Far too many attorneys overcomplicate things, making topics convoluted and difficult to understand to the average person. This blog is committed to explaining legal planning topics in an easy to understand format, in plain English. Enjoy the blogs, and please let us know if there is a topic you would like covered.
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Unfortunately, there is a trend of banks and other financial institutions refusing to honor powers of attorney because they are not on the institution’s forms. This can cause any variety of complications if discovered after someone is incapacitated. But how can they do that? This video,...
When it comes to estate planning with a revocable living trust, I often use the suitcase analogy. When it comes to avoiding probate, a revocable living trust is like a suitcase. It is designed to take your things from one place to another, and there are many different levels of quality. My...
Depending on your family situation, there may be a son-in-law or daughter-in-law you just don’t trust. But what risks need to be addressed when planning an estate? In this outtake from a recent conference Jeff taught at, The Estate Planning Source's Advanced Institute, he examines the types...
There are so many myths, folk remedies, and outright falsehoods surrounding Medicaid qualification for nursing home care that it becomes impossible to list them all. Unfortunately, it becomes easy for people to look online for the simple answers they want to hear rather than researching...
The intricate maze of Medicaid Planning confuses even seasoned professionals if they don’t focus on this type of planning in their daily practice, and it’s easy to find differing opinions. Accountants cringe when told to liquidate an IRA because they’re used to minimizing taxes....
[From The Long Term Care Solution]
The snapshot date in Medicaid planning is simply the date that the person entered the nursing home, and therefore is “locked in” to how their assets were arranged at that time. More specifically, it is the first day of the first month in...
A revocable living trust can be one of the best, most effective ways to plan a coordinated estate strategy to avoid probate. However, this type of planning requires some maintenance to make sure your trust is doing everything it can. Too often, people with revocable living trusts go...
With the rising cost of long-term care, families are starting to look more and more at planning for Medicaid to handle those costs. Unfortunately, this has led to a lot of ad hoc transfers based on folk remedies that rarely work out exactly the way they were intended. One of the biggest and...
Far too often, the general public has ideas about estate planning they get from popular television shows, to the point they believe that it is mandatory to have a lawyer read the will to a well-dressed family in front of a roaring fireplace with everyone sipping brandy from large sifter glasses....
When I was young, Friday nights were about Miami Vice. Those of you old enough to remember patiently waiting for your favorite show to come on network or cable television also remember having to plan to be home and not busy when your particular shows were on. When you were home, you...
When it comes to Medicaid Planning, there are tons of loopholes that can help a family preserve a lot of assets and have a loved one still qualify for nursing home Medicaid. On the other hand, this also means there are a lot of opportunities for people to “go rogue” and make mistakes...
This question comes up all of the time when it comes to estate planning. Unfortunately, many attorneys and other professionals try to cram and squish this very subjective square peg into an objective round hole with a sledgehammer. The fact is that there is no simple...
