Photo of Michael Ryan

I would rather have it said, ‘He lived usefully,’ than, ‘He died rich.’

  • Benjamin Franklin

Many people erroneously ascribe to Adam Smith, the founder of modern economics, an ideological  hostility to taxation that he did not in fact espouse. In his time, he would have been known as a “moral philosopher,” and his first work

Here is a potpourri (and you thought that was just a Jeopardy category) of recent articles touching on the world of Trusts and Estates. Hey, you can’t expect a musical entry every week.

From Forbes:

Estate Tax Nightmare: Three Weddings, Two Funerals, And A Mexican Divorce:

“. . .this week’s topic offers a critical

The challenge of maintaining a law blog is to keep it fresh and to make it interesting to a broader audience than attorneys. One of our recent blog entries discussed the debts of a decedent and whether a decedent’s family would be personally responsible for those debts. (Short answer – no.) This entry will explore

The late great country singer, George Jones, had a hit with the title “Who’s Going to Fill Their Shoes?” It was a lament on the state of country music as it lost its connection to its roots and became more commercial. This entry has nothing to do with either country music or the complaints by

They told him, “Don’t you ever come around here”

“Don’t wanna see your face, you better disappear”

The fire’s in their eyes and their words are really clear

So beat it,  just beat it.

The Beatles certainly had taxes on their minds when they wrote and sang “Taxman” in their seminal album Revolver in 1966,

Today’s blog entry is short and “sweet,” devoted to recent articles from Forbes, RealMoney,[1] and MarketWatch[2] that are worth your time. The Forbes article is called “How To Beat Massive Estate & Income Tax Hikes.”[3] A quote from the article that will suffice to keep this blog current and informative:

“If ever

Tom’s father recently passed away.  We have been friends for many years and share a love for movies and plays. Tom is a film and theatre historian and writer of some note. Needless to say, I am neither (hence, “movies and plays”). Tom, even with his vast erudition, is gifted with a profound lack of