Many Estate Planning Attorneys handle Wills and Trusts, Elder Law, and Probate Law and can broadly represent seniors throughout their aging years, and after their death. They represent your parents and their wishes to set up the proper legal foundation in anticipation of their death; typically called a trust.

  • A trust is a legal entity that has three components
  • The Trustmaker; usually the individual who creates and “owns” the assets and assigns them over to the entity.
  • The Trustee; the individual responsible for handling the day to day operations and financial management of the entity.
  • The Beneficiary; those who benefit and receive the benefits of the Trust.
  • A Revocable Living Trust is simply a type of trust that can be changed at any time. A provision in the trust, the beneficiary or the trustee, and the terms can be modified through a trust amendment. It can also be revoked in its entirety.
  • An Irrevocable Living Trust cannot be changed and the Trustmaker cannot be the Trustee or Beneficiary. Irrevocable trusts are typically managed by attorneys or fiduciary officers.

Services

Estate Planning Attorney’s setup/serve:

  • trusts which can either be “revocable” or “irrevocable” depending on the specialized needs and desires of a parent
  • proper estate planning to avoid probate and other matters after death
  • a “Living Trust” which goes into effect while the individual is still alive, but converts to a Testamentary trust upon their death
  • as executors of estates
  • as administer Trusts as Trustee
  • powers of attorney so designated individuals can act on the behalf of the senior, in case he or she becomes incapacitated

Specialization

Make sure the attorney a member of the National and State Bar Association and degrees are valid.

Preparation

Many financial experts advise that an impartial third party handle all estate matters. Doing so avoids putting additional burden on one heir and can lessen family conflict.

  • Be clear on  the senior’s capability of making financial decisions. If not, is there already a power of attorney in place?
  • The holder of the Power of Attorney needs to be the point person in dealing with Estate Planning issues
  • What are the financial assets to be distributed
  • Who will be the executor and beneficiaries of the estate?

Evaluation

  • Research the attorney’s experience; is he/she a specialist in Special Needs Trusts?
  • How well-versed in disability benefits, SSI, Medicaid, wills, trusts, and estate planning?
  • Know about pricing:
  • Retaining fees; hourly rates
  • Are paralegals substituted when appropriate
  • Describe all piece-meal charges
  • Is a complimentary consultation provided?
  • How many years experience specifically in handling Wills, Trusts and Estates?
  • What percentage of the attorney’s practice is devoted to estate planning- most specifically Wills and Trusts?
  • How much training has the attorney had, and from what organizations?
  • Will the administration of senior estates, trusts and wills be handled;  or only the estate planning side?

Wills & Trusts Articles

  • What is “Elder Law” anyway? - One of the greatest fears of older Americans is that they may end up in a nursing home. This not only means a great loss of personal autonomy, but also a tremendous financial price. Depending on location and level of care, nursing homes cost between $35,000 and $150,000 a year.… …Read More
  • Why a trust inheritance can be much better than a gift - When you die, what you leave behind goes to your heirs, the people who inherit your estate. This can cause a positive result or it can cause difficulties. Therefore, it’s a good idea to consider your heirs’ situations before leaving their inheritances in traditional ways. There are many reasons why… …Read More

Wills & Trusts Radio Show Segments

  • Special Needs Trusts: Plans and Considerations

    Elder law attorney Andrea Lee from Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk more about special needs trusts, comparing first party special needs trusts and third party special needs trusts.

    Andrea provides an example of a third party special needs trust: “Let’s say I am a parent of a disabled child, and my disabled child does not have assets. Maybe they’re on Medicaid, maybe I support them, but they don’t have their own money. I might draft a will, and in my will give my two healthy kids their distribution outright, and then for my disabled child, I in my will might create a special needs trust, using my money for that disabled child because that money never belonged to that disabled child. It was my money and I’m putting it in a trust for that child. That would allow that child to continue accessing Medicaid, continue accessing long term care, continuing accessing Social Security without having to spend that money down.

