Charitable Bequests Must Follow the Rules to be Deductible: The James D. Galloway Revocable Living Trust provided that the residue of the trust would pass in four equal shares to his son, a relative, and two charities. Each of the four beneficiaries was to receive 50% of their one-quarter share in early 2006 and…
Contributions Don’t Have to be Reduced if You Receive Insubstantial Gifts: T-shirts, sweatshirts with charity logos are de rigueur at walk-a-thons, bike-a-thons and other charitable events. While these might motivate donors, do these ubiquitous small gift items impact contribution deductions? Yup. The general rule is that you have to reduce the amount of your…
Summary: Federal law protects the privacy of your medical records, but those restrictions create problems for powers of attorney, trusts, shareholder agreements and other business and estate planning documents where changes are dependent on demonstrating that an agent, shareholder or other person is disabled. What is HIPAA: HIPAA is the affectionate acronym for…
Summary: In order to have your medical information released or to provide someone access to it, you need to formally authorize the physician, hospital or other medical provider. This checklist will help you properly complete such an authorization. A medical provider (“covered entity”) cannot disclose your Protected Health Information (PHI) without your authorization…