Business planning and estate planning often go hand in hand. Businesses started by parents are frequently passed down to their children, and in the absence of adequate forethought, the new relationships that are formed can quickly disintegrate, causing damage to both the siblings’ personal bond and to the business.

Attorneys who work in trust administration know that revenue streams can be volatile—up one month and down the next. Not only does unreliable cash flow make running a practice stressful, but it can also hinder a firm’s’ long-term growth. So, how does one create a profitable, yet steady, revenue stream in trust administration? One attorney has some advice. Jessica Pannell, JD, of JM Law, PLLC in McLean, Virginia, has been sharing her practice’s challenges and successes in trust administration with colleagues all over the nation.

Last month, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it would be capping, and in some cases, lowering the fines for HIPAA violations. HHS released a Notification of Enforcement Discretion Regarding HIPAA Civil Money Penalties describing the new tier structure. According to HHS the new structure better reflects a covered entity’s “level of culpability.” Going forward, HHS will now use annual limits based on the four culpability levels of whether an organization has no knowledge, reasonable cause, willfully neglected and corrected, or willfully neglected without correcting HIPAA violations.