    “Now, that’s one use of the special needs trusts. But as an elder law attorney, we most frequently use them when we have a married couple, and sometimes we even use them when they’re both healthy, but we almost always use them if we have a married couple, and one spouse is incapacitated.

    “My mom was diagnosed with dementia in 2014. My dad was very healthy. And when my mom was diagnosed, we faced the reality that, as long as my dad was alive, as an elder law attorney, I could use my resources and my knowledge and my skills to help preserve most of my parents money. And I could do that by making sure my parents have a valid estate plan, transferring assets to my dad, moving some things around, maybe just creating a great plan to preserve assets.

    “But even though my mom was the one with dementia, there was the possibility that my dad could die first. I mean, he could have a stroke. He could be in a car accident. So when we have a married couple, what we frequently will do is we will impoverish the incapacitated spouse, enrich the healthy spouse, and then in that healthy spouse’s will, we would create a special needs trust. So in my parents’ situation, if my dad happened to have died first, the house that he lived in would go into that trust. The retired accounts would go into that trust, their families would go into that trust so that my mom could receive long-term-care benefits, and all that money could be preserved and help supplement what Medicaid does not cover. So that’s a type of special needs trust that can be used by married couples to ensure they never have to spend all of their money down in order to qualify or to keep a spouse on Medicaid benefits for, among other Social Security type of benefits.”

    Learn more:

    Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks

     

  • Do You Need a Special Needs Trust?

    So many of us have a loved one that may have special needs, a disability. Maybe a spouse has just been diagnosed with dementia and needs care, and they’re afraid of losing their house or their money. If you’re in that situation, or maybe your parents are, or a child that has special needs, this episode will be important. Elder law attorney Andrea Lee from Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about special needs trusts and how people can protect their own resources.

    Andrea explains, “A first party special needs trust is a special needs trust that is created using an individual’s own resources. They’re the least popular… An individual might use a special needs trusts under the following circumstances. Let’s say they were perfectly healthy, but they were in a car accident and they suffered a traumatic brain injury and now they need assistance for long term care benefits, like Medicaid or VA, or they’re accessing Social Security. But they can’t access those benefits because they have their own money. Maybe they’ve successfully were employed or maybe they had an inheritance… If it’s an individual’s own money, we then have to create what’s called a first party special needs trust, where we use the assets of that individual to create that special needs trust. They do have a lot of limitations, so we don’t use them as often as the other type of special needs trusts… The applicant has to be under the age of 65… and it must have a Medicaid payback.

    “I practice in the state of Washington, and even though special needs trusts are created based on a federal law and special needs, trusts exist in all 50 states. And the way each state’s interprets and treats those special needs trusts is different. So even though I can talk about special needs trusts in the broadest terms, if somebody is really interested in talking about how special trusts could serve them individually, they really need to meet with an elder law attorney in the state where they reside, because that elder law attorney can formulate a fantastic estate plan that will protect their assets, allow them to not lose their house, that will allow them to preserve some of their assets. And there’s a lot of ways that we can preserve assets for a married couple, and allowing them to not become destitute, just because of a terrible diagnosis.

    “Most of my clients are much better served with what we call a third party special needs trust… The third party special needs trust is a trust that’s created with the assets of a non-applicant… They can choose the trustee. They cannot be their own trustee, but they could choose a trusted child. They could choose a professional organization. That money is protected, and it’s used to provide good quality of life quality for the beneficiary.”

    Learn more:

    Check out our affiliate podcast Alzheimer’s Speaks

  • Financial Wellness: Wills and Trusts

    Attorney Steve Waltar from Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about financial and legal wellness, one of the eight foundational principles of senior wellness featured this summer in the Vitality Revolution podcast series. Are you preparing for the future? Topics include investing in long term care as well as critical documents to have in place as you age.

    Steve says, “I’m an estate planning attorney, so I think you need to have your documents in place. It’s very different when you’re young. You may need a will to list guardians and then when you’re older, a need trust to do tax planning and then sometimes you need to start giving things away to plan as an elder. But you need really clear financial powers, health care powers, you have to have that stuff lined up. Because if you fail to plan, then the state will take over and it might not even be your loved one that is making care decisions for you.

