If you currently have an estate plan, you should visit an attorney to have it updated this year. The laws concerning the gift tax and the estate tax are currently scheduled to change at the end of this year. You need to make sure that your estate plan is up to date and conforms with any new laws. If you don't, then your family might not receive all of the inheritance that you thought you were leaving them. Estate planning attorneys have many different ways to lessen the gift tax and estate tax … [Read more...]
Estranged Father of Texan Inmate Posthumously Exonerated Stakes a Claim to Large Inheritance
In 2010, Texas made news headlines for making its first posthumous exoneration of an inmate wrongfully imprisoned. In 1985, Tim Cole was convicted of raping a fellow classmate at Texas Tech University while he was attending as an Army veteran. Cole maintained his innocence for the next 14 years. In 1999, he died in prison from asthma complications at the young age of 39. In 2008, a DNA test cleared Cole of the 1985 rape. Two years later, Texas Governor Rick Perry posthumously officially … [Read more...]
What Are Green Funerals?
When you think about the typical funeral it involves numerous steps which ultimately place a lot of chemicals into the ground. From metal coffins, to the concrete vault, to the plastic lining in the coffin, and the chemicals used in the embalming process, it creates quite a toxic list that has to be buried. But there are ways to reduce this amount by going green when it is your time to go. Start with the burial location. Believe it or not there are actual “green” cemeteries. These … [Read more...]
How Can I Donate My Body To Medicine?
Medicine involves a continuous journey of learning and new discoveries. But this wealth of information doesn't just appear. It comes from the study of the human body, or more precisely cadavers. How can you do your part? What if you want to donate your body to medicine? The important thing to remember is that facilities that accept these donations prefer a body that is intact. If organs have been removed for other reasons, the facility will most likely decline the donation. … [Read more...]
Five Things You Must Do To Get Your Affairs in Order
No one likes to think about it, but it's a fact of life. At some point, we will all need to have our financial affairs in order because everyone passes away. Making decisions early will allow you to have some semblance of security that your loved ones will be taken care of and will go through less grief when it comes to your financial affairs. Here are five things you can do to get your financial affairs in order. First, you should really consider having life insurance especially if you … [Read more...]
Green Funerals
Going green is becoming a part of life for more and more people. If you want to make an impact beyond the eco-conscious decisions you make during your living years, you can opt for a green funeral. The traditional funeral makes a huge environmental impact, and a green funeral involves choosing to reduce that impact. There are a number of ways you can do this, including: Forgo Embalming: Embalming fluid contains large amounts of formaldehyde, plus other toxic chemicals. Not only are these … [Read more...]
The Gift of Life: Organ Donation
According to Donate Life Texas, there are more than 96,000 people across America awaiting an organ or tissue transplant. 7,000 of these people are Texans. There’s an urgent need for organ and tissue donors, as an average of 17 people die each day waiting for transplants. In Texas alone, over 500 people died last year while awaiting a transplant. How can you become a donor? You can register with the Glenda Dawson Donate Life Texas registry. It’s the official organ donor registry for the state … [Read more...]
