Asset Protection: Selling Inherited House Inside a Trust
There’s an awful lot of an advantage to having a lifetime of asset protection, but is it work it? Should you keep the proceeds of an inherited house inside Mom’s trust? Does it provide asset protection from creditors, divorcing spouses, and disability/Medicaid spend downs? In this reaction and commentary on a Reddit question, Jeff reviews […]
My Parents Are Doing Estate Planning
What Do I Need to Know? The following was a post to Reddit on the r/estateplanning thread along with my response. The person posting was looking for information on what to expect in the estate planning meeting with their parents and attorney… but most of the traditional attorneys jumped into providing advice to the parents on […]
The Bank Won’t Honor The Power of Attorney!
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 a variety of complications if discovered after someone is incapacitated. But how can they do that? This video, recorded in Wyoming while there attending The Estate Planning […]
Is Your Suitcase Packed?
Revocable Living Trust Is your suitcase packed? 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 […]
The Snapshot Date in Medicaid Planning
The Medicaid Date 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 which the person enters the nursing home and is […]
The Annual Trust Tune-Up
The Annual Revocable Living Trust Tune-Up 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 years, […]
Top 3 Things That Overcomplicate an Estate
No Need to Overcomplicate an Estate 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 […]
Should I do a Will or Trust
This question of a will or trust 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 “one-size-fits-all” number answer to […]
Schedule A is Missing
You know a plan is broken into a thousand-piece puzzle when the pages of the trust were taken out of the binder, put back out of order, and some pages are missing. But what happens when the “all-important” (sarcasm inserted here) Schedule A is one of those missing pages? It turns out in California that […]
I Want a Revocable Living Trust
I Want a Revocable Living Trust… Do I Need a Will? “Well, if you have a Revocable Living Trust, don’t you also need a Will?” the other attorney asked. “Yeah, you need a Will,” I responded. “Ah ha!” the other attorney exclaimed as if he has just made some profound and overriding point to justify […]