    “People don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan. Statistically, it’s somewhere between 70 to 80% of people who die without a will. And a will is kind of a starting point. A will may be really important, but it may not be that important. It may be that powers of attorney are way more important, and management, and incapacity.”

  • Nuts and Bolts of Living Trusts

    Why would you want to set up a living trust? Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar joins Suzanne to talk about the basics and benefits of living trusts. Benefits include ease of management and they work in all 50 states.

    Steve says, “I think it was Oliver Wendell Holmes who said, ‘Don’t put your trust in money, put your money in trust.’ What’s behind that? Well, lots of reasons. I think, practically speaking, it’s a great way to get organized. Who knows your assets better, you or your heirs? You just get to clean up how you own things… It gets you organized, and then you can make sure that anything that’s in the trust is properly organized. And then other things that are outside of the trust can point to the trust and it coordinates things. Why do people want to do a trust? Because you avoid probate, you maintain privacy, you get strong incapacity protection. It’s more thorough than will planning. You have more documents. It’s easier during your life. It’s easier if you’re incapacitated, it’s easier when you die, it’s harder to contest. It works in all 50 states. It’s more flexible. I mean, I could go on. There tends to be a few downsides. It tends to cost more, and be a little bit more work. I don’t need to sell a trust. I just need to ask what people’s goals are, and many of those things cause them to want to do one.”

    How much more does it cost? Steve says, “If you get a Michelin tire, it’s the same tire [wherever you buy it]. Powers of attorney are very different between attorneys. Wills are different. Trusts are even more different, but in general it’s from $1,000 to $3,000 more, maybe, to do a trust. I mean, it’s hard to know. My father in law spent $7,800 doing a will plan. That’s more than a trust that I would even do for a single person today. So, in general it’s a bit more, $1,000 bucks or more.”

    What assets should not be in a trust? Steve says, “You don’t want to have retirement funds. And the reason is, you don’t want to change title on retirement period. If you take your IRA or your 401K, you take it out of your name and you move it into your trust, the IRS could consider that a distribution. You may say the beneficiary is the trust, or it’s my spouse, then the trust, but that’s different than ownership. So you don’t want to change ownership on tax-deferred assets.”

  • Living Trusts and Trustees

    Trustees manage assets on a trust. Successor trustees do the same sorts of things that an executor of an estate does, but for a trust. Sometimes it’s the same person. Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar joins Suzanne to talk more about living trusts, and this segment focuses on trustees.

    Steve says, “A trustee is the manager. They’re the ones that hold legal title and it’s a fiduciary position, meaning they are doing it on behalf of someone else. In a revocable living trust, husband and wife are probably their own trustees, but they’re going to have successors that work after they’re incapacitated or when they die. So that’s kind of what we’re talking about: who who can do this job, how important is this job?”

    What qualities should a trustee have? Steve says, “Trustworthy, honest, good communicator, fair, unbiased. I think that the knowledge base is, you want someone that at least understands your kinds of assets. If you’re into lots of fancy buying and selling, if they’ve never had any stock accounts, they’re probably not a good candidate. Now they can hire the financial advisors, the attorneys, the accountants, but they need to have a base level of understanding your types of assets. But as a person, or as an institution, they have to have really high values. They can’t put their interest above the interest of the beneficiaries. They can’t be disorganized.

    “Frequently people are listing children… Sometimes you’ll have co-trustees. ‘Well, I know my son would be fair, but he’s just not organized.’ Well, do we bill them as co-trustees — they both have to sign — or is it and/or?

