As banks and other financial institutions churn out fine print changes to account agreements, it is important to ask if your power of attorney documents are compatible. While financial power of attorney documents may be perfectly legal, financial institutions may still be able to legally reject it because the terms do not comply with “their preferred language.” Are you and your partner still protected?

One of the greatest income tax benefits “bestowed” on people by the government is the ability to fund retirement accounts and deduct the contributions from their income tax. One of the biggest tax burdens falls upon these retirement accounts when the owner passes on, with all of the amounts in the retirement accounts counted as income to the beneficiary. But there are now legal steps partners can take to cut income taxes on these accounts and allow the accounts to grow to astronomical amounts tax deferred… provided they take those steps. (Originally appearing as a column in Out in Asheville, 2008.)