Connecticut Estate Planning Attorneys Blog

February 24, 2022

6 Estate Planning Documents You Should Create Today

You can’t predict what might happen tomorrow, but there is something you can do today to help better prepare for whatever comes your way – you can get your estate plan in order.

Putting these documents in place can help ensure that not only are things done according to your intentions, but can also give you peace of mind knowing you’ve set in motion specific plans that can be implemented should the unexpected occur.

Regardless of your age or life circumstances, there are a few basic estate planning documents that every person should have in place.

February 17, 2022

33 Resources to Help Caregivers

by Czepiga Daly Pope & Perri LLC

“There are only four kinds of people in the world. Those who have been caregivers. Those who are currently caregivers. Those who will be caregivers, and those who will need a caregiver.” –Rosalyn Carter

These prescient words by the former first lady remain as relevant and true as ever.

According to a 2020 report from the AARP:

February 1, 2022

4 Key Differences Between ABLE Accounts and SNTs

by Czepiga Daly Pope & Perri LLC

For those who are new to the game, ABLE accounts are tax-free savings accounts for individuals with qualifying disabilities that began before age 26.

Created in 2014 as the ABLE Act, there are now over 20 ABLE programs to choose from, including Connecticut, which has its own ABLE plan!

How does an ABLE account work?

January 28, 2022

Forget Your Reading Glasses? Here’s Your Backup Plan

by Czepiga Daly Pope & Perri LLC

Ever find yourself in this situation? You get seated in a dimly-lit restaurant, the server hands you a menu, and you immediately realize with dread, “I forgot my reading glasses.”

Or maybe you discover a new food item in the grocery store. You turn the package over to read the ingredients label to find it’s written in microscopic text.

Whatever the case, it can be very frustrating when you don’t have your reading glasses handy.

January 21, 2022

Recipients of Social Security and SSI Benefits Get a Raise

by Czepiga Daly Pope & Perri LLC

In 2022, Americans with disabilities will receive a significant increase in their Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and in other Social Security benefits.

According to the Social Security Administration, monthly SSI payments are going up 5.9%, a change that started as of December 30, 2021 for SSI payments and Social Security benefits paid in January 2022.

The increase is a result of the yearly COLA (cost-of-living) adjustment and inflation and based on the Consumer Price Index determined by the U.S. Department of Labor. (The COLA increase is the largest since 1982!)

January 13, 2022

7 Smart Gift-giving Strategies for Your Estate Plan

by Czepiga Daly Pope & Perri LLC

It’s a nice thing to be able to give someone you love a gift, especially when that gift can help ensure their security, wellbeing, and even happiness. But you have to be careful when giving gifts—either cash or property.

The annual gift tax exclusion is $16,000 per recipient in 2022, or—if you and a spouse are making the gift jointly—$32,000 per recipient. If you want to give gifts in excess of those amounts, you need to be strategic about your approach so that you can maximize the gift while minimizing the tax liability.

Here are a few tips that can help you do just that:

January 6, 2022

Ageism is Demeaning: How to Address it in a Healthcare Setting

by Czepiga Daly Pope & Perri LLC

Your daughter accompanies you to a doctor’s appointment for moral support, and the doctor addresses all his questions to her instead of to you.

Nothing like feeling invisible!

The nurse talks to you the way Kindergarten teachers speak to their students, sometimes using the “royal we” and often using inappropriate terms of endearment like “young lady” or “young man.”

December 27, 2021

5 Financial Resolutions You Can Keep

by Czepiga Daly Pope & Perri LLC

We’ll only be hours into the New Year, and most of us will already be steeling ourselves for the annual guilt trip about abandoned resolutions! It never fails. We start out with the best intentions, but as the world cranks back into gear after the holidays, we find ourselves slipping back into old habits and making old excuses.

Don’t feel too bad. You’re definitely not alone.

The trouble with most New Year resolutions is that keeping them requires consistent effort over the long term. It can be exhausting just thinking about it.

December 16, 2021

How To Keep Your Brain Strong: 3 Great Ways to Build Your Mental Muscles

by Czepiga Daly Pope & Perri LLC

Just as keeping physically fit is important as we age, so is keeping mentally fit. More research is being done on how adults can work out their “mental muscles” to keep their minds sharp and possibly put off or avoid the onset Alzheimer’s and dementia.

1. Engage in physical exercise

Surprised that physical exercise tops the list? You shouldn’t be. Exercise is arguably the single most effective way to keep the mind sharp and the memory strong. Any type of physical exercise that gets the heart rate up is good for the brain as well as the body.

December 9, 2021

When the Child Becomes the Parent: 5 Tips to Ease the Transition

by Czepiga Daly Pope & Perri LLC

There are some life experiences that you just can’t understand until you have lived them yourself. For example nothing can truly prepare you for becoming a parent.

Read all the books you want and watch all your friends have their own kids—you will never really get it until you’re the one doing the 2 a.m. feeding or calling the pediatrician about how, exactly, one might safely extract a Lego from a child’s right nostril.

A similar you-can’t-understand-until-you’ve-been-there rule applies to the often poignant transition from being your parent’s child to being their caregiver.

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