    “It’s a thankless job and if someone’s an heir and they charge for doing the work, and it is work, then the other siblings don’t understand it, don’t appreciate it. They think it’s being unfair. Sometimes there’s tension between siblings, and sometimes it is better to have a trustee that’s a bank. Banks are not known for being, you know, sensitive, but at least if they don’t like the bank, that’s a little different than disliking a brother or sister. I think clients often want to avoid the fees. That’s actually the biggest problem. They want to avoid the fees, they figure the kids would do it for free. I’m saying, well, the kids could charge as well, or we might say in the event they act, they get a little bonus, they get a gift. It’s not taxable because when you work, and you declare, that’s gross income to you. They list the family because they figure they’re the beneficiaries. They want to keep it private. They figure everyone gets along. There’s a little saying in estate planning that the planners are the givers — those that do the wills and trusts — and then when someone dies, it’s the takers. They want the money, and they want it now, and they don’t appreciate who’s doing all the work.

    “I’ve handled hundreds and hundreds of estates and probates. One time, Bank of America said ‘It’s not big enough. We don’t want to be the personal rep and will you do it?’ And so I did it. I mean, I had to clean out the storage, I had to go get the car, I had to sell the car. I had to do all that stuff that usually an attorney doesn’t do. There’s a lot to consider. We’ve got some lists on things to consider on our website at waltar.com, and they can look that up… Sometimes I just think it’s good for people to interview professional firms. It’s a good idea to just kind of know who’s there, who could do what?”

  • Living Trusts and Trustors

    Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar joins Suzanne to talk more about living trusts. This segment focuses on who does what when trusts are created and managed.

    Steve says, “We need to identify the three parties. The first is the trustor. Sometimes it’s called grantor or settlor, but I like trustor. For a married couple, it’s both husband and wife. Then there’s the trustee or trustees, and then there’s beneficiaries. So those are the three parties. The one that can change it, the one that created it, the one who’s taxable estate it is, that’s the trustor. Do you have control over the trust? You can be all three people, that’s the cool thing. My wife and I can buy, sell, lease, transfer. We have our condo in Sun Valley, Idaho in the trust, and our house, my business and all these things like that. So it’s the trustees that have the authority. Anything you can do the trustee can do. Maybe we scale it back, to make sure that a trustee, especially a successor trustee can’t do as many things as possible, but as long as you’re the trustee, why limit yourself?

    “After the trustor dies, or if they’re incapacitated, someone needs to manage it. And it’s really nice for it to be people and not have a lot of fees, if you’re still alive. But upon passing, it’s very common to pay a trust company or something. So the trustee is a lot like a personal rep in a will or an executor. It’s their job to value all the items and read the trust and consult with an attorney and know things. And then it might be as simple as distributing, or it might be managing things carefully for a period of time. So they’re the fiduciary, they’re wearing the hat, that’s the highest duty under the law. They’re managing someone else’s money.

    “The one time you don’t want a living trust is if what you’re trying to do is qualify for Medicaid, because everything in the trust is your asset. They’re not subject to creditors, or divorce, or taxes, but the state of Washington is a super creditor, so they can go after that. So for those clients, it might be a will with a Safe Harbor Trust is a better tool. That’s an asset protection strategy. It’s not an incapacity management strategy. So I would say from an incapacity management strategy, a trust is a stronger tool than a power of attorney for management. Powers of attorney often don’t work. And when a trustee gets in problems with an institution, they just move the money because they’re the legal owner.”

  • Benefits of a Living Trust

    You want to have documents to protect your wishes, making sure that you leave a legacy behind for your loved ones, and if you become incapacitated — if you need help in your later life, if you’re unable to speak for yourself — there is legal proof that honors your wishes. Legacy Estate Planning attorney Steve Waltar joins Suzanne to talk about the value of trusts.

    Steve explains, “There’s pros and cons with everything. But I was [working with] a retired pastor and his wife. I was just doing a simple will plan. And the wife says to me, ‘Steve, how come Suzie Ormond says some people should have a living trust.?’ I said, ‘some people are worried about avoiding probate, and he says, ‘we’re worried about avoiding probate.’ And I said, ‘Some people are worried about incapacity, and she says, ‘we’re worried about incapacity’. Then I said, ‘well, some people are kind of worried about privacy. They don’t want anyone to know who gets what, when and how.’ They said, ‘we’re worried about that.’ And I said, ‘would you guys like a trust?’ Trusts are beneficial for so many things, maintaining privacy, avoiding court, flexibility. If you move from state to state, they are essentially a will replacement tool. They’re not for everyone, but they just, they do an awful lot of things.

