New Year’s Resolutions
Safe To Go Back To The Gym?

Top Ten New Year’s Resolutions
From the Home Office in Grand Rapids, Michigan, here are the top ten New Year’s Resolutions:

1. Exercise more
2. Lose weight
3. Get organized
4. Learn a new skill or hobby
5. Live life to the fullest
6. Save more money / spend less money
7. Quit smoking
8. Spend more time with family and friends
9. Travel more
10. Read more

—GOSKILLS.COM

Alert Readers will may notice that LifePlan™ made the list 3 times:
#3 Get Organized,
#5 Live Life to the Fullest,
#6 Save More Money.

New Year’s Resolutions Are Hard!

By now, of course, you have probably can’t remember your New Year’s Resolutions. Forget about trying to actually carry them out. Well, The Michigan Elder Law Reporter is always here to help! Are you against achieving 3 New Year’s Resolutions all at once? Is the beginning of another mad and merry year a bad time to get started? Is it a ridiculous idea to think that attending a LifePlan™ Workshop could be the start of something really big for you and your family?

LifePlan™ Workshop Resolutions Are Easy!

At the top of this page are the Workshop listings. Go. Pick a date and location. Pick up the phone or email us. Or sign up on our website by clicking HERE. Pick up your date. Come to the Workshop. In a few short minutes (60 minutes, but it goes fast) you will have accomplished 3 of the top 10 most popular New Year’s resolutions. And enjoyed some fresh-baked oatmeal raisin cookies, too.

Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.

No Poverty. No Charity. No Waste.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.
Get Information Now. 800-317-2812

The post We Sure Do Love Resolutions… Mostly We Love Ignoring Them appeared first on Carrier Law.

According to the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, this fund helps businesses that have not been able to access, or have been declined for local, state, or federal relief funds, or need additional support to weather this crisis.

We are focused on businesses that may be dealing with additional barriers including but not limited to language, general business knowledge, and from underserved communities.

Consistent with the limitations of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, these businesses also must have been directly impacted and experienced losses due to business interruption due to COVID-19.

All distributions of funds are subject to the requirements of the CARES Act and Treasury Department guidance on the use of Coronavirus Relief Funds.

Who Is Eligible?

Programs differ in the details. But generally:

• Private, for-profit business located and registered in the grant district
• 25 or fewer full time equivalent (FTE) employees (that means you can have 50 half-timers)
• Some have expanded eligibility to businesses with up to 50 FTE employees
• Direct impact and loss from COVID (In other words, everybody)
• In business before 2/15/2020

Your mileage may vary.

How Much?

Smaller businesses with 25 or fewer FTE employees may receive $5000 to $25,000. Twenty-six to fifty FTE workers? You may get $10,000 to $40,000.
Business owners know that money evaporates. Everything costs more. Everything breaks. At the worst possible moment.

Murphy’s Law: “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”.

Small business Owner’s Law: “Murphy was an optimist”.

Still, these are grants not loans. No repayment. Now you can fix the refrigerator. Restock the supply room. Meet payroll for one more week. It helps!

How To Apply?

Get your financial documents together. You must provide any two of the following:

• Tax return
• Income statement
• Sales report
• Cash flow statement
• Profit and loss statement
• Balance sheet

Sole proprietor? They will need your individual tax return as well.

Most Small Business Recovery Programs have an online application process. And it is simple. Gather your financial documents, file the online application, keep on working your butt off.

How Long To Get An Answer?

Check your email. They are trying to get the money out there quickly. Someday soon, you may get the notice that help is on the way.

But I Don’t Want Government Help!

Small business owners are independent do-it-yourself types. Government hand-out? Perish the thought! Understandable. But.

Government demands taxes. You pay taxes. You never thought you would see any of that money again, right? No return on that investment. This is a return on that investment. Unusual times.

Same approach applies to estate planning and elder law. You paid in, why shouldn’t you be paid back? If you need it. When you need it? Learn more. It is easy. Well, pretty easy.

Getting Started

COVID flaring up again? Today is the best time to plan. Begin by calling the LifePlan™ Hotline: 800-317-2812.

Get Information You Need: Your Life, You Choose!

COVID has not gone away. New challenges arise daily. The risks to what you have earned and built have not gone away. And we have not gone away either. It is your stuff… protect it. With complete control. LifePlanning™ means your choices matter, whatever life brings.

How can LifePlanning™ protect your middle-class life savings? How to get this information?

Are you like thousands of Michigan families who played by the rules and earned homes, cottages, farms, lifesavings? Would you like the rules to work for you, for a change? Why wait until it is too late?

GET ANSWERS NOW. CALL THE LIFEPLAN™ HOTLINE
(800) 317-2812

The post Kent County Small Business Recovery appeared first on Carrier Law.

Folks like us begin working by age 10. Snow shoveling. Grass mowing. Babysitting. Dishwashing. Me, I began delivering newspapers at 7.

