When it comes to planning your estate, minimizing tax losses, or planning for your retirement, Marylanders can all too easily find themselves getting handed from attorney to CPA to financial planner in an endless cycle, with each offering an incomplete, or worse, incorrect, picture of the entire process. Luckily, they won’t have to anymore because Higher Ground Legal has a unique three-pronged strategy. We will: Provide sound legal guidance and estate planning services while also Offering tax optimization and minimization guidance to help you keep and pass on your wealth, And help you manage the risks involved with retirement and plan accordingly. What Are The Benefits Of Working With A Firm That Combines Estate, Retirement And Tax Planning? A frequent source of frustration among many aging Marylanders occurs when they get the runaround from their current circle of advisors… First, they will talk to their financial advisor and ask him…Read More
Across America, millions of the recently deceased would be rolling in their graves if they knew how much of the wealth they left behind to their loved ones among the next generation gets siphoned away into taxes. This article explains: The risks taxes present to your estate and your loved ones in Maryland. The concept of tax minimization and how it applies to estate planning. How to minimize tax losses with several tax minimization strategies. Why Will Taxes Impact My Loved Ones After I Am Gone? It can come as a nasty and annoying surprise to learn that while you have been paying taxes on all your money and wealth throughout your life, your loved ones and your kids will be paying taxes again on the very same money. But just because it is frustrating does not mean it cannot be handled with careful planning. What Taxes Will Affect The…Read More
As life expectancy continues to rise, and the wonders of medical care make the previously miraculous mundane, our retirement assets become all the more vital. Yet those assets have significant vulnerabilities and may not be as safe as you think. This article dives into the why and how of retirement asset protection in Maryland by discussing: The three big dangers retirement assets need protection from. What a retirement trust is, and how you can benefit from using one. How to create and fund a retirement trust in Maryland. Why Would You Need To Protect Your Retirement Assets? Retirement assets take a lifetime to build up, but they can disappear a whole lot faster. There are three big dangers that all retirement assets face in one way or another: risk, fees, and taxes. Why Is Your Retirement Asset At Risk? The first thing that you really need to protect your retirement…Read More
Estate planning is the science, or art, of preparing your legal and financial affairs for the unexpected or the inevitable. In this field, trusts are some of the most powerful and versatile tools used by estate planning attorneys because they can be set up to fill almost any need. This article covers the essentials everyone in Maryland should know about estate planning with trusts, including: Why you probably need a trust in addition to other estate planning tools like wills. Eight different trusts that can be used in advanced estate planning in Maryland. How trusts can be used for asset protection as well as estate planning in Maryland. Beyond Wills: Who Needs A Trust? The most fundamental, or at least well-known, estate planning tool is probably the last will and testament. A will, as these are known, provides directions to the probate court for the distribution of your estate to…Read More
The state of Maryland does little to prepare people for the legal implications of probate, which leaves many people and their families dealing with financial hardships on top of the emotional loss they are already burdened with. This article contains fundamental knowledge about the process of preparing for death: estate planning, including. What happens when you pass away without proper estate planning in place in Maryland? What basic estate planning documents does everyone need in Maryland? How often should you review your Maryland estate plan? How Much Estate Planning Do I Need In Maryland? As with any preparations, some are better than none, but there is often more you can do to prepare your assets, property, family, and legal situation for your death. This process, called estate planning, can consist of as little as writing and notarizing a will but can be considerably more elaborate depending on your situation, needs,…Read More
Estate planning is a tool you never hope to need, but inevitably will. It is also not well understood by most people in Maryland, due in part to the legal complexities involved but also because no one likes thinking about their death and what happens to their affairs after it. However, this article aims to fix that by diving headfirst into the subject of estate planning, including: The goals and objectives for the estate planning process. Common misconceptions about Maryland estate planning. Why estate planning can pay off well before you die. What Is Estate Planning? Estate planning is the preparation of your legal and financial situation for situations in which you are not able to act on your own. This will eventually happen to everyone when they die, but as we will see later, it can happen at other times, too. It is a complex field with a vast…Read More
