Oscar-winning actor Philip Seymour Hoffman died from a drug overdose in February 2014. Sadly, he left behind three young children – and a fortune estimated to be worth $35 million.
He was only 46. read more
By Taj Rowland
The poet Maya Angelou once keenly observed, “The ache for home lives in all of us.”
For me, it was an ache that started early, at the young age of seven, when I was kidnapped from the street near my home in southern India, driven hours away, and sold to a Christian orphanage. Despite my insistence to the orphanage owner that I already had a home and family, he wouldn’t listen (or didn’t care). I was adopted by a family in the United States and by the time I’d learned enough English to tell my new and unsuspecting parents the truth, it was too late. When all their attempts to find my Indian family failed, America became my new home.
It was a strange country and the transition was difficult. Their customs, housing, food and language were all peculiar. It didn’t take long to realize that in order to survive, I had to forget my past and focus on my future. And so, I turned my back on India, my family, my memories—my home.
I adapted to my new country, did my best to fit in, and as time passed, I grew accustomed. I excelled in sports, school, and scouting, and was even elected student body president of my high school. In fact, I almost convinced myself that my home in India no longer mattered, that I didn’t need to look back. There was just one problem: deep inside my head and heart was a voice that whispered otherwise. Despite my best efforts to forget India, I learned that India wasn’t about to forget me.
As a youth I went to England and there interacted for the first time with large groups of Indians, people who looked just like me. As first I was terrified, but as I ate their curry, and listened to their music, and observed their colorful dress, long suppressed memories began jumping up and down in my head waving their excited arms. In England, I even drew a map of the village where I’d remembered living as a child, and I secretly vowed that one day I would return.
That day came just a handful of years later. When in college, I met (through astonishing circumstances), a girl from southern India named Priya. She was such a change from the blond, Caucasian girls I’d been dating, that when I brought her home to meet my parents, my excited mother pulled out her scrapbook full of articles, letters and photos, many related to India.
Years earlier, when looking for my family in India, my mother had written to anyone in the faraway country who would listen. Now, as Priya studied one of the replies, she commented that the handwriting looked familiar. When she turned the letter over, she gasped. It was written by her father, a man who’d actually been friends with the orphanage owner in India years earlier. What were the chances?
Priya and I married and a year later, headed to India to attend her brother’s wedding. It was my first time back since coming over as a child and I intended to make use of the trip. I had the address of the orphanage from my mother’s letters, but when I arrived, I found it was closed down. Worse, the orphanage owner had passed away. I was devastated. It was my only clue.
Let me pause here to say that most of us spend our lives searching for home. You don’t have to have been kidnapped as a child to feel the need to belong, to want to believe that your life matters, to hope that one day you’ll grasp your place in the world. It’s a yearning we all inherently share.
For me, the search was reduced to riding around in a hot and muggy rickshaw, in city after city, looking for familiar landmarks. In a country of a billion people, the odds were overwhelming.
After a multitude of setbacks and successes, on the last day I had to spend in India, I found myself on the outskirts of a city called Erode, standing in front of a hut that I believed belonged to my older brother. They’d sent for his mother—perhaps also my mother—who was down bathing in the river. As I waited, I remember seeing an old woman racing up the hill weeping profusely, begging that we tell her everything we knew about the boy who’d disappeared as a child, the son she’d never forgotten.
As we all try to find some semblance of belonging and connection in our lives, our search is seldom easy—yet we carry on. Why? I’ve learned that if we’re both patient and persistent, if we never give up, we’ll occasionally glimpse miracles.
We are all homeward bound. Good luck in your journey.
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To learn more about Taj and his astounding journey, pick up a copy of The Orphan Keeper, available at bookstores everywhere or visit TheOrphanKeeper.com.
Confused about the differences between wills and trusts? If so, you’re not alone. While it’s always wise to contact experts like us, it’s also important to understand the basics. Here’s a quick and simple reference guide:
Given the imminent presidential election and corresponding Party Convention politics, I felt it might be useful to examine the process of voting and national governance in light of spiritual principles; in this case the Yamas and Niyamas which Patanjali codified in his Yoga Sutras. The same kind of ethical application could be derived from any legitimate religion because Truth is universal, but, as a yogi I’m familiar with this material and present it accordingly.
First, it’s always important to live spiritual principles; not merely because they’re said to be right but because they represent alignment with eternal cosmic laws and their fruit, righteousness and harmony. To cooperate with Spirit is to foster good in every avenue of life. To fudge in this regard, or cherry pick when to do so, leads to imbalance in direct proportion to the breech made. That said, spiritual laws can be unrealistically applied so must be tempered with wisdom to be efficacious. As Paramhansa Yogananda stated, “If a lower duty conflicts with a higher duty, it ceases to be a duty.” Balance in life is necessary; wise discernment is required to exercise it correctly.
Secondly, we must recognize that there is a primary purpose in life: To realize God. Everything that brings us closer to this goal is movement in the right direction, both for personal soul evolution and larger societal benefit. Anything that opposes this is a misstep reinforcing delusive separation from Source which reduces people and nations to myopic, materialistic limitation. Keeping this in mind, we should analyze how politicians consider and apply High Precepts in action or intent. Bear in mind, we live in a complex world of diverse interests and global players that are not necessarily nice. All countries tend to be amoral with self-interest at heart. It would be foolish, then, to cuddle a wild tiger and not expect to get eaten. We must operate with eyes and heart wide open, and rationality fully engaged. If certain forms of perceived largess actually serve the greater good, bravo. If they merely sound poignant but cleverly veil attempts at managing perceptions or socially engineer agendas which twist facts or subvert national security, one must refrain from supporting such things. Impersonality in these matters – not emotionally untempered passion – becomes critical when weighing complex decisions and agendas. This is not heartlessness but, rather, clarity. It requires dispassion to remove egotistical preferences from situational analysis so that best practices may be realized and applied in any given context.