    “A living trust is a tool that was used more than 1000 years ago to get around the king’s court, to get around probate. So it’s a private way to own things, where you have a trustor or trustors that create it, you have trustees that manage it, and then you have beneficiaries. It’s a lot like: you have a chest of drawers and you move things into it, and then you have use of them during your lifetime. Upon your death, depending on whether it’s a married couple or a single couple, there’s certain things that happen, and when all the trustors are gone, then it can be as simple as going outright to the beneficiaries, or you can still give them trusts with some protections for the beneficiaries.

    “On the one hand, it’s generally more cost and work to set up. On the other hand, it’s more likely to work, because who knows your assets better than you? So frequently when someone does a will, they don’t check their life insurance or their IRA, they don’t look at anything, they don’t retitle anything. A trust kind of makes you look at how you own things, what should be transferred into the trust? And once you have things in the trust, it means they can’t be subject to a court process of a guardianship or a probate. They’re in the trust, and you have backup trustees that manage things. So it’s kind of peace of mind and organizational element.”

     

  • How Legal Documents Work Together to Help You

    This segment focuses on how various legal documents work together as part of your estate planning to make sure you’re taken care of if anything happens that makes you incapacitated. Andrea Lee from Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about the pieces of a person’s legal puzzle.

    Andrea says, “Estate planning is very much like a puzzle. And within that puzzle, there are so many different pieces that come together to create a picture, like a beautiful picture of that puzzle. And the problem is, frequently people might miss a piece or two of that puzzle. They think they’ve got the whole puzzle in place because they don’t have a good understanding of what a comprehensive estate plan looks like. But the reality is, all those pieces come together, and they each serve a different purpose.

    “For example, some of my clients and most individuals need a slew of documents. You need a financial power of attorney that says, if you’re incapacitated and not able to manage your own finances, who can manage your finances for you. They might also need a health care power of attorney that says who can make those medical decisions, housing decisions on your behalf, a HIPPA release that allows medical institutions to share information with agents, a living will that gives end of life direction, a disposition of remains that says what do you want done with your body when you’re gone. And then maybe a will or a trust, that you dispose of your assets when you’re gone.

    “So those are some of the pieces of that puzzle. And the reality is, depending on how they’re prepared determines how effectively and efficiently those documents could work.”

    Mention you heard the show on Answers for Elders to get a free consultation.

  • Incapacity: Everything You Need to Know

    Andrea Lee from Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about issues individuals and families face in regards to incapacity. Incapacity planning is a broad area of law that covers how you are cared for if you become physically or mentally unable to care for yourself. The type of care could range from simple tasks like buying groceries, paying bills, and handling financial matters to more important decisions such as selling real estate, gifting assets to your children, or making critical medical decisions. Incapacity planning could include a number of techniques such as Property Powers of Attorney, Health Care Powers of Attorney, Living Wills or Advance Health Care Directives or Guardianships/Conservatorships. It is also important to have appropriate HIPAA authorization forms in place.

    Andrea says, “I’ve been practicing elder law and estate planning for 19 years now. And it is not unusual for me to have someone walk into my office. They’re 86 years old. They don’t see well, they don’t hear well, they’re using a walker. They’re afraid of using the stove and maybe their kids have said something to them along the lines of, well, maybe it’s time to get help. And they’re like, oh, I don’t need it yet, because they don’t see themselves the way that other people see them. I mean, in my heart, I still feel like I’m 25. I’m not, I have a child in their twenties, but that’s how I feel. And that’s how even 85-year-olds feel. They still see themselves frequently as much younger and more capable. So it’s so much harder for people oftentimes to get the help they need, because they can’t accurately see themselves.”

