Estate Planning

An accountant explains how taxes and penalties could consume up to 90 percent of a retirement account, and offers five easy steps to prevent this from happening.

Bookstore shelves are bursting with titles to help the elderly and their families cope with the legal decisions that confront them. ElderLawAnswers.com reviews three of the best reference works we've found so far.

More Americans are turning to 'ethical wills' as a way of passing on their hopes and values to succeeding generations.

Fewer than half of severely ill and terminally ill patients have a living will or other advance medical directive in their medical record, according to a report. And poor communication between patients and their doctors means that even the existence...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that Medicare beneficiaries will now be able to receive coverage of positron emission tomography (PET) to diagnose thyroid cancer and potential cardiac diseases. At the same time, CMS will...

The Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that states may force health maintenance organizations (HMOs) to accept any interested doctors, hospitals or other providers into their networks. Although the ruling appears to offer consumers greater choice of providers, some say...

A former head of Medicare and Medicaid says that covering the nation's 41 million uninsured would cost only a small fraction of the $1.6 trillion that will be spent on health care this year, and would result in unexpected savings...

A booklet offers survivors a roadmap to the many financial and legal obligations that follow the death of a loved one.

An AARP report predicts that the need for long-term care will not grow substantially until after 2030, giving our country a window of opportunity to make needed changes in long-term care services before the baby boomers reach late old age.