Estate Planning for Your Pet
You do not have to be rich or a celebrity to want your pet taken care of after you are gone. Estate planning for your pet has increased and at least 45 states allow for pet trusts. There are also retirement homes for your pets after you have passed away, as well as attorneys that specialize in pet trusts. There are resources available. Several books and websites have been dedicated to educate pet owners about setting up a pet trust. Some veterinary schools offer estate planning options like placement in a home or lifetime care for your pets. It is very important that the pet trust be written so that the funds and pets can be turned over to the designated facility or caregiver because the need is immediate. Some pet owners leave money to the individuals that will be caring for the pet to ensure the animal will not become a financial burden. However, greed sometimes gets in the way when a large amount of money is involved. Be sure to think carefully before deciding who will be the caretaker of your beloved pet.
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An increase in the optional standard mileage rates for the final month of 2011 has been announced by the Internal Revenue Service. For all business miles driven after July 1, 2011 through the end of the year, the rate will increase to 55.5 cents a mile, which is a 4.5 cent increase. While the IRS usually updates the mileage rates once a year in the fall for the next year, the IRS made this change due to the raise in gas prices affecting individual Americans. The standard business mileage rate can be used to compute the deductible costs instead of tracking actual costs, which can also be used by federal government and many businesses that reimburse employees for their mileage. Also, there is an increase by 4.5 cents to 23.5 cents a mile for computing deductible medical or moving expenses. There is still the option for taxpayers to calculate their actual costs instead of using the standard mileage rates. 
A recent Forbes blog post titled 
It is shown by surveys that women still follow men when planning for retirement. It is very important for married couple to make retirement-planning decisions with the purpose of leaving the spouse with the longer lifespan in good shape financially after the other passes away. The surviving spouse usually suffers a permanent decrease in his or her standard of living. But the good news is that couple can take provisions to protect one another and be certain that either spouse is comfortable with managing the finances. However, 40% of married women rely on the husband to plan the retirement finances. One way to increase income for the survivor is to delay claiming Social Security. The longer you wait to collect your benefits, the greater the monthly payments will be which could help the surviving spouse. For those who have an annuity or are entitled to a pension, there are steps that can be taken to ensure the surviving spouse will receive a survivor benefit. Purchasing a life insurance plan is also helpful. It can help the surviving spouse pay down debt, cover medical expenses or help make up for the loss of the spouse’s Social Security benefit. 
Planning for retirement is very important. When you reach your 40s, you have roughly 20 years of your career behind you. Many individuals love their career choice and plan to work until they drop, but the sad fact is that you may not be healthy enough to work that long, or may be forced to retire involuntarily. During your 40s, you have about 20 years left of your career and have time to save for your retirement. There are many reasons you can give for not increasing the amount you put into your retirement savings, but you cannot afford to not save now. It will be too late if you wait until later. 
Planning for your retirement is not only about the amount of savings you put aside. While putting aside enough money for retirement is important, it is also important to determine how you would like to spend your time later in life. By doing this, you can determine how much money you will need to save and how fulfilling your retirement will be for you. Following is a five-year timeline prior to retirement to determine what you need to do. Five years, if not before, you will need to start thinking about what you and your spouse wish to spend your time in retirement doing. Look at your current hobbies and activities. Also look at your finances and determine if you will have saved enough in the next five years to realistically retire. If you have not done so, create a will, appoint a power-of-attorney, create a health-care directive and make an estate plan. Four years from retirement, you should start researching ideas of what you would like to do for retirement and whether it includes moving into another community. It is also a good idea to start thinking about when to claim social security; the longer you wait to receive it, the bigger the monthly payout. Three years before retirement, you will want to start visiting other communities if seriously planning on moving, determine the benefits you are eligible for, and become knowledgeable about Medicare. Two years out, you will need to determine if you will want or need to work for pay in retirement and research interim health insurance if you plan to retire before becoming eligible for Medicare. A year before retirement, you will want to adapt your retirement savings into a stream of income that will last your lifetime. You can consult financial advisors to help create a budget that would be ideal for your circumstances and savings. 