    When is the best time to plan? Andrea advises, “The best time to plan or anticipate incapacity is long before anyone even gets close to that. My own mom has dementia, and for the very first five years, she was pretty competent and she would never acknowledge she was the one that had a problem. She could never acknowledge that. Hopefully you start when you’re in your forties, and then you revisit when you’re 50. But the very first thing we need to make sure someone has are those power of attorney documents. And that’s because without those basic power of attorney documents, as an attorney it’s extremely difficult for us to assist a family who’s dealing with navigating the challenges someone might face as they age.

    “The number one goal obviously is to have those legal documents in place. Because once we have them in place, we can almost always overcome some of the other challenges. Maybe not knowing where things might be kept, not having a copy of the deed, not accessing accounts, we can almost always overcome them. It’s hard, but we can do it, as long as those legal documents are in place.

    “Now, for our clients, when they retain us to prepare a comprehensive estate plan, we give them an organizational binder. And in that binder we give them a list of documents that their agents might want in the future, and we give them places to store information. So that if you become incapacitated, if something happens to an individual and their children are able to find that binder, they’ve made it easier for those children. So it’s all there together in a nice binder and the kids don’t need to spend hours searching through the house to try to find their social security card or something along those lines.”

    Mention you heard the show on Answers for Elders to get a free consultation.

  • Asset Protection Planning Stories

    Asset protection attorney Darol Tuttle joins Suzanne. Darol shared a couple of stories.

    “I grew up poor, a farm boy. When I was three years old, I watched my grandfather die right in front of me. I can remember that vividly. Our family went on a different course from that day on. Our grandmother lived with us — she died two years ago, she lived another 54 years alone, relying on family members. And so, for me, the silver tsunami is biased, it’s not gender neutral, it adversely affects women. The great thing is, the law has solutions.”

    BoomX.biz, the BoomX Academy, is a membership site, an online digital academy. “There is a member level called Family Leaders, and these are people who are actively planning. For $44/month, we meet weekly for a live Q&A, they have exclusive checklists and guides, and that site also has a drafting app for a work product that I currently charge $8,000 for. You can draft that work product for $150 and you’ll have it in your in-box immediately, the same app I use for my clients in my law firm, because I wrote the code for it.”

    Learn more at the BoomX website or visit Darol’s YouTube channel.

    Suzanne also shares a poignant story about dog adoptions.

     

  • Asset Protection Planning Website

    Asset protection attorney Darol Tuttle joins Suzanne. Suzanne asks what is the easiest way to get started.

    Darol says, “The old model is you go to an expensive lawyer’s office, with doorknobs made of gold. Some of these estate plans cost $15,000. My website, which I’ve been pouring my heart and soul into, is a great way to start. I’m a lawyer, I have a law firm, I practice law. However, to get started, you need information, you need to process it, sitting in the comfort of your home, reading an article, listening to a podcast. I have a podcast show – I had a radio show called the BoomX show on another network, for Baby Boomers and Ex Gen’ers. My website is BoomX.biz, the BoomX Academy, and it has several audio master classes on spousal protection trusts. A free master class introduces you to the power of the law, called The Roadmap, so you can get the idea.”

    “Investing is offense, you’re growing your money,” Darol says. “There’s no conversation about defending your money.” We need to start early and plan, and have a grasp of what’s going on.

    Learn more at the BoomX website or visit Darol’s YouTube channel.

  • Benefits of a Spousal Protection Trust

    Asset protection attorney Darol Tuttle joins Suzanne. In our last segment, Darol talked about a spousal protection trust.

    Rules have changed for living trusts. Darol explains, “If you transfer a personal residence into a living trust for Medicaid purposes, the home is no longer exempt. That’s poison. There’s a court of appeals case for that, if you have a spousal protection trust in your will. For this trust, the surviving spouse cannot be the executor or the trustee of their own trust. Talking about the probability of financial loss, Washington is tax obsessed right now. If you want to double your exemption, set up a spousal protection trust. But for some people, even when they know that, there’s some block to moving forward and taking a simple solution that guarantees a solution.

