky issue upon his passing: The nature of his property, and the absence of a nature heir. Considering the shear amount of wealth Prince’s estate will create, starting with the millions of dollars it made from ITunes downloads mere hours after he died, Prince needed to carefully about who would receive his music royalty rights. Copyrighting music ensures several financial rights, such as charging a station or organization for playing it to the public

Quiet Targets: Protecting Single Aging Men

Posted on April 22, 2016

While single men tend to pass away at younger ages on average than married men, I have met a number of aging single men without children. Unlike aging single women, who tend to both emote their needs and take steps to elicit sympathy and the help they require, aging single men tend to continue toughening up, not ask for help from others, and ignore seemingly unimportant health concerns that turn out to be rather serious. Single men often do not age well, are financial targets, and tend to do age without the familial concerns their female counterparts receive. They also tend not to ask their male friends for help. If you have an uncle, brother or male friend who doesn’t

College Kids in Trouble: Parents as Health Care Agent for Children

Posted on April 13, 2016

When a person may be subjectively considered an adult varies based on the person and the observing individual: My clients presume I was an adult long ago, my parents have begrudgingly accepted I may have final come of age, and an ex-girlfriend stated moments after we broke up that I would remain a child for the rest of my life. Fortunately, that girlfriend is long gone and, fortunately for her other ex-boyfriends and the rest of us in doubt as to our maturity, the law states that we are all considered an adult for legal purposes at age 18. This is an interesting public policy, since we are not physically or emotionally finished maturing at that age, and (probably due

Assets Good, Income Bad: Taxes, Government Programs, Planning

Posted on March 18, 2016

Here is a surprise for you: America favors people who have money already, not people building their wealth. If you want to build and preserve wealth in modern day America I can boil down the correct methodology in words a caveman could understand: Assets good, income bad. Example 1: Income Taxes versus Capital Gains & Estate Taxes. While your assets are private information, the government (and sometimes the public) has full knowledge of your (legal) income. Try it: Google your favorite sports star and see how much income they earn, then find out how much they are actually worth; I will be shocked if you see a net worth that is not noted as an “estimate.” Governments also know people

NEVER Videotape You Executing Your Will

Posted on March 9, 2016

I must apologize for my prolonged absence from blogging: I lost my proofreading and Blogging Accountability Partner Alix Purcell due to her successes. I shall attempt to continue this part of our journey in her absence as best I can. I have heard of some attorneys videotaping clients executing their wills, and I have in fact once been a witness to another attorney executing a will while recording the execution of the document. Attorneys think recording the testator’s actions (thereby supposedly proving his or her mental capacity at the time of execution) will make it clear to a court that the person “knew what they were doing” (executing a will) at that time (a key requirement for a valid will).

On-Going Planning: Generic Estate Plans Still Create Unique Post-Mortem Issues

Posted on October 16, 2015

Your estate plan is generic. I can almost guarantee it. Sure, perhaps 1% of people have something original, fantastic and truly thoughtful created for them, but (much like movie plots) there are somewhere between 9 and 14 standard estate plans out there for 99% of the population. That is because only .25% of us are truly wealthy enough to justify non-traditional planning, and .75% have the actual need for original content. Congratulations: You are normal. When you die, however, your estate is unique, special, its own miracle or monster. You have accounts at different financial institutions than everyone else, you leave behind a family with different relations, health concerns and creditor issues than everyone else, and leave assets to certain

Why Are Manhattan Estate Attorney’s Fees So High?

Posted on October 5, 2015

Lawyers are not cheap. Unless you hire someone from Legal Aid, you have to pay dearly for many types of attorneys. This is due to several factors: Greed, the horrible legal process we call the “Unified Court System” (a fancy-yet-inaccurate title), and the extreme difficulty New York places on small businesses being successful. First: Greed! Remember that most clients only participate in one or two Probates in their lives: Your second surviving parent and your spouse (if he / she predeceases you). You sell more cars than that in your life, and you probably did not know whether you got a great deal or not; Probate can be a MAJOR money moment, and due to the limited experience