The treatment of the home residence under the Medicaid rules can be somewhat confusing. Here is a brief rundown of the some of the major points to understand. So long as the property (“Home”) is used as the principal residence by the individual who applies for Medicaid benefits (“Applicant”) and/or the Applicant’s spouse, the Home […]
When a person dies leaving assets owned individually in the decedent’s name only, those assets will need to pass through a court-supervised process known as “probate.” The primary probate for a decedent is conducted under the jurisdiction of the appropriate probate court in the state where the decedent lived. An “ancillary probate” is an additional […]
A prepaid funeral is when a person and/or that person’s family pay for funeral services and related costs while the person is alive. For many individuals, dealing with the financial aspects of the funeral and burial process is simply one more element of comprehensive estate planning. When someone passes away, there is an exhaustive list […]
One of the benefits of proper estate planning is to ensure that you, and your assets, will be taken care of even if you are no longer able to do so yourself. You may become disabled, for instance, and be unable to make important health care decisions for yourself and/or be unable to manage your […]
An affluent client comes in for estate planning and explains that one of her foremost objectives is to make sure that the wealth she has accumulated over a lifetime of hard work is left to her children. A significant amount of her net worth happens to be held in an IRA account. After a thoughtful […]
Inherited IRAs Can Be Taken From the Beneficiary Last month, in its unanimous decision in Clark v. Rameker, the United States Supreme Court decided that an inherited IRA does not have the same bankruptcy protection as a non-inherited IRA. In that case, Heidi Clark-Heffron inherited a $300,000 IRA account upon the death of her mother. […]
Planning for a Loved One with Special Needs In general, a trust is a legal device whereby property of some sort (real estate, cash, tangible personal property, etc.) is managed by a person, termed the Trustee, for the benefit of certain other people, termed the beneficiaries. A special needs trust, also called a “supplemental needs trust,” […]
Successor Trustee Meeting May 2014 On May 31, 2014 we held our annual Successor Trustee Meeting. More than 80 of our clients and their family members attended! We were delighted to see such a crowd, and even more delighted to spend some time chatting with many of you and answering your questions. We began […]
Preserving Wealth Over Generations Several common sayings refer to the phenomenon of losing inherited wealth. One is “shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.” Another is “the first generation makes it, the second spends it, and the third blows it.” These sayings are supported by numbers. According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, […]
The Consequences of Life Estates A life estate is a form of ownership in which property owners transfer ownership in their property, most commonly their home, while retaining the right to use and occupy it for the remainder of their lives. This type of ownership is used to avoid probate of the property and also […]