    “Spend-downs never apply. Brutal, brutal Medicaid spend-downs, which is what every retiree should be afraid of, even if you think you have it wired through your life and that of your spouse, $30,000 a month for long term care, although a remote possibility, it will clean your clocks, it will ruin everything. Take simple little precautions.”

    A living trust doesn’t protect finances, it just avoids probate. A living trust is disregarded by the IRS and Department of Revenue.

    Learn more at the BoomX website or visit Darol’s YouTube channel.

  • Introducing Asset Protection Planning

    Attorney Darol Tuttle joins Suzanne to talk about going beyond estate planning in asset management. Darol explains the differences between estate planning and asset protection planning. Estate planning is about handing the transfer of your wealth to heirs after you’ve passed on. Asset protection focuses on protecting your assets while you’re still alive, to finance your retirement throughout your life, and to fund the retirement of your spouse. You want specifically to defend against the three main threats, which are high unreimbursed medical expenses, unnecessary taxation, and family mismanagement/mistakes.

    A great example to illustrate: Washington is one of 12 states with an estate tax, the highest in the country, with a $2 million exemption. But these days a home could cost $1 million. A life insurance policy, even term, counts as your estate, so if you had a $1 million home and a $1 million insurance policy, you’re hitting the cap. Washington also has a 7% capital gains tax. A bill introduced in Washington on January 20 proposed a third tax on wealth, a 1% tax on worldwide investments. So that’s three unique wealth taxes in the state, eroding our nest eggs. Setting up a simple trust doubles the exemption of a couple to $4 million, saving about $160,000 in taxes.

    People going broke on long term care is a serious problem. People don’t understand spousal protection, and another trust set up by Federal law says if you leave money for your spouse in a spousal protection trust, for their benefit, then Medicaid spend down and transfer penalties do not apply. This is the most important trust in asset protection law, and has the fewest penalties.

    So think about asset protection. Forget about asset transfer, think about putting the inheritance of your spouse in a bullet-proof silo so it doesn’t have to be spent down to $2,000, so she doesn’t have to be in poverty, so she can co-pay with Medicaid and have everything taken care of all the way to the finish line in comfort.

    Learn more at the BoomX website or visit Darol’s YouTube channel.

  • People Needed for Your Estate Plan: Irrevocable Third-Party Trust

    Listen in to learn about setting up your estate plan and the people needed to set up irrevocable third-party trusts, with elder law attorney Jim Koewler.

    Irrevocable Third-Party Trust for disabled person

    • Grantors are initial trustees
    • Successor trustee

    Successor trustee approaches

    First approach
    – Trustee: Person who will look out for disabled beneficiary but will not cave in to unreasonable demands for money from trust and will not resent having to deal with beneficiary

    Second approach
    – Trustee: Bank or trust company or trusted family member
    – Distribution Committee (to make decisions on when to pay out for benefit of beneficiary, taking pressure off the trustee)

    • Special needs attorney
    • Social worker
    • Family member(s) (maybe)

    HIPAA Release
    (Gives access to health information. Doesn’t grand decision-making authority.)

    • Include everyone who is named in Health Care Power of Attorney
    • Include any other family members or friends who are likely to help look after you if you need care (long-term or otherwise)

    Listen in to hear details and explanations. Learn more about Jim Koewler at Answer for Elders or at his website, and look here to see a list of all of Jim’s podcasts.

  • People Needed for Your Estate Plan: Revocable Trusts

    Elder law attorney Jim Koewler joins Suzanne to talk about setting up your estate plan and the people needed to complete various documents, such as powers of attorney, wills, living wills, revocable trusts, and irrevocable third-party trusts. This segment covers revocable trusts.

