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I've been sitting with a recent Seventh Circuit decision for a while now, and I can't shake it. The court spends page after page explaining why the ALJ got it wrong. Not just one mistake—several. The opinion walks through how the ALJ reversed the regulatory framework for evaluating medical opinions, failed to properly address supportability and consistency, applied inconsistent reasoning across the decision, failed to build a logical bridge between the evidence and the conclu

The Ninth Circuit handed down a decision on July 1 in Allen v. Bisignano that's worth a quick read if you're briefing symptom testimony or medical opinion challenges. It's not a case that breaks new legal ground, it's a roadmap of what an ALJ decision looks like when it survives review because every finding is tied back to the record. The Facts The claimant alleged disability based on mental health impairments and arm pain. The ALJ ran the five-step sequential evaluation and

How to have the estate planning conversation with the people you love without making it weird. There's a phrase most of us remember from decades past: "Friends don't let friends drive drunk." It was simple, direct, and it worked, because it reframed a difficult conversation as an act of friendship, not judgment. The same logic applies to estate planning. For most of us, our friends are among the most important people in our lives. For some, they're chosen family: the people w

You've raised it before. Your spouse keeps saying "not now." But every week that passes without a plan is a week your family's future depends on chance instead of intention. Here's what to do when you're not on the same page, and what you can start doing today. Read more...

Most families believe they will inherit their loved one's debt. Most debt collectors count on that fear. Your debt does not automatically transfer to your heirs, but it shapes how much they receive and what the estate must pay before they get anything. Here is exactly what happens and what your family needs to know before the collectors call. Read more…

The One Big Beautiful Bill raised the estate tax exemption to $15 million per person. That provision made headlines everywhere. A second one didn't: a deduction limitation buried in a Congressional footnote that tax lawyers say may create double taxation inside family trusts, including special needs trusts with as little as $400,000 in assets. Here is what families with trusts need to know right now. Read more…

The Ninth Circuit recently handed down a decision in Starkweather v. Bisignano that every Social Security disability appellate practitioner should read, not because it changes the law, but because it illustrates exactly how procedural missteps and the harmless error doctrine can swallow otherwise valid arguments whole. What Happened Starkweather appealed the denial of her Social Security disability benefits. The ALJ discounted her treating physician's opinion, made a factual

Most families assume that a list of passwords will be enough to access accounts after a death. That assumption is wrong, and the problem is not the list. The problem is a layer of security most accounts now require that no password can bypass. Here is what actually keeps families locked out, and what a real digital estate plan looks like. Read more…

If you are a divorced father, you already know something that most married fathers don't: showing up for your kids takes more deliberate effort than it looks like from the outside. You have worked on the relationship you have with them. You know which weeks are yours and how to make them count. You have figured out the handoffs, the schedules, and the way to stay present even when circumstances make it complicated. What I find almost universally, when a divorced father walks

The Eighth Circuit issued its decision in Bonham v. Bisignano on June 2, 2026, and if you handle Social Security disability appeals, it's worth reading carefully. Not just the majority. Especially the dissent. Here's what happened, why the dissent matters, and what this means for how you handle cases going forward. The Setup: A Long Wait and a Narrow Window A veteran with serious cervical spine issues waited five years to file for SSA disability, alleging an onset date back i

If you are a stepfather, you know the difference between the legal definition of father and the real one. The real one shows up. He learns the allergies, the fears, and the names of the friends. He drives to the practices and sits through the recitals and knows which child needs quiet when they're upset and which one needs noise. He considers these children his family, and they consider him theirs. The legal definition is something else entirely. Under the law, a stepparent h

There are two kinds of fathers. The first kind coaches the games, makes it to the school plays, stays up late helping with the projects, and loves his family in every visible way. He thinks about what would happen if something happened to him: maybe during a long drive home, maybe after a close call, maybe in a quiet moment watching his kids sleep. He thinks about it and then moves on, because the day-to-day of being a father takes up almost everything he has. Father's Day te

I work with parents on this exact question all the time. And especially this time of year, sitting between Mother's Day and Father's Day, the love you have for your children tends to be front and center. But there's a question I find most parents haven't truly answered yet, even the ones who think they have. When I sit down with parents, most have thought about who would take care of their children if something happened to them. Maybe it came up during a long drive, over dinn

She had been filing taxes the same way for thirty years. Married filing jointly. Two incomes, two Social Security checks, one tax return. When her husband died, she assumed very little about her finances would change. She still lived in the same house. She still had the same savings. Her income was lower, yes, but the bills were mostly the same. Then her first tax return came due as a single filer, and everything changed. Her accountant had to explain something she had never

This happens far more than it should. You signed a Power of Attorney (POA), named someone you trust, and filed it away with your important documents. You felt the quiet relief of having that handled. But here’s what most families don’t discover until they’re already in a crisis: a perfectly valid POA can be rejected by your bank, and there may be very little your family can do about it in the moment. What that means is that they would have to go to court to get access to your

Tax season just made you look at your financial life honestly. All of it. Tax season forced it. You gathered documents, tracked down account statements, reviewed what you own and what you owe. Right now, in April, you are more financially clear-headed than you will be at almost any other moment this year. And here's the thing most people don't do next: they close the folder. They file the return, pay what they owe, and move on without ever asking the one question that matters

A new Ninth Circuit decision came down on April 7, 2026, and if you're handling Social Security disability claims, it's worth a careful read. Cloninger v. Bisignano is the kind of case that doesn't make headlines, but its logic will be familiar, and cautionary, to any practitioner in this space. Here's the short version: Cloninger applied for disability insurance benefits under Title II. The ALJ denied her claim. The district court upheld it. The Ninth Circuit affirmed. The r

If you represent claimants in childhood Social Security disability cases, the Ninth Circuit's recent decision in Jenson v. Bisignano is one you'll want to pull up and annotate. It's a unanimous affirmance that touches nearly every major stage of the childhood disability analysis, and it sends a clear message about just how much deference ALJs can command when the record is built the right way. Here's a close read of what happened, where the claimant's arguments fell short, a

You probably assume that if something happened to you, the other parent would step in and everything would work itself out. In many families, that's true. But not always. Real life is messy. Parents separate. Relationships become contentious. Custody disputes drag on for years. And when a tragedy occurs in the middle of all of that, children can end up in legal limbo while adults and courts scramble to figure out what happens next. A recent Michigan case shows exactly how com