Martinson & Beason, P.C.
In a recent article, The Huntsville Times reports that CNNMoney.com named Huntsville one of America’s top 25 places to live during retirement. This is the second year that Huntsville has made the list. This year, Huntsville made the twelfth spot, behind cities including Marquette, Michigan and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Several weeks ago, the Obama administration released a proposed budget for 2014. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reports that this budget, if adopted, will have several implications for estate planning.
While the budget primarily tackles issues related to education, Social Security, defense, and health care, it also includes measures that could impact estate planning tools.
We’ve posted several times before about the dangers of distracted driving. The statistics surrounding distracted driving are scary:
Estate planning, in order to be effective, must be done in advance. Obviously, it’s too late to create a last will and testament and other estate planning documents once you’ve passed. Once this happens, you have no control over your property and other assets. Alabama state law will kick in, acting as a default will for those who don’t have one. Someone else appointed by the court will decide who gets your house, your money, your possessions, etc. based on state law.
A recent survey by insurance company Liberty Mutual, cited in Bloomberg, found that teens who drove after smoking pot “said the drug either improves their performance behind the wheel or is no hindrance.”
The survey found that 41% of teens said that marijuana had “no effect” on their ability to drive. Even more disturbing, 34% said that marijuana actually improves their driving. Of the teens surveyed, 23% had driven after drinking alcohol or using marijuana or a prescription drug.
1,708 teens in 11th and 12th grade at 26 schools across the country contributed to the survey.
When suffering from an injury, accident victims have to deal with numerous challenges. Among them is paying for the medical bills associated with the injury. More often than not, medical bills resulting from a personal injury are extremely costly. This is especially true for serious or chronic injuries.
It doesn’t help that hospitals and insurance companies often exacerbate a victim’s frustration and worry.
