But offers like this always come with so many rules and loopholes that the only thing you’re guaranteed to get is a lot of aggravation if you actually try to take advantage of it.

GM’s promotion is no exception.

First of all, you can’t return your new Chevrolet, Buick, GMC or Cadillac until you’ve had it for at least 30 days. You must bring it back between 31 and 60 days after you bought it

If the vehicle suffers more than $200 in damage during that time, GM doesn’t have to accept it.

Given what car repairs cost these days, it doesn’t take much to cause $200 worth of cosmetic damage. A single dent or ding could put you over the limit.

And who determines whether there’s more than $200 worth of damage? Yup — GM.

If the automaker does agree to take back a car or truck, most buyers will still be out at least a couple of hundred dollars.

You’ll get back the purchase price and sales tax. But you won’t be reimbursed for the cost of registering and titling the vehicle or any extras you bought from the dealer.

You can find most of the other rules and conditions at the program’s Frequently Asked Questions.

By now you should be getting the idea that this money-back offer is more marketing gimmick than serious guarantee.

But there’s a smart way to take advantage of the promotion that you won’t hear about on the television ads.

GM is quietly offering an extra $500 rebate to buyers that waive their right to the 60-day guarantee.

That’s right. GM will actually pay you not to take part in the program — and that’s exactly what you should do.

Use a test drive or three to be certain about the vehicle you want, strike the best deal you can and then ask for the $500 rebate in lieu of the guarantee.

Your newfound discount should be added on to any other rebates or cut-rate financing deals that come with the car or truck you’re buying.

The offer expires Nov. 30.

But the benefits these debt cancellation or suspension programs provide are surprisingly limited when you consider the cost. The fine print is also loaded with restrictions and exclusions that make it hard to qualify and collect.

The Center for Economic Justice estimates that cardholders paid an estimated $2.5 billion in fees for debt cancellation or suspension programs in 2003, the most recent year available for those numbers.

Yet the credit card companies paid out only $135 million worth of benefits. They kept 95% of the fees they collected.

These programs are a far worse deal than payment insurance credit cards used to offer. Those were real insurance policies offered by real insurance companies and monitored by state insurance regulators.

The debt cancellation or suspension programs now offered by most major card issuers — including Citicorp, Discover, Bank of America, Advanta and Chase — are not considered to be insurance and aren’t regulated by state insurance commissioners.

Unlike with insurance, you don’t have to sign anything to be enrolled.

A verbal approval is enough. So think twice before answering “yes” to a question from your credit card company about whether you’d like to “protect your credit score” if you become ill or get laid off.

The result is the hottest coupon to hit the Web in months: “The Oprah Winfrey Show” free chicken dinner.

Download this KFC coupon and you can get a free dinner — 2 pieces of the grilled chicken and two sides.

The new grilled fowl has just 70 to 180 calories and four to nine grams of fat per piece, which is a lot less than the 130 to 360 calories and eight to 24 grams of fat you’ll find in KFC’s original recipe.

We can only hope this is more successful than KFC’s last foray into healthier eating, the Rotisserie Gold chicken that was tried back in the early ’90s and was supposedly from a “lost” Col. Sanders recipe.

You can print up to four coupons, and it’s good through May 19 with the exception of Mother’s Day (which is May 10.)

But hurry, the coupon can only be downloaded through 9:59 P.M. CDT on Wednesday, May 6.

We admit that part of the appeal are the hilarious ads with the tune-loving, claw-tapping, commuting rodents.

But Bankaholic’s Auto Critic (yeah, we’re full of surprises) has spent some time behind the wheel and thinks the Soul is a good buy. Here’s what he has to say:

“The Kia is about the edgiest thing going, with a wedgy rollerskate shape that’s much more stylish than the slightly odd box-mobiles that have targeted young drivers in the past.

“Scion xB and Honda Element. We’re talking about you.

“But I’m not recommending the Soul strictly for its styling chops.

“Like many Korean models, it’s stuffed with the latest electronic features and safety equipment, yet still carries an aggressively low price. Standard for every Soul (there are four trim levels) are must-haves such as electronic stability control, antilock brakes and six airbags.

“The best buy is the Soul+. Included in its $14,950 base price are air-conditioning, power windows and locks and remote keyless entry, a USB port and Bluetooth connectivity.

“Add the $950 automatic transmission to back its unassuming 142-horsepower, 2-liter engine, and the $400 audio upgrade, and the Soul+ is a mega-cool and frugal compact that goes out the door for $16,995 (that even includes the $695 destination charge).”

All of the bad stuff a credit card can do you is in the contract you’re given — and accept — when you sign up for the card.

But a report in the NYU Journal of Law and Business shows how little attention we pay to the contracts we sign.

Researchers asked students at DePaul University to take part in a study and provided them with a three-page consent form.

The second paragraph was a long-winded explanation of informed consent, but buried three quarters of the way through this paragraph, was a sentence suggesting that participants should not sign this consent form as its terms were clearly not in their best interests.

The consent form committed participants to giving electric shocks to other participants, said they would be forced to do push ups, and would be virtually imprisoned in the lab until they were allowed to leave.

How many students signed the paperwork?

Eighty-seven out of 91, or 95.6%.

And how long did the average student spend reading the form before they signed?

An average of 2 seconds.

