You need an estate plan. This is true even if you don’t have a lot of assets. It’s also true if you’re young, or if you don’t have close family members. Estate planning means preparing for the inevitabilities of life. People get sick or hurt, and you need a plan in place to determine what …
Continue reading “Steps to Help Get Started on Estate Planning”
The wisdom of making a Will is well settled as sound legal advice, and rightly so. Less talked about, but equally advisable for many people, is the use of gifts during one’s lifetime as a method for estate planning. Apart from the intangible benefits that flow from the fact that, as the saying goes, it …
The information in this column is not intended as legal advice but to provide a general understanding of the law. Any readers with a legal problem, including those whose questions are addressed here, should consult an attorney for advice on their particular circumstances. About a year or so ago, I wrote an article explaining that …
The information in this column is not intended as legal advice but to provide a general understanding of the law. Any readers with a legal problem, including those whose questions are addressed here, should consult an attorney for advice on their particular circumstances. I, like many elder law attorneys, spend a large part of my …
Whether or not you already have a family, getting your personal affairs in order is a must. None of us know what life has in store for us. Fortunately, I survived my 20’s, but the losses I have witnessed my friends and clients experience have taught me, the sooner you start planning, the more prepared you will be for life’s unexpected twists and turns.
Both unmarried opposite-sex partners and same-sex partners will want to provide protection for their relationship and for the other partner in the event one partner becomes incapacitated. Legally married or not, due to the controversial nature of these relationships, these partners will need to create legal documents which allow the non-disabled partner to care for and manage the disabled partner’s affairs. Unfortunately, many families are not ready to accept these lifestyles and the potential for conflict exists.
As a legal entity, a private foundation has corporate and tax filings to maintain on a regular basis and myriad administrative tasks that go with any corporate endeavor. The overhead costs alone are typically too expensive and time-consuming for most of us, as individuals or as families, to establish such a philanthropic structure. You want your giving to achieve the most bang for the buck.
I urge you, whether you find yourself taking care of parents and young children or even if you have no children, make the time to sit down with an attorney experienced in estate planning. Such an attorney should be trained and familiar with estate planning and probate. The advice they provide will assist you in making the best and least complicated plan to take care of both parents and children if that is the need.
President Obama has come out with a comprehensive plan for changes that could take away many of the strategies that save families estate taxes. Annual exclusion gifts, generation-skipping trusts, grantor retained annuity trusts (GRATs) and many more estate tax vehicles are in his target.
There is no free lunch. These words ring true when it comes to Medicaid. Since 2005, the state is allowed to recover some of the Medicaid money spent on individuals by tapping patients’ estates after they die. In most cases, the most valuable asset is the home.On March 1, 2005, Texas implemented the Medicaid Estate Recovery Program in compliance with federal Medicaid laws. The program is managed by the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services.