    Revocable Trust

    • Initial Trustee: Grantors (the people setting up the trust in the first place)
    • Successor Trustee (after initial trustees both diseased or physically/mentally unable to continue as trustee): Person who gets stuff done, meets deadlines, and doesn’t buckle under pressure (just like backup executor for Will)

    Listen in to hear details and explanations. Learn more about Jim Koewler at Answer for Elders or at his website, and look here to see a list of all of Jim’s podcasts.

  • People Needed for Your Estate Plan: Wills

    Elder law attorney Jim Koewler joins Suzanne to talk about setting up your estate plan and the people needed to complete various documents, such as powers of attorney, wills, living wills, revocable trusts, and irrevocable third-party trusts. This segment covers wills.

    Living Will

    • Person to receive phone call (that Principal seems to have suffered traumatic brain damage): Probably spouse
    • First alternate person to receive phone call: Person most likely to take in Principal (person signing the Living Will) if Principal needs long-term care (same for Powers of Attorney)
    • Second successor agent: Person second-most likely to take in Principal if Principal needs long-term care
    • Etc.

    (Note: The person listed on Living Will to receive the phone call doesn’t have any “power,” but many families don’t know that. So, to avoid “power struggles” among family members, it is prudent to list the same people in the Living Will as are named in the Powers of Attorney.)

    Will

    • Executor: Spouse first
    • Backup Executor (if spouse not able): Person who gets stuff done, meets deadlines, and doesn’t buckle under pressure from other heirs

    Listen in to hear details and explanations. Learn more about Jim Koewler at Answer for Elders or at his website, and look here to see a list of all of Jim’s podcasts.

  • How to Choose People to Represent You, Part 4

    In this hour, Elder Law and special needs attorney Jim Koewler talks with Suzanne Newman about how to appoint people to represent you in situations where you’re unable to act for yourself – a who’s who of people who should be involved in your estate plan.

    This segment focuses on trusts.

    Revocable Trust

    • Initial Trustee: Grantors (the people setting up the trust in the first place)
    • Successor Trustee (After initial trustees both deceased or physically/mentally unable to continue as trustee): Person who gets stuff done, meets deadlines, and doesn’t buckle under pressure from other heirs.

    Irrevocable Third-Party trust for disabled person

    • Grantors are initial trustees

    Successor Trustee

    • First Approach – Trustee: Person who will look out for disabled beneficiary but will not cave in to unreasonable demands for money from trust and will not resent having to deal with beneficiary
    • Second strategy:
      Trustee: Bank or trust company or trusted family member
      Distribution Committee (to make decisions on when to pay out for benefit of beneficiary, taking pressure off the trustee):
      – Special needs attorney
      – Social worker
      – Family member(s) (maybe)

    HIPAA Release (Gives access to health information. Doesn’t grant decision-making authority.

    • Include everyone who is named in Health Care Power of Attorney
    • Include any other family members or friends who are likely to help look after you if you need care (long-term or otherwise)
    • Include elder law attorney and, if attorney has one, attorney’s care coordinator

    You can listen to the podcast or watch it on YouTube. Learn more at protectingseniors.com.

  • How to Choose People to Represent You, Part 3

    In this hour, Elder Law and special needs attorney Jim Koewler talks with Suzanne Newman about how to appoint people to represent you in situations where you’re unable to act for yourself – a who’s who of people who should be involved in your estate plan. We’ve been talking about powers of attorney and living wills. This segment focuses on after you pass away.

    You can choose between a will-based estate plan or a trust-based estate plan. Even if you do a trust, make a will, which will catch anything forgotten in the trust. In the will, you name an executor, who is in charge of handling the will (or lack of a will) in probate court. The executor would be the most business-focused person we talk about in this hour. The job of the will is to handle your affairs and close up shop, and your stuff goes where you want it to go, strictly a business transaction. But the executor has to take it through the probate court process.

    Will

    • Executor: Spouse first
    • Backup Executor (if spouse not able): Person who gets stuff done, meets deadlines, and doesn’t buckle under pressure from other heirs

    You can listen to the podcast or watch on YouTube. Learn more at protectingseniors.com