The new rule is much more friendly to taxpayers. Only sales of more than $500,000 for married couples and $250,000 for single people have to be reported. So you don't need to keep records unless you think you home may sell for more than that amount.

That's a winner all the way around.

Record-keeping is important. Document everything you do.

One of the biggest problems I see these days is when the children feel they have a right to an inheritance and a lot of times [they want to intervene on their parent's financial behalf] before they are ready and willing to do that. I know a lot of lawyers who say the first thing they do is take the parents into a room and ask them if they are ready for this.

A lot of parents are very reluctant to share their financial history. They might have a wonderful relationship with their children emotionally, but when it comes to finances, not too many are always ready to talk about that.

There's no easy answer here. It's not like you can say (that) when the parent turns 72 they should automatically turn their finances over to their children.