Managing personal finances is not an easy task for most. Each year millions of dollars are spent on books and seminars with the hopes of getting rich and out of debt.

Helaine Olen, author of the new book “Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry”’ and former editor of the Money Makeover series in the Los Angeles Times warns Americans of being fooled by the short-sighted money decisions of even the best-known personal finance experts.

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In an interview with The Daily Ticker, Olen claims these financial gurus offer either platitudes or dreadful advice that don’t apply to most people’s lives or situations.

“The idea that anyone can give specific advice to millions of people first of all doesn’t really work,” she says. “We’re not archetypes.”

(Read more: 8 Life Stages of Estate Planning: Part 1)

The average American suffers from serious financial strain and the advice parroted by these alleged experts is “easier said than done,” Olen argued.

The author uses alarming stats to draw the picture of a typical American:

Americans possess less than $100,000 saved in dedicated retirement accounts and 43% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Salaries have stagnated and Americans’ net worth has fallen nearly 40% between 2007 and 2010.

Thousands of dollars in credit card bills due to unexpected medical emergencies, divorce or long bouts of unemployment are the main reasons American find themselves drowning in debt.

(Read more: Living Together and Property Agreements)

Olen takes great distaste in the assertion that an individual can become a millionaire by investing all of one’s savings in the stock market. Suze Orman is among the “experts” that has promoted this suggestion before on CNBC and in her multiple books, yet Orman has admitted that she rarely invests in stocks and prefers the safety of municipal bonds, according to Olen. Equities are extremely volatile and rarely provide the 12% annual return that Orman and Dave Ramsey tout for people looking to quadruple their income, Olen adds.

Olen agrees with most personal finance experts that Americans should pay off high-interest credit cards and reduce their overall debt burdens.

Olen purposely avoids making her own personal finance recommendations in “Pound Foolish” but does proffer one tip she’s learned over the years as a personal finance journalist: invest in market index funds. They won’t make one rich but they offer the best return with the least amount of risk, she says.

Read more: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/don-t-money-advice-suze-orman-dave-ramsey-122754956.html

Marc H. Wander is a partner of the Bloomfield Hills law firm of Witzke, Berry, Carter &Wander, PLLC. Marc has been licensed to practice law in Michigan since 1992. Marc’s practice is devoted to estate planning and business succession planning.  Marc is a member of the Probate and Estate Planning Section of the State Bar of Michigan and is a prior Chairperson of the Oakland County Bar Association Tax Committee. He is a frequent continuing education speaker to insurance agents, financial advisors, CPA’s and financial industry organizations. He has also been heard on WJR Radio. Follow Marc on Twitter @MarcWander

Marc H. Wander is a partner of the Bloomfield Hills law firm of Witzke, Berry, Carter &Wander, PLLC. Marc has been licensed to practice law in Michigan since 1992. Marc’s practice is devoted to estate planning and business succession planning.  Marc is a member of the Probate and Estate Planning Section of the State Bar of Michigan and is a prior Chairperson of the Oakland County Bar Association Tax Committee. He is a frequent continuing education speaker to insurance agents, financial advisors, CPA’s and financial industry organizations. He has also been heard on WJR Radio. Follow Marc on Twitter @MarcWander

Preparing for the “fiscal cliff” deadline, a widow with $4 million in disposable assets is inquiring how to give away a sizable portion of her fortune as soon as possible. With the tax hikes fast approaching, the Chicago-area millionaire wanted to vacate the money from her accounts by the end of the year so the federal government could not take a giant bite out of it in the form of estate taxes.

With the $5 million exemption on estate taxes and lifetime gifts set to evaporate on Dec. 31, lawyers and financial planners are scrambling across the country to ease client’s concerns. Without a consensus in Congress, the tax rate on estates and lifetime gifts will rise from 35 to 55 percent. Even more of a concern is the amount of money exposed to the tax: Currently the tax rates only apply to estate more than $5 millions. The end of the Bush tax cuts would reduce this exemption to $1 million.

(Read more: 8 Life Stages of Estate Planning: Part 1)

An average American can have 1 or 2, or even 3 million dollars and not be wealthy, which is why many financial planners believe that the estate tax and the lifetime gift exemption will be reset closer to $3 million. And since spouses have the ability to give away an amount up to the exemption without incurring taxes, the exemption for a married couple would be $6 million.

“It’s a relatively small group of people who really need to worry now,” said Michael S. Beriss, a former tax attorney who is now a financial planner with Ameriprise. To take full advantage of the current $5 million exemption, a married couple would have to have a spare $10 million in the bank. “If you give away $1 million today, you’re not using your $5 million exemption,” he said.

(Read more: 8 Life Stages of Estate Planning: Part 2)

An older investor with investable assets and a home worth more than $3 million should not panic, rather, do some planning. Consider what you are trying to accomplish, and the legacy you would like to leave. The legacy you envision will determine the type of tax relief you choose.

If you want to send your grandchildren to college, a 529 college fund is the best solution; if you want to support your a cause that is close to your heart, a charitable contribution may be the best way to protect your money.Trusts may be the smartest answer if your main objective is to make your kids’ lives easier financially without leaving them with tax headaches themselves.

(Read more: Who Needs a Living Together Contract?)

However, a money-minded taxpayer may simply desire to pay as little a percentage in tax possible, to preserve their cash legacy and keep the government’s hand off it. For these savers, even the worst case scenario – a return to the 55 percent tax on any amount greater than $1 million – is a salvageable situation. Estate tax, said Beriss, “is probably one of the holiest areas in tax code, and I don’t mean it in the religious sense.”

Read more:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/estate-tax-going-people-arent-193631304.html

Marc H. Wander is a partner of the Bloomfield Hills law firm of Witzke, Berry, Carter &Wander, PLLC. Marc has been licensed to practice law in Michigan since 1992. Marc’s practice is devoted to estate planning and business succession planning.  Marc is a member of the Probate and Estate Planning Section of the State Bar of Michigan and is a prior Chairperson of the Oakland County Bar Association Tax Committee. He is a frequent continuing education speaker to insurance agents, financial advisors, CPA’s and financial industry organizations. He has also been heard on WJR Radio. Follow Marc on Twitter @MarcWander

The joys of parenting

If you have children, update your will to nominate a guardian to step in if you and your spouse pass away. Include provisions in your will or a separate revocable trust so that your child doesn’t inherit everything at the age of 18.

A revocable trust allows you to appoint a trustee to handle any money your child inherits. The trustee can use it to support your child as the child grows up, and you can specify at what age your child can receive the money, along with any reasons your child should get it before that age, such as starting a business or buying a house. You can also specify that the trustee can withhold money if your child has a gambling problem, is in the midst of a divorce, or there’s another situation that makes it inappropriate to inherit.

You’ll also need a separate guardianship nomination that nominates a guardian to care for your child if both parents are incapacitated. That’s helpful in simpler situations as well, such as when both parents take a vacation and a child needs emergency medical treatment.

Each time you have another child, be sure your estate planning documents address all of your children, and don’t forget to increase your life insurance.

“Sing it, Tammy Wynette: D-I-V-O-R-C-E

If you’re separating or divorcing, it’s unlikely that you want your spouse to have the authority to make decisions on your behalf and access your medical and financial information. Revoke those documents, including beneficiary designations, or sign new ones. A divorce decree doesn’t magically change those things.

If you remarry, revise your will and trust documents to reflect the proper beneficiaries. Most people want to share with their new spouse but also want to provide for their separate children at their death. Determine which assets you want to leave to your spouse and which to leave to your children.

The middle ages

As you approach your 40s and 50s, consider purchasing long-term care insurance, which will cover the cost of long-term care or a nursing home.

The golden years

Review your life insurance to determine whether you can reduce it if your children are grown. Also, review designations on your durable power of attorney, health care proxy, and HIPAA release to ensure the people you’ve named are still in your life and willing and able to serve in that role. At this stage, it is common for people to start planning their funeral to make sure that’s in order.

Contact Michigan Estate Planning Lawyer Christopher Berry to ensure your estate plan is secure and in place.

Read more:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/8-life-stages-estate-planning-080013261.html

Attorney Christopher J. Berry is a Metro Detroit estate planning and elder law lawyer who helps families, seniors, veterans and business owners with their important legal needs. Oakland County estate planning lawyer, Christopher Berry is a partner in the Bloomfield Hills law firm of Witzke Berry PLLC. Mr. Berry practices in the areas ofestate planning, business, probate, veterans benefits & Medicaid planning. Follow Christopher on Twitter@chrisberryesq.

Your estate plan should account for the many stages of life that you experience. Below is a rundown of the estate-planning tools you should have if you’re just beginning your life’s journey, halfway through, or approaching the homestretch.

Ch. 1: Planning for life

• 8 life stages for planning
• The basics of estate planning
• Estate-planning Q&A
• Should you have a will?

(Why You Need to Put Your Living Together Agreement in Writing)

Young, single and carefree

Parents make financial decisions for children by law, until they reach 18, and that legal right is vanquished. Consider the worse, if something happened to you, it is in your best interest for your parents to have access and control to your health care and financial decisions. Access to your medical providers, and more importantly, a say in your health care decisions protects you in the event of the unforeseen.

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If you’re over 18 and unmarried, execute four documents to ensure  your loved ones can carry out your wishes:

1. A general durable power of attorney enables you to designate who will control your finances if you become incapacitated, whether it’s your parents or another loved one.
2. A health care proxy allows you to designate who will make medical decisions on your behalf in the same situation.
3. A living will lets you lay out your wishes regarding life-sustaining medical treatment.

Estate planning life stages

1. Young and single.
2. Single, but committed.
3. Engaged.
4. Just married.
5. Parents.
6. Divorced.
7. The middle years.
8. The golden years.

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4. Finally, a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, release enables your designated agent to discuss your medical condition without violating patient privacy laws. Without those documents, loved ones may have to resort to seeking guardianship over you in court at a time when it is the last thing in the world that they want to be doing.

Single, but committed

A will or trust can ensure your life partner inherits your possessions if you’re in a long-term relationship but unmarried. Otherwise, state law deems that they go to your closest relatives.

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We’re engaged!

A prenuptial agreement isn’t only for people who have a lot of money. It’s essential for everybody. A lot of people divorce because they’ve never had conversations about money. A prenuptial agreement forces people to engage in this financial conversation.

Just married

Edit your durable power of attorney, health care proxy and HIPAA release if you want to eliminate any question that your spouse should control your financial and medical decisions if you become incapacitated. Think of Terri Schiavo, referring to the woman whose parents and husband battled publicly for seven years over the right to make health care decisions on her behalf after she became incapacitated. She didn’t have a health care proxy.

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If you do not have a revised durable power of attorney, your spouse also can’t administer property solely in your name or property you hold jointly with your spouse. Also, indicate the person you’d like to make financial and medical decisions on your behalf in the event an accident incapacitates you and your spouse.

If you don’t already have one, this is also the time for a will or trust. In a lot of states, if you die without a will and have a spouse but no children, your spouse will inherit some of what you own, but your parents will also inherit. Avoid the risk of a fight between your spouse and parents over who should inherit, and have a will or trust definitively state who should receive your assets. Also, if you own a home, purchase life insurance that will pay off your mortgage if one spouse dies.

(The Paperwork Mountain at Veterans Affairs)

Finally, change your beneficiary designations in terms of health insurance and investment plans so they pass to your spouse. A lot of people think when they get married, those things change on their own, but that’s not the case. Visit your human resources department and ask which documents include a beneficiary. Health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts sometimes have a beneficiary, as do bank accounts payable on death.

Contact Michigan Estate Planning Lawyer Christopher Berry to ensure your estate plan is secure and in place.

Read more:
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/8-life-stages-estate-planning-080013261.html

Attorney Christopher J. Berry is a Metro Detroit estate planning and elder law lawyer who helps families, seniors, veterans and business owners with their important legal needs. Oakland County estate planning lawyer, Christopher Berry is a partner in the Bloomfield Hills law firm of Witzke Berry PLLC. Mr. Berry practices in the areas ofestate planning, business, probate, veterans benefits & Medicaid planning. Follow Christopher on Twitter@chrisberryesq.

A world of legal problems can be avoided if you put your living together agreement in writing. A written contract identifying who owns what is the only way to protect yourself and honor your collective intentions — whether you want to keep all your property separate or share some or all of it. You may face serious and potentially expensive battles if you separate and can’t agree on how to divide what you have acquired.

Putting your contract in writing does not need to be a dreaded or time-consuming. Approach the task in the spirit of clarifying your understanding and preserving the shared memory of two fair-minded people.

Often, one or both partners is reluctant to sign a contract because they believe it demonstrates a lack of trust in the other partner’s word. On the contrary, it’s a healthy dose of realism, recognizing that over long periods of time, recollections fade and feelings change. A written contract alleviates you of the worry that your original intentions won’t be later forgotten.

Without a written contract, it is near impossible to enforce a claim of an oral contract in court. If your partner isn’t willing to sign an agreement, don’t rely on the oral promise.

It is best to seek a lawyer’s help before signing any agreement that involves a lot of money or property — or complicated estate planning. Contact Michigan estate planning attorney Marc Wander, today.

Read more:
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/living-together-book/chapter2-5.html

Marc H. Wander is a partner of the Bloomfield Hills law firm of Witzke, Berry, Carter &Wander, PLLC. Marc has been licensed to practice law in Michigan since 1992. Marc’s practice is devoted to estate planning and business succession planning.  Marc is a member of the Probate and Estate Planning Section of the State Bar of Michigan and is a prior Chairperson of the Oakland County Bar Association Tax Committee. He is a frequent continuing education speaker to insurance agents, financial advisors, CPA’s and financial industry organizations. He has also been heard on WJR Radio. Follow Marc on Twitter @MarcWander

In the event of death or breakup without a cohabitation agreement, you and your partner may be treated as legal strangers.

If you have chosen cohabitation over marriage – you aren’t alone. Cohabitation between married partners has increased 1,150 percent in the last 40 years. The fact remains that, unless you define your partnership through a legal contract, the law may see you as strangers in the case of a breakup or death.

What is Cohabitation?

The concept of cohabitation has expanded to include any two partners who have integrated their residence, property and daily lives. It can be viewed as a starting point for people considering marriage down the line, but can also be the ideal arrangement for couples who don’t want the social, personal and legal commitment associated with marriage. Other reasons individuals cohabitate include:

• Reduction of living expenses.
• Inability of a union of same-sex individuals to be recognized by the law.
• Choice by older individuals who don’t want to upset family or friends through remarriage.

The need for Cohabitation Agreements.

By choosing cohabitation, couples forego certain rights and protections that would be provided for them in a marital union. Married couples accrue legal rights, including the right to receive a property settlement and/or support in the event of divorce; file joint tax returns; receive distributions from estates free of estate tax; receive survivor’s benefits from retirement plans and Social Security; obtain “family” health insurance, dental insurance, and other employment benefits; and automatically share in his/her partner’s property in the event he/she dies without a will. Unmarried couples, generally acquire similar rights by expressly securing their benefits in cohabitation agreements (also referred to as cohabitation contracts). A cohabitation agreement is a private contract between cohabitants, which typically tries to establish contractually for the parties the rights and obligations that married people obtain by custom, statute, and agreement.

Why a Cohabitation Agreement?

Even if you regard your partner as family, the law usually does not. As a result, your partner may not be provided for in the manner you desire. For example, if you die without a will, your property generally will pass to your next-of-kin and not your partner. Paradoxically, the law may provide certain benefits for your partner that you had no intention of giving to him or her. Today, some courts are using equitable doctrines to apportion assets between cohabitants to prevent hardship and injustice. Because these doctrines are vague,proving them is both difficult and expensive. Therefore, you should be proactive and define your own partnership through a legal contract. Below are additional benefits of entering into cohabitation agreements:

• To guarantee the financially less secure partner an equitable settlement.
• To properly compensate a party for his or her role as a caretaker

• To allow the financially more secure party to limit exposure in the event of a breakup.
• To disclose expectations of the relationship, both financial and personal.

What to cover in a Cohabitation Agreement?

A cohabitation agreement is a flexible, laissez faire document that is less subject to regulation than a marital agreement. These contracts typically cover the following key points:

• Distributing property in case of death or breakup.
• Obligating financial support during the relationship or upon its dissolution.
• Handling the payment of debts.
• Dividing the principal residence upon breakup of the relationship or if one of you dies. Setting up the property ownership as ‘joint tenants with rights of survivorship’ will allow your partner to stay in your shared home. You’ll also want to be sure both of your names are on the deed.
• Defining support, custody or visitation rights for minor children (although nonbinding).
• Specifying health insurance coverage. Create a ‘health care proxy’ that will allow your partner to make decisions about your health care in case of emergency.
• Determining the right to serve as guardian/conservator in the event of incapacitation.
• Establishing the right to make medical decisions.

What’s the difference between a Cohab and a Prenup?

Prenups and cohabs compare like apples and oranges. A cohab will NOT have the same force and effect after marriage as a prenup. Most states have adopted legislation prescribing specific requirements for prenups, while very few states have adopted laws dealing with cohabs. As a result, cohabs are governed almost exclusively by general contract principles. Please remember that while a prenup goes into effect only upon marriage, a cohab usually isn’t valid once the parties marry.

The Commitment Conversation:
Are you in a long term relationship or do you know someone who is building one? In an effort to help individuals and couples feel more comfortable in discussing their lives together, we’ve created a guidebook to help you and your partner navigate through conversations that will strengthen your lives together.

AN IMPORTANT NOTE:

Living together does not automatically entitle either one of you to the rights and protections afforded to married couples. That is why you and your partner must state your rights and obligations in a legal document in the event of a breakup or death. A cohabitation agreement will insure that you and your partner are protected at the same time that it clarifies your understanding of the relationship.

Contact attorney Marc Wander to set up a cohabitation agreement.

Read more:
http://www.equalityinmarriage.org/bmagreements.html

Marc H. Wander is a partner of the Bloomfield Hills law firm of Witzke, Berry, Carter &Wander, PLLC. Marc has been licensed to practice law in Michigan since 1992. Marc’s practice is devoted to estate planning and business succession planning.  Marc is a member of the Probate and Estate Planning Section of the State Bar of Michigan and is a prior Chairperson of the Oakland County Bar Association Tax Committee. He is a frequent continuing education speaker to insurance agents, financial advisors, CPA’s and financial industry organizations. He has also been heard on WJR Radio. Follow Marc on Twitter @MarcWander