Recent Blog Posts
Why You Need a Pour-Over Will
With access to online estate planning forms, putting together a basic estate plan, even if insufficient and misdirected, is relatively easy. One popular option people routinely choose is a revocable trust because of the perceived tax advantages and creditor protections, with the creator retaining control until death. Once he/she passes, the trust reverts to… Read More »
How Changing Your Domicile Impacts an Estate Plan
Where a person lives is not as fixed today as it was in times past, and in many cases, individuals move to gain a better lifestyle and/or take advantage of less burdensome tax systems. From the outside, it may seem unimportant when or where a person moves once an estate plan is in place,… Read More »
Medicaid Liens and Survivor’s Rights
Medical issues rarely arise gradually over time, but instead, often occur suddenly, and require immediate action to address. When a person’s health condition becomes severe, requiring around-the-clock care, many families are forced to put loved ones in nursing homes to provide the individual’s medical needs. Medicaid is the program most Americans living in nursing… Read More »
Taking Control of Your Healthcare
Most people enjoy relatively stable and strong physical and mental health during most of their lives. In fact, good health is easy to take for granted until an emergency injury or illness occurs that causes a person to face the vulnerabilities of the human body. As the body ages, debilitating conditions become more likely,… Read More »
Choosing the Right Trustee
Putting together an estate plan can be quite complicated, especially if a person owns a number of different assets and/or has many heirs/beneficiaries. One common feature of more complex estate plans involves the creation of trusts to achieve goals related to maintaining privacy, avoiding the costs of probate, tax planning, deferred distributions, provisions for… Read More »
Can You Disinherit a Spouse or Child?
When people think about putting together an estate plan, most focus first on how to adequately provide for their spouse and/or children. However, for a number of reasons, a person may desire to leave his/her spouse or child out of the estate plan. Not only is this approach against societal norms, it is also… Read More »
Taking Over the Affairs of Declining Elderly Parents
With the ease of communication and travel, people are no longer tied to a desk or a particular location for work. This reality means more and more people are moving away from family and friends, creating significant relational and legal issues if an elderly parent starts to decline, and is no longer capable of… Read More »
Federal Court Decision Could Sink Florida’s Medicaid Plans
Healthcare is expensive, regardless of the stage in life in which a person finds him/herself needing medical care. For those that need around the clock care in a nursing home, Medicaid is the source most turn to in order to pay the extremely high cost. Health being unpredictable, knowing when admittance to a nursing… Read More »
Financially Protecting a Disabled Family Member
When a family member with a disability renders him/her unable to work and/or perform the daily needs of life, measures need to be taken to protect this person in case the caretakers are no longer available or die. This effort involves careful advance estate planning to ensure the disabled individual is left with sufficient… Read More »
Avoiding the Stress of Probate
When someone dies, typically, they will have some amount of property that needs to be distributed to new owners, hopefully through an established estate plan. Depending on the type of property involved and the overall value, the law may require the family to go through the probate process before a transfer of assets is… Read More »
