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divorce

02.07.2017

Learn about Collaborative Family Law during February seminar

Learn about Collaborative Family Law during February seminar Read More

11.01.2016

Adoption month highlights need for adoptive families

Adoption month highlights need for adoptive families Read More

05.14.2015

Reboot your tax planning for 2015 now and get ahead

Every tax season, there are at least a few of us who have some unwelcome surprises. Some discover they were not nearly as organized as they should have been, and can’t find receipts for items they wanted to write-off as business expenses. Others may discover that they made more income than they anticipated, and they owe additional unanticipated taxes. There are plenty more unwelcome surprises, sometimes having to do with divorce or custody issues. Couples sometimes trade off who gets to claim a child as a dependent, and misunderstanding whose turn it is leads to confusion (and fighting). If you own your own business, or just make some side income from consulting, you may find out that you owe taxes because you didn’t pay enough estimated taxes during the year. That’s a common problem that we see often with clients. The best time of year to address these problems is right now. Tax attorneys, accountants and other financial professionals aren’t quite as busy as they are in the first and last quarters of the year executing year-end transactions, followed by preparing returns for clients, and the mistakes you made in 2014 are fresh in your mind. A few simple tips and tricks can get you ready for April 15, 2016. Read More

04.08.2015

Annulment versus divorce matters at tax time

In our last post, we discussed how divorce affects an estate plan. A thorough review of all estate documents is critical post-divorce to ensure you’ve covered every conceivable scenario and changed every document necessary. Allowing an attorney to do that review for you is always in your best interest, as attorneys have a keen eye for details and wording that may escape even a close reader who does not have legal training. Taking this matter one step backwards, though, we’re examining annulment versus divorce in this post. While both lead to the same conclusion – you’re no longer married – these two scenarios have very different consequences when it comes time to pay taxes. Both parties may file as married at tax time if they were still legally married at the end of the calendar year. Options include filing a joint tax return, as many married couples do, or checking the married but filing separately box. Read More

04.02.2015

A divorce can affect your estate plan

Hardly anyone goes through the process of putting together a comprehensive estate plan with the intentions of getting divorced from their current spouse thereafter. It is, however, a fact of life that becomes reality for a large portion of society. Divorce can affect more than just a person’s emotions and wallet. Here is a brief overview of the effect of divorce on your estate plan. The Will In Kentucky, a divorce or annulled marriage “revokes any disposition or appointment of property made by the will to the former spouse, any provision conferring a general or special power of appointment on the former spouse, and any nomination of the former spouse as executor, trustee, conservator or guardian, unless the will expressly provides otherwise.”  KRS 394.092.  The statute goes on to provide that property that would have passed to the former spouse by will now passes as if the former spouse predeceased the decedent.  Put simply, Kentucky law basically “removes” the former spouse from your will, unless you expressly provide otherwise. Read More