DCUM Weblog

By Stacy Notaras Murphy

The flu is on its way.

I don’t just mean the seasonal flu virus, the one that billboards and news reports are encouraging you to inoculate your kids against. I’m talking about the flu that many marriages and partnerships come down with at this time of year. The one where all your energy gets tied up in helping the kids back to school, leaving nothing left for the person who balances the other side of the family seesaw.

In my counseling office, where I work with both individual parents and couples, the stress of this annual transition is on full display right now. Symptoms of this partnership flu may be irritability, isolation, or full blown lack of intimacy. But there is something simple you can do to vaccinate your marriage against coming down with this illness. It’s also quick, free, and even fun to do.

Avoid these10 Common Estate Planning Mistakes

As a Personal Family Lawyer®, I see many of the same estateplanning mistakes made time and again by people who either fail to planproperly or who use “do-it-yourself” estate planning websites or forms in an effortto save money.  

Without professional guidance, this can cause more problemsfor your heirs and end up depleting estate assets by far more than what youcould potentially “save” by doing it yourself online.

A qualified estate planning attorney or Personal FamilyLawyer® can help you avoid these 10 common estate planning mistakes:

1.  Failure to leaveany written documentation of your assets, including a list of your onlineaccounts and passwords

2.  Failure to let

Are you ready for some baseball? Yes, the season is coming to an end. But, standing atop their division, the Washington Nationals' season will likely not be ending with the regular season. If you'd like to catch one of the games that may lead to a Washington baseball team's first winning season in decades, you can now receive a discount off the price of a ticket. When purchasing tickets from "http://nationals.com/tickets" simply enter the code "CASEY" to receive an exclusive DCUM discount.

A full details available here:  DCUM Nationals Discount.

So you’ve decided to hire a nanny; you’ve made an offer and it’s been accepted.  Now what?  Chances are that you’ll now need to become familiar with the term nanny tax.  According to IRS Publication 926, once an employee is paid $1800 or more in compensation from one employer, those wages are subject to Social Security and Medicare tax withholding.  Employing someone in your home is a genuine business and is recognized as one by the federal, state and local governments.

Usually one of the first questions to come up is:  Does the nanny file her own taxes – or do I?   The answer to that is household employers are ONLY required to withhold Social Security and Medicare taxes for a nanny.  The nanny is responsible for filing his/her own Federal and State income taxes.   However, although employers are not required to withhold income taxes, when clients ask us, we usually recommend doing so.  This way, nannies are not left with a big tax bill to pay when they file their tax return. 

The Top 7 Things to Know

Before You Hire a Wills, Trusts orEstate Attorney

            You shouldconsider several different questions before you sign an agreement with anyattorney, but this is even more important when it comes to hiring a wills,trusts or estate attorney. This attorney will address sensitive family andfinancial issues that range from helping you pass assets on to your childrenand close family members, to protecting you from unnecessary taxes, to helpingyou determine the best person to make medical decisions on your behalf. This iswhy you need to know the answers to the seven questions discussed in this

For the DC Urban Moms (and Dads), as well as my fellow suburban parents, here is a list of suggested Washington area summer activities from A to Z.

I hope you and your family enjoy these 26+ outings as much as my family and I have!

AMF Free Summer Bowling and Regal Cinema $1 Movies – Summer is a great time for freebies from kid-oriented businesses, such as AMF’s program of two free games per kid per day in summer (shoe rental extra) and Regal Cinema’s Summer Express $1 movie matinees

I have noticed many posts about wills, trusts, guardians, how to select an attorney and whether an attorney is even needed. As an estate attorney, I hope this post will help begin the process of answering some of those questions. Please use this post as a resource. Generally, the questions have asked the following:

1. Why bother with the expense of an attorney. Can't you just use Legalzoom, Nolo or one of the many online/software tools to create your will?

Answer: Sure, using this software and putting something into place is much better than not having a will at all. It is better than not having anything in place. Any piece of software designed to write a will can do so and will always be cheaper than using an attorney. However, when you hire an attorney, you are not hiring that person to just create form documents. You are hiring that person for the advice that will be provided to you and for the experience gained from school and from working with people similar to you. When you use a piece of software, it cannot advise you as to the ramifications of what you have written. When you use a piece of software can you be sure that it has been tailored to your state's rules? Also, there are little things that the software designer may have overlooked that could cost your estate hundreds to maybe thousands of dollars. The software will not update your will when the law changes.

On November 6, District of Columbia voters will have the opportunity to vote to fill two At-Large DC Council seats. Council Members Vincent Orange, a Democrat, and Michael A Brown, an independent will attempt to retain the seats they now hold. Ann Wilcox of the DC Statehood Green Party and Republican Mary Brooks Beatty will be challenging them. In addition, David Grosso, an independent is vying for one of the two slots. I had the opportunity to sit down with Grosso and discuss his campaign.

My first reaction upon meeting Grosso is that he was not at all what I expected. If it is possible to be both laid back and passionate at the same time, Grosso manages the feat. I was a bit bewildered by this until he reveled that after finishing high school, he had spent time working as a bartender and following the Grateful Dead. I could easily see him in both roles. But, how does one go from a tie-dyed shirt and slinging beers to running for an At-Large seat on the DC Council? That is a transformation for which Grosso credits a number of women.

I'd like to say that when I endorsed Sekou Biddle on February 2 for an At Large seat on the DC Council, I started a trend. Since that date, Biddle has collected a list of endorsements that spans the DC political spectrum. However, that trend had already been started weeks earlier when Bryan Weaver had offered his endorsement for Biddle. While I can't lay claim to being a trend-setter, I can brag about having been correct in at least one respect. I described Biddle as the one candidate capable of uniting disparate factions of District residents. The subsequent endorsements have certainly borne that out.

The breadth of Biddle's support is most evident in his newspaper endorsements. The establishment Washington Post, the alternative Washington City Paper, and the staid Current Newspapers have all given Biddle the nod. Harry Jaffe of the Washington Examiner has also offered Biddle his endorsement. Jaffe writes, "He's smart, daring, energetic and can start changing the game."

Just over a year ago, I responded to a series of tweets promoting the At Large Council Member candidacy of Bryan Weaver by tweeting, "What, if anything, does Weaver propose to do about corporate contributions? It's the LLCs that really distort things." I believed then, as I continue to believe now, that the tactic of individuals contributing multiple maximum campaign contributions through corporate entities under their control undermines the District of Columbia's campaign contribution limit. In response to my tweet, I learned that Weaver held a position almost identical to my own. Weaver has now gone beyond simply making corporate contributions a campaign issue and formed an organization called D.C. Public Trust which has organized a voter initiative to ban direct political donations from corporations to local candidates, constituent services funds, transition and inaugural committees, and legal defense funds.