That said, I invite readers to review the following principles and ask themselves, “Does my candidate act on these virtues or strive to do so?” Weigh your assessment with impartial candor and, if uncertain, meditate. Seek guidance from the Universal Intelligence within. Become still in heart and mind and, when stable in quietude, present your quandary before the intuitive radar of the heart. Feel its response, heed its counsel, act accordingly, and you’ll be guided rightly.
Guiding Principles:
Non-Violence
Do not harm any living thing, physically, emotionally, or mentally. Overcome tendencies to even wish harm.
Non-Deceit
Be truthful; never falsify or intend to deceive. Accept things as they are, not as wished for. Exercise self-honesty and recognize that Truth is reality which may present itself through multiple lens.
Non-Stealing
Do not take, or even wish for, that which is not yours – materially or immaterially. See all creation as part of your Greater Self.
Non-Sensuality
Regulate sensory activity. Do not dissipate moral resources for faulty returns. Govern the senses to develop refined Self-awareness.
Non-Greed
Release attachments; act selflessly without fixation on personal acquisition or public recognition.
Cleanliness
Practice purity of body, mind, heart, speech, motive, consciousness, and environment.
Contentment
Accept things as they are and cultivate emotional serenity based on inner virtue.
Austerity
Practice purposeful self-discipline. Master likes, dislikes, and energy expenditure for highest attainment.
Self-Study
Practice objective self-assessment; eliminate delusive notions about oneself. Realize your, and everyone’s, smallness and greatness.
Surrender
Act to the best of your ability yet simultaneously acknowledge and surrender to the Divine; cultivate humility by eliminating self-importance.
We live in an era rife with upheaval as older-age consciousness clashes with realizations arising from evolving planetary unfoldment. Though some may wish to do so, we simply can’t turn back the wheels of time to periods when ignorance limited Truth to stifled expressions. Many world conflicts depict the death throes of those who reject Bigger Picture realties and clutch at what they see as singularly viable ways of being. But, fortunately, this too must pass. Do your part by praying for peace and acting peacefully. Cultivate understanding and make choices based on intelligence-guided compassionate insight. Remember Spirit in everything and engage politics accordingly.
When a bottle of wine is decanted, it’s poured from one container into another. When a trust is decanted, trust assets are poured from an old trust into a new trust with more favorable terms.
We all need a “do over” from time to time. Life changes, the law changes, and professionals learn to do things in better ways. Change is a fact of life – and the law. Unfortunately, many folks think they’re stuck with an irrevocable trust. After all, if the trust can be revoked, why call it “irrevocable”? Good question.
Will Social Security Cease to Exist?
The future of Social Security is frequently discussed and debated among Americans young and old. Perceptions about the future of Social Security are heavily aligned with how far you are from retirement. Older Americans tend to believe that there will be Social Security available for them when they retire, while millennials are generally pessimistic about its existence when they retire. According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, 51% of millennials believe Social Security will be entirely extinct by the time they retire and only 6% of millennials expect current benefits to be there for them at age 67.
Many people are scared that Social Security benefits will no longer be available to them by the time they retire. While this outcome is certainly possible, the reality is that Social Security will not likely be left to vanish completely without any government interference. It is more likely that benefits will be paid in a lesser amount or that a new government-sponsored retirement plan will fill in the gap.
In a recent annual trustee report released by the Social Security Administration, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, predicted that the Social Security trust fund will no longer be able to pay full benefits in 2034. Instead, recipients will only be able to receive three-quarters of the promised benefits from that point forward. That sum would be funded by payroll taxes from future generations.
Changes to How You Will Receive Benefits
Social security, at least not in our lifetime, will not likely cease to exist altogether. There will likely be some form of benefits well into the future, albeit perhaps a smaller amount or distributed under different circumstances and according to different rules. The great unknown, however, is in just what changes are in store for Social Security in the future.
There have been many recent changes around Social Security, such as shifts in the age when you can start receiving benefits and changes in the length of time you can defer payments. Additionally, there is no telling what additional changes are in store for Social Security in the road ahead, making accurate predictions about Social Security difficult.
Recent changes in Social Security have caused some confusion or misconceptions among those entering retirement already, so it is important to keep your thumb on the pulse of Social Security changes to maximize your benefits now or in the future.
Change is certain, and when it comes to Social Security, something will definitely have to change. With these inevitable changes ahead, it is important to check in with your financial advisor about your Social Security strategy, stay informed about the latest updates to Social Security policy, and update your retirement plan accordingly. With a strategic Social Security plan in place, you can rest assured that you are well-prepared for a happy, comfortable retirement, regardless of any turning tides that may lie ahead.
The bad news: probated estates are subject to a variety of costs from attorneys, executors, appraisers, accountants, courts, and state law. Depending on the probate’s complexity, fees can run into tens of thousands of dollars.
Considering the myriad of trusts available, creating an estate plan that works can seem daunting. However, that’s what we, as estate planning attorneys, do every day. We know the laws and will design a plan which addresses your specific situation.
Trust protectors are a fairly new and commonly used protection in the United States. In short, a trust protector is someone who serves as an appointed authority over a trust that will be in effect for a long period of time. Trust protectors ensure that trustees: maintain the integrity of the trust, make solid distribution and investment decisions, and adapt the trust to changes in law and circumstance.
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