I have an older sister, two younger sisters and four younger brothers (8 of us altogether). Dad, a WWII Navy veteran, taught school by day, then worked the local brewery’s graveyard shift. Sixteen-hour days for sixteen years. Mom was an RN. She resumed practice when the youngest was 5. Both parents tracked our grades, chores, and college savings.

Paper route and dish-washing money paid for my first year at the University of Notre Dame. An Army scholarship and weekend pizza deliveries took care of the rest. Upon graduation, the Army kindly allowed me to get my first law degree from Boston University Law School. Like Dad, I worked third shift full time to pay the bills.

On active duty, the Army let me jump out of airplanes, argue murder cases, edit The Army Lawyer, and work at the Pentagon. The Army also paid for most of my Master of Law, Taxation degree from Georgetown University Law. Airborne wings, two Meritorious Service Medals and an Army Achievement Medal. Thank you for allowing me to serve!

A Different Vision Of Estate Planning & Elder Law

Two years at a large law firm were enough. For them. Thirty years ago, I founded my own firm. Dedicated to you. Middle Class Americans. Today, 40+ team members share the LifePlan™ vision:

• 1. No Poverty. You do not go broke. You will keep your lifesavings. Keep your independence. Period. Money is choices. You decide. At home care, assisted living or skilled nursing?
• 2. No Handouts. Middle class Americans are not looking for charity. Need long term care? Get the benefits you paid for with every paycheck.
• 3. No Waste. Avoid probate? Of course. Make sure the beneficiaries get their inheritance, no matter what? Yes!

I reject traditional estate planning. Traditional planning sacrifices Middle-class Michigan to nursing home poverty. Everyone knows this. Your insurance agent, financial advisor, accountant, lawyer. It is no secret. Except to you. No longer. The Reporter gives you the straight story.

Over the years, tens of thousands of families have used the LifePlan™ approach. Simple fairness. You paid in. You get the benefit. Receiving the best care. Maintaining quality of life. Not going broke.

Service To Our Client Families

No billing by the hour. No billing by percentage of your estate. No surprises. We do not like surprises. We will not surprise you. Let’s talk… no charge. No charge for the workshop either. If you choose to protect yourself and your family, we will craft a plan and quote the fee. No risk. You decide. You get options, in writing, all fees disclosed up front.

Many lawyers claim to do everything from traffic tickets to trusts. Can that lawyer is be expert at anything?

Our singular focus is on you and your loved ones. Following through, getting the job done. I call it LifePlanning™. You may call it common sense. Other lawyers wish it would just go away.

GET ANSWERS NOW. CALL THE LIFEPLAN™ HOTLINE
(800) 317-2812

The post Estate Planning to Serve You | David’s Story appeared first on Carrier Law.

Who cares? The Constitution and the Supreme Court don’t affect your daily life. Right? All that political food fight going on in Washington, D.C. has little to do with me and you. Pretty irrelevant, eh?

Well. You may want to rethink that one. In many ways, large and small, Supreme Court rulings govern our daily life. What we can say. How we can say it. What we can sell. What we can buy. For whom we can vote. How we can vote. It’s kind of a big deal.

Why Do We Have a Constitution?

Over 40 years ago, as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army, I took an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same….” What does that mean? How do you “support and defend” a document? What is the job of the Supreme Court? Why do we have a Constitution?

There are Constitutional Law scholars who spend their lives puzzling over these issues. Writing, Theorizing. Advocating. I am not that smart. And there have been other things to do. Over several decades as an interested observer, I have developed some opinions. This is how it seems to me.

The United States Constitution

Folks view the Constitution and Supreme Court in one of two ways (of course there are gaps and overlaps, but…). The Constitution is either a fundamental Rule Book that applies to everyone or a mysterious relic of ever-increasing, unpredictable power. Justices are honest umpires, here for the length of the game, or avenging angels in black robes whose wishes must be honored beyond the grave.

Is the Constitution a sturdy shield against tyranny? Protecting ordinary folks going about their daily lives; planning for the future. Well-understood, fair, predictable. “Equal Justice Under Law.”

Or is the Constitution a flaming sword of righteousness? Fearsome weapon against bad thoughts, bad acts and bad people. Ever evolving to battle new grievances. Discovering and pursuing hidden evils. Vengeance against historic wrongs. Therapy for all distress.

Supreme Court Justices Apply the Rules

Is the Supreme Court a committee of honest umpires? Given the Rule Book, their job is to apply the Rules. The Supremes do not make the Rules. We the People, Congress and the President do that. And the Supremes shield us from the Congress and President’s urge to trample our inalienable rights.

In 1776 and beyond, the Founders of the United States were surrounded by murderous, tyrannical governments. Kings, queens, pashas, sultans, emirs, Kaisers, czars, emperors and Pharaohs, despotic overlords of every description. The Founders experienced unrestricted governmental power. They knew the evil that lurks in the hearts of men (and women) to control and dominate. And they didn’t like it. Not a bit.

Our Constitution provides a basic, reliable structure. Balancing co-equal branches of government. Restraint on Power, not the People. Individuals and families living together with maximum liberty and freedom, minimal interference and control. A mighty defense against tyranny. Everyone can thrive when left to their own initiative and effort, in a framework of ordered liberty. Governs best, governs least.

