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July 24, 2026
Phil Runyon discusses when revocable or irrevocable trusts may be appropriate, including probate avoidance, beneficiary planning, creditor protection, Medicaid eligibility, and asset protection trusts.
June 26, 2026
Solstice greetings from Phil Runyon on reviewing estate planning documents, updating wills and trusts, and keeping powers of attorney and health care directives current.
April 1, 2026
Greetings again, everyone! I know you've just heard from me, but I have a few more things to say, including an update on the finCEN real estate reporting rules...
March 22, 2026
Spring greetings, everyone - It's so good finally to say those words that I'm tempted to leave it at that. Here's an invitation to a free showing of To Kill a Mockingbird, along with updates on new finCEN real estate rules and later-life prenuptial concerns...
December 15, 2025
Holiday greetings again, everyone! Before all your families arrive in a week or so, and your households rival the Griswolds' in "Christmas Vacation" - though, g...
October 24, 2025
Crispy Fall greetings, everyone! It's been a while since I've written, so lest you completely forget me and I end up in your spam folder, I want to reconnect an...
June 5, 2024
I won't offend any of you by assuming you're regular readers of the AARP magazine quite yet, but a recent issue raised some of the knottiest planning dilemmas f...
May 7, 2024
Spring greetings, everyone! I was going to grouse about the weather taking forever to perk up, but today looks like it's doing its best to keep my mouth shut. I...
March 1, 2024
Early (Very Early) Spring greetings to you all! As a native Southerner, I confess to being less than sanguine about the weather of January and February and to b...
January 15, 2024
New Year's greetings, everyone! Now that the blur of the holidays is clearing up and we've all written our thank-you notes (we have, right?), I want to make an...
November 28, 2023
Holiday greetings, everyone! I hope you've all worked off the tryptophan - or whatever afflicts you from eating too much tofurkey. I always swear I'm going to n...
August 1, 2023
Phil Runyon discusses why the best executor or trustee may not be the most legally or financially sophisticated family member, and how to think about those choices.
July 1, 2023
Phil Runyon discusses practical work-arounds for funding revocable trusts, transfer-on-death beneficiaries, vehicle titles, and federal student loan concerns.
May 1, 2023
Phil Runyon explains why wills, trusts, durable powers of attorney, and health care directives may need periodic review as family circumstances and legal requirements change.
March 1, 2023
Phil Runyon discusses why estate planning changes need proper formalities, where to keep final instructions, safe deposit box access, lifetime deeds, and obituary planning.
December 1, 2022
Phil Runyon discusses springing powers of attorney, health care directives, downloaded wills, revocable trust funding, and when estate planning documents should be refreshed.
November 1, 2022
Phil Runyon discusses estate planning for in-laws, caregiver bequests, and helping seniors transition financial affairs management.
July 1, 2022
Phil Runyon discusses keeping health care directives current, preserving family stories, capacity planning, trustee choices, cremation, and trust provisions for vulnerable beneficiaries.
March 1, 2022
Phil Runyon discusses how revocable trusts and estate planning documents can help provide for pets after their owners are gone.
February 6, 2020
No matter where you are this winter, you'll eventually need to know at least the high points of the new SECURE Act of 2019, much of which became effective on Ja...
December 19, 2019
Sometimes what I offer you is densely legal, but this time it's less so and based more on my experience with human relations this time of year. Specifically, I...
November 22, 2019
A recent trip got me thinking about what happens when something goes wrong in another jurisdiction. So let's say you're all up to date with New Hampshire powers...
June 5, 2019
**This time around I'm going to assume you've fully executed all those planning documents I harp on - you have, right? - and talk instead about what to do with...
April 24, 2019
It's Never Too Early to Plan Ahead It occurred to me that most of what I say in these pieces is directed toward my contemporaries rather than our children and g...
February 28, 2019
Gift and Estate Taxes Untangled This time I want to shed some sunlight on how gift and estate taxes work. I spend a lot of time dispelling rumors about them tha...
March 15, 2018
A Modest Proposal Many of you have already taken the suggestion to convey your assets to revocable trusts to help your family avoid the winter (spring, summer a...
October 12, 2017
LTC and TLC Considerations It turns out that most people aren't as worried about climate change or whether Twitter will go to 280 characters as they are about s...
July 11, 2017
EnABLEd Accounts We've probably all at least heard about so-called "special needs trusts", even if we've never met one in person. They're intended to provide su...
January 25, 2016
Another Planning Resolution In addition to resolving to being nicer people this year, let's also resolve to keep our planning documents in good order - and let'...
December 22, 2015
A Holiday Parable Here's a story that might be useful to you or a family member or a close friend. Many years ago I had a "senior" client who had become estrang...
December 1, 2015
Those Unavoidable Topics Remember several months ago when I explained how you might maximize your Social Security benefits with a technique called "file and sus...
October 23, 2015
Protecting Your Most Precious Assets t's always important to get your affairs in order - just in case things happen unexpectedly - but there's one organizing jo...
August 27, 2015
Sometimes More Information is Better Here are a few words on a subject that can be totally unenjoyable, even divisive, in many families, at a time when they rea...
July 24, 2015
Be Charitable with IRAs I want to talk about IRAs and charities in the same breath here, and I want to acknowledge my good friends at the New Hampshire Charitab...
May 22, 2015
Asset Beneficiaries are important As we all know (some more traumatically than others), the divorce bug has attacked nearly every family at some point. And when...
February 17, 2015
An Important New Law This is the time of year when new laws take effect, and I want to tell you about one of them that may pertain to lots of families. I'll pre...
February 9, 2015
Reversal of Fortune I've written before about the wonders of reverse mortgages, so take a look at our website for all the pros first - before I toss a thimble o...
November 19, 2014
Express Your Trust Intentions Thanksgiving, more than any other holiday, seems to bring us together not only for a gargantuan meal, but also for those awkward c...
September 5, 2014
A Difficult Conversation Before moving on to a new message here, let me pass on a comment I received from a reader about the article on joint tenancies. He ment...
August 12, 2014
Joint Tenancies Redux I've written already about the use of **joint tenancies** to help avoid probate. If one of the JTs dies, the other becomes the sole owner...
July 24, 2014
Ensuring a Future One of the consequences of summer winding down is that schools and colleges will soon be cranking up again - and cranking out their tuition bi...
July 24, 2014
More Trust News If you've been even an intermittent reader here, you know I've proclaimed the helpful uses of trusts on many occasions. Historically, the primar...
May 19, 2014
Elder Law Priorities Elder law is the fastest growing practice area for many lawyers, because people now entering their Medicare years are the fastest growing d...
April 1, 2014
Correcting Some Misconceptions There are many misconceptions about the law that often seem to overwhelm the truth, so let's try to dispel a few of them. Many pe...
February 28, 2014
Defending the Nest Egg This message is probably more for readers at the far end of the age continuum - or for those of you with a senior or two that you're keep...
January 7, 2014
Joint Tenants Take Note As the heading suggests, I'm out to toss a little cold water on the common technique many of us employ to pass our worldly stuff on to o...
December 27, 2013
Year-End Planning The upcoming year-end always provides the occasion to take stock and make sure our houses are in order on many levels. I'll leave most of that...
October 21, 2013
More Medicaid . . . and More There's new legislation on Medicaid - not Medicare - in New Hampshire that you should consider carefully. Let's get at it by way of...
September 17, 2013
**Probate Avoidance Revisited I've mentioned before - harped may be more like it - about doing your best to keep your family from having to endure the delay (mo...
August 26, 2013
Post-Nuptial Agreements Now, Too! Remember when I went on and on awhile back about pre-nuptial agreements and how they absolutely positively have to be negotiat...
May 22, 2013
Making it Clear and Keeping the Peace Let's face it, most people's planning decisions are more vanilla than Cherry Garcia. They just want to provide for their s...
May 1, 2013
Time for a Trust Tune-up? Now that the dust is settling on the new tax law, and the rules have become as permanent as anything can be in Washington, it's pretty...
April 5, 2013
HIPAA Compliance If I've had anything to do with your planning, most of you have completed Health Care Directives, to give a trusted person the ability to make...
March 20, 2013
More About Organization Whenever we lose someone important to us, particularly when it happens suddenly and too soon, we eventually think about whether we'd be...
February 8, 2013
A Unique Idea I've mentioned a number of times that we can all make annual gifts to our family members without incurring any gift tax consequences, if we restri...
November 1, 2012
Food For Year-End Thought We've got about 2 months to go before the end of the year, which is when all our current estate and gift tax goodies are due to expire...
September 14, 2012
Still More Decisions! Recently, I passed on some thoughts about how to assess and choose the right folks to act for you if you're unable to tend to business you...
August 30, 2012
Who Do You Trust? I'm calling this topic "Who Do You Trust?", because it's about deciding who to trust when you'll need someone else to tend to your business. Y...
August 20, 2012
Be Your Own Mortgage Company How many of us have been to a mortgage loan closing where our eyes glazed over at all the forms we had to sign - and all the fees w...
July 2, 2012
First, Get Organized! These messages aren't intended to ruin your day by reminding you repeatedly about the transitory nature of human life. No, they're aimed a...
June 14, 2012
More on Trusts I've noted previously that most people's estate values are now less than the federal estate tax exemption amounts - currently $5,000,000 per pers...
June 11, 2012
Charity Can be Self-Serving Like me, I'm sure all of you have favorite non-profits that you try to help whenever you can. Maybe the hospital, hospice or youth c...
May 21, 2012
Too Good to be True? First a disclaimer: I'm certainly not in favor of people evading their legal obligations! Having said that, I'll also state that much of wh...
April 17, 2012
Durable Powers of Attorney Require Vigilance Let's start with a basic fact. Everyone should have a durable power of attorney naming a trusted family member, fri...
March 16, 2012
Long Term Care Insurance Attorneys who do estate planning are often asked how to structure their clients' affairs so their assets aren't all taken to pay nursin...
February 17, 2012
Estate and Gift Tax Update You are probably aware that until the end of 2012, the estate, generation-skipping transfer (GST) and gift tax rate is 35 percent, an...
January 18, 2012
A Probate Alternative Nearly every family has a horror story about "probating" a relative's estate, the usual complaints being about how long it took, how much...
Not legal advice
Food for Thought offers general educational commentary only and is not legal advice. Reading a post, using the glossary, or following links on this section of the site does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please contact Runyon Law Office PLLC if you would like advice about your own situation.