This type of trust can provide substantial benefits for those seeking long-term, multigenerational planning, such as the type designed to avoid the generation-skipping transfer tax. It can also protect against divorce, creditors and estate taxes. Any parent that is currently gifting assets to their children on any kind of regular basis should seriously consider establishing one of these trusts. The key difference between this type of trust and other trusts is that the beneficiaries must be willing to talk openly with their grantors regarding how they want the money invested or handled.

In order to establish an inheritor’s trust, an empty, irrevocable dynasty trust must be established first. The inheritor is more often than not the trustee, and must usually choose a close friend or confidant to be the distribution trustee. This trustee has absolute control over what kind of distributions is made from income and principal. However, this transference to a third-party trustee is exactly what makes the assets of the trust so secure from creditors. Beneficiaries have absolutely no legal right to force any kind of distribution from the trust, which renders creditors unable to force any type of distribution from the trust as well. It is important to select the correct state to create the trust in, as the validity of these trusts will vary according to state law.

1. This process is completely open to the public. Anyone who wishes to find out everything about your estate once you’re gone will have complete freedom to do so. Thanks to modern technology, a complete listing of your assets will probably be available online for the world to see.
2. As stated before, this process is totally beyond your control-and the control of your spouse or other prospective heirs. You may assume that all assets will simply go to your spouse, but this is usually not the case. Most states will automatically divide your assets equally between your spouse and your children, regardless of whether your children are ready to take ownership of their share.
3. Probate also offers anyone wishing to contest your will an opportunity to do so. This, of course, can lead to expensive legal proceedings that drag on for months. The costs involved in this will also be borne by your heirs.
4. There are many possible expenses that can be incurred in the probate process, including court costs, appraisal costs, executor’s fees, legal and accounting fees, and even surety bond fees in some cases. The typical cost of probate can often run between 3 to 7 percent of the value of the estate (and much more in some cases.)

One key component to planning for this unpleasant contingency could be drafting a special needs trust. This type of trust is similar to most other trusts in many respects, and is almost always used in conjunction with Supplemental Social Security income and Medicaid. Therefore, one of the main functions of the trust is to ensure that the funds it pays out do not coincide with benefits that are paid from the public sector. The assets of this trust also cannot exceed a specified amount, or the trust becomes defective.

Generally, special needs trusts can be funded with the same types of assets as most other trusts, such as cash, stocks and bonds, mutual funds, personal property, real estate and even life insurance. Cash value life insurance is in fact often used to fund these trusts, as many donors are not able to adequately provide financial support by any other means once they are gone. Annuities are also often used as an alternative investment if the grantor/donor is uninsurable.

Another type of irrevocable trust, called a “payback” trust offers the ability to bypass the standard Medicaid rules excluding benefits for those who had assets transferred to them any time in the 36 months before application. There is an exception written into the laws stating that any disabled person under age 65 can remain eligible for Medicaid as long as they transfer their assets to this type of trust. However, the law also mandates that upon the death of the disabled beneficiary, any remaining assets in the trust revert back to the state. This aspect of the trust differs from the special needs trust, which may have a remainder beneficiary.

This document, called a durable power of attorney, allows a designated person to make decisions regarding your assets and property if you should become mentally unable to do so for any reason. Having one of these drawn up while you are mentally sound is highly recommended by both financial and estate planners. Failure to do so can result in the gross mismanagement of your assets, either due to neglect or to the actions of a judge-appointed conservator who may or may not have any idea what he or she is doing. The power of attorney should have a “springing” feature that outlines the circumstances under which the power will “spring” into effect. You can designate virtually anyone, from a trusted friend or family member to your financial advisor to make material decisions on your behalf if you become incapacitated. However, many experts suggest that a joint designation between a family member and an attorney or other professional financial advisor may be the best course of action. This combination provides both expertise and an emotional perspective-both of which may be needed to make the decisions that you would approve of. If you have assets in more than one state, then you will probably need to have your attorney draft a separate power in each state of ownership. Each financial institution should have a copy of the power as well, so that there will no contention regarding who is authorized to make transactions on your behalf.

A final note to remember with durable powers of attorney is that they do give virtually unlimited powers to the designee, powers which can only be limited with a revocable living trust. But the POA will allow the executor to handle any assets that are titled in the name of the trust. Therefore it is important to choose your designee wisely.

One situation where permanent, or cash value insurance may be best is when there is a real chance that the insured or potential insured may become uninsurable in his or her later years due to health conditions. This is particularly true for those with estate tax issues that generally require life insurance to recify. For example, high net-worth individuals or couples may need to establish life insurance trusts in order to provide needed liquidity and relief from estate taxes. But this strategy is, of course, predicated on the ability of the insured(s) to pass initial underwriting requirements. And this ability can diminish with age for many consumers, who may have family histories of health problems that have surfaced for other members in their later years. Because term insurance requires its insureds to submit to new underwriting requirements at the end of each term, those in this category may no longer qualify for adequate (or even any) protection that may be vitally necessary to preserve the estate.

Another somewhat similar situation involves business buy-sell agreements. These agreements generally require that each partner in a business to purchase life insurance coverage on each of the other partners, so that when one partner dies, the death benefit from the insurance will be sufficient to buy out the deceased partner’s share of the business for the surviving owners. But again, it is absolutely necessary that the coverage be in force upon death, which may not be possible with term insurance. Therefore, some form of permanent coverage is generally used for this purpose.