Avenging Angels

Is the Supreme Court a squad of avenging angels? Life is nothing but a tawdry power struggle. Oppression, exploitation, bias, unfair advantage, -isms of all sorts. The Constitution is a mighty flaming sword of righteousness. Smite the evil doers!

Of course, new evil doers unceasingly arise, so the Constitution must evolve. Who cares what those dead guys wrote over 200 years ago? The words do not really matter. We have the power; now let us enjoy it. Liberty, tolerance, virtue: meaningless propaganda. Supreme Court Justices embody wisdom and concentrated virtue. The People are an undisciplined mob. Ungrateful wretches! If they will not learn, they will be compelled. You will be made to care.

Who Should Be A Supreme Court Justice?

How to explain the wailing and gnashing of teeth by politicians, commentators, and others on the recent death of a Supreme Court Justice? Gushing floods of despair, anxiety, and fear… from whence do they arise? Parents brag on social media of their minor kids’ emotional devastation. Another videoed herself in the shrieking throes of a nervous breakdown. While driving.

Was that your reaction? Or did you maintain a calm confidence that soon another umpire would be found. Not from a mystic mountain but nominated by an elected official. That individual’s fidelity to the rules as written, amended, interpreted would be tested. By other elected officials. And life, under the light yoke of the Rule Book will go on.

Why is it not enough that a Supreme Court Justice be skilled, intelligent, hard-working? Faithful to The Rule Book that has worked for almost 250 years of self-government.

What Does All This Legal Philosophy Have To Do With LifePlanning™?

Quite a bit. LifePlanning™ is how regular middle-class families avoid nursing home poverty. You do not have to sacrifice your life savings, your security, your loved ones’ well-being. LifePlanning™ is based on strict compliance with the rules and regulations provided for long-term care. What if we could not depend on the rules and regulations? What if your future or that of your loved ones depended on a caseworker’s feelings? Or who you voted for? Or who likes or does not like you?

What if some groups got extra benefits, based on their political orientation? What if other groups got extra restrictions, based on their beliefs? Aren’t we living through that experiment, right now? How does it feel? Whatever happened to do unto others as you would have them do unto you?

Middle-class Americans are not looking for special treatment. No extra privileges. No special deals. Fairness is all we ask. And that means everyone plays by the same set of rules. And the rules apply evenly to everyone.

Basic Fairness. We’ve been helping Middle-class Michigan get their earned benefits for 30 years. We make the rules work for the folks who play by the rules.

By David L. Carrier

Find Out How to Avoid Nursing Home Poverty

Call The LifePlan™ Hotline Today! 800-317-2812

The post Supreme Court Justice Nomination appeared first on Carrier Law.

It was a perfect midsummer afternoon, twelve years ago. Two men retired from the same Michigan manufacturing company. They were very much alike, these two older gentlemen. Both had better-than-average, thirty-year careers. Both were personable, well-respected, and secure. Home, nice cottage. No debt. Conservative investments. No bad habits. And both – as new retirees are- were filled with dreams for the future. More time to spend with their wives, kids, grandchildren, at the cottage, on the golf course, travel. Enjoying the retirement freedom and security they had anticipated, saved for, earned.

Recently their company had its one-hundredth anniversary. Both men returned to celebrate.

They were still very much alike. Both healthy. Both had three grandchildren. Both still devoted to their wives of over forty years. Both primary caregivers. At home. Just a few short years into retirement. Their wives suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease.

But there was a difference. One of the men struggled to make ends meet. “On duty” 24 hours per day. Exhausted. Retirement savings, cottage, comfortable home – all gone. Living on social security. The other man recently hosted his granddaughter’s wedding. At the lake. One hundred and twenty guests. Life savings intact.

Independent, secure. Primary caregiver with plenty of help. Using the Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). No worries.

What Made the Difference?

Have you ever wondered, as I have, what makes this kind of difference in people’s lives? It isn’t always a native intelligence or talent or dedication. It isn’t that one person wants security and the other doesn’t.

The difference lies in what each person knows and how he or she makes use of that knowledge. Useful knowledge. Action. Follow through. Better results.

Planning Where the Rubber Meets the Road

Living Life to the fullest, whatever the circumstances.

Knowledge, concepts, ideas – all very fine. But without action? Nothing! LifePlanning™ incorporates knowledge, in real life. Getting the benefits you have earned. Avoiding nursing home poverty. Living life to the fullest, whatever the circumstances. Thousands of Michigan families use LifePlan™ techniques. Securing a better life for their families. Security is a choice. What do you choose?

Your Own Success and Security

We cannot promise you instant success or eternal security. But we guarantee that the LifePlan™ approach to the best to secure your success and meet your needs.

Get Knowledge Now!
Call 1-800-317-2812.
There’s a LifePlan™ Workshop near you.

The post Security and Success: Choice Not Chance appeared first on Carrier Law.