Taxpayers with undeclared offshore accounts will be allowed by the Internal Revenue Service to apply for a 90-day extension of the August 31 deadline for coming forth. This extension would let individuals request the extension in writing by showing a “good-faith attempt” to meet the August 31 deadline and detail the missing information. The taxpayers would need to detail the steps they are taking to retrieve the missing information. The IRS will allow taxpayers to avoid criminal prosecution and pay any penalties relating to accounts that were undeclared. Those individuals that come forward will pay as much as 25% of the highest annual amount in the account between 2003 and 2010. This announcement also includes a category of taxpayers who could quality to receive a 5% reduced penalty applying only to unreported financial assets. Non-U.S. residents who had $10,000 or less and comply with home-country tax laws can qualify for the 5% rate. 
Most individuals believe that by drafting a will or a trust their estate planning is complete. Items that every estate plan should have are: a will/trust, durable power of attorney, beneficiary designations, letter of intent, healthcare power of attorney, and guardianship designations. The main aspect of an estate plan is a will or trust that should be written consistent with the manner you have given assets outside of the will to try and ensure that there will not be a will contest. To ensure that an agent or person can act on your behalf in the event of injury or disability, it is important to draft a durable power of attorney. It is also important to have a beneficiary on retirement accounts, insurance plans, and other accounts to ensure that a court will not be left to decide the fate of your funds. A letter of intent details what you want done with a certain asset after death or incapacitation and may also include details of a funeral. You should choose an individual to make important healthcare decisions for you in the event of incapacity and include this person in a healthcare power of attorney. You should choose a guardian if you have children or are planning to have children to ensure that the court will not become involved and choose a guardian you would not approve of. 
Almost every decision a couple makes has some kind of financial aspect. From major purchases, such as a car or home, to going out to eat, there is some kind of money component involved. Couples need to talk about money issues on a regular—maybe daily—basis. Many individuals believe that the money issues that tear apart a couple are the big decisions. However, it is the small, everyday decisions that add up and can lead to trouble between spouses. Problems usually arise due to one spouse not understanding the perspective of the other spouse. The most important aspects to happy money management are compromise and honesty. Come clean about each other’s debt, overspending, etc. and discuss how to move forward with each other’s money personality. 
Very few things in life are more exciting as getting married. Tying the knot is one of the biggest decisions in anyone’s life and affects everything about your life. The biggest change is to your finances. Starting off a marriage on the right foot financially is a good idea. There are several exercises that newlyweds can do in the early months of their marriage to have a better chance of developing a joint vision of your financial objectives. Each individual should write down his or her short-term and long-term goals and talk about the similarities and differences. It is important to have shared goals and individual goals that the other supports. Show your spouse your most recent tax return, your projected incentive/bonus pay plan, and your current monthly pay statement so there is no confusion about each other’s income. Compile the last three to six months of credit card statements to show to the other to show spending habits and get a handle on it if needed. Create a joint spending account to pool your money together and fund your shared life together. Take time to talk about charities or philanthropic causes that matter to you so you know what the other spouse cares about. This will help gain some insight about the other spouse’s financial situation and their money personality to help when financial conflict begins. 
The majority of tax provisions in the 2010 Tax Act are only in affect for 2011 and 2012, leaving most wondering what will be in place beyond 2012. One of the provisions that are only temporary is portability. The 2010 Tax Act increased the exemption to $5 million and decreased the tax rate to 35%. The new rules for portability permit spouses to share their estate tax exemptions. It allows a deceased spouse to transfer their remaining unused exemption to the surviving spouse, which can be added to his or her own exemption. If having survived more than one spouse, the surviving spouse is limited to $5 million or the unused amount of the last deceased spouse, whichever is lesser. This applies only to spouses that passed away in 2011 or 2012. Currently, this portability rule only applies until the end of 2012, so do not use the portability option as a reason to not create an estate plan. 
