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“Life moves pretty fast,” as Ferris Bueller famously says. Love moves pretty fast, too: Barely a decade ago, a national newspaper was putting the phrase gay marriage in scare quotes. But just a few days ago, Pew Research told us that even our most conservative brothers and sisters are coming around. Given the pace of changes, no one would blame LGBTQ couples for feeling a bit dizzy as they build, protect and plan for their families. That’s why I’ve put together this guide to help with questions I regularly hear in my office. Is same sex marriage legally secure? There… Read More

One of my favorite summer traditions is the beach reading list. I like them even if (like most of you, no doubt) I hardly spend a second at the beach. However, that lack of time, in and of itself, feels like the most compelling reason to put together a reading list. As a group, these are six indispensable volumes for Georgia professionals: Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… And Others Don’t by Jim Collins. In this management classic, Collins explains how “Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we… Read More

“Intellectually, of course, we did not believe in marriage. But one does not love someone just intellectually.” -John Lennon There is undeniable truth in what John Lennon says, and that’s why so many of us joined in the chant of “Love Wins,” when the Supreme Court finally granted the LGBTQ community its right to marry. Justice Kennedy’s gorgeous conclusion in the Obergefell decision bears repeating: No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice, and family. In forming a marital union, two people become something greater than once they were. As… Read More

“Friends,” Tennessee Williams famously noted, “are God’s way of apologizing to us for our families.” We’ve all got that cranky uncle. In fact, our stories are so similar–the leather recliner, the favored drink, the phlegmatic jeremiads about “these kids today”–it sometimes feels as if we all share the same one. But for an increasing number LGBTQ families planning their estates, the cranky uncle has become something of a problem: What do we do about those survivors whose sense of “family values” mean they don’t value our families? Without careful planning, your assets could well fall into the hands of people… Read More

Love won–but the law still lags behind, and it presents a unique set of challenges to those gay couples who’ve decided to end their marriages. Divorce is hard enough for anyone to consider, but the plain fact is that anyone who has gone through a divorce really must give some thought to their estate planning. This is more true, not less, for LGBTQ families, because Georgia law still hasn’t quite settled for non-traditional families. Just last year, the state legislature approved a bill that would have allowed some companies to “opt out” of serving LGBTQ families on religious grounds. The… Read More

A physical restraint is a method that disables the movement of a resident. Sometimes, a physical restraint may be ordered by the resident’s physician in order to protect the resident and other staff members and residents from any harm that can be caused by the resident in the restraints. Other times, the use of physical restraints has become an ethical issue. Nursing homes are using restraints for non-approved reasons. The use of physical restraints can severely injure an elder resident. Physical restraints must only be used when there is no other method of ensuring safety for the residents and staff… Read More

Farmers know their profession entails a lot more than making a living; it's also about passing on a way of life; a family legacy, if you will.    Unfortunately, too often farmers fail to keep their estate plan up to date, and in doing so they place their legacy at serious risk. An outdated or inadequate estate plan can sometimes put their property, which is often the key to their legacy, up for sale, resulting many times in the property being converted to a non-agricultural use, effectively cutting your family's legacy off at the knees. If you're lucky, your heirs may… Read More

According to a recent case in U.S. Tax Court, there is nothing wrong with using what are referred to as Crummey trusts as part of their estate plan, no matter what the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) says. See, a Crummey trust is a device used to huge tax-free transfers of large sums of money (In this case, as much as $1.6 million) without it affecting lifetime gift-tax exemptions. They were named Crummey because that was the name of the Methodist minister who was the plaintiff in the 1968 case that established them. In the recent case, Mikel v. Commissioner, the… Read More

Sometime this year, the Supreme Court could very well change the whole same-sex marriage game, and rule that marriage equality is the law of the land. By then, it will have been about two years since they struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, which opened the door, and pretty much forced states to accept all married couples equally. Other court rulings have opened up marriage in a total of 37 states, to the point that, according to recent figures, same-sex marriage is no longer just an oddity; the number of same sex couples who are officially hitched is approaching… Read More

One thing we in the estate planning business are always trying to do is to get families to speak to each other. Regardless of the issue, whether it's trusts or the will or end-of-life care, the entire family will be affected, so they should all have input into the process. For example, when you're talking to some parents about setting up trusts for their children, there's a good chance they'll be worried about an issue or two, but they won't want to bother the children about their decision.   Or worse, they may be excited about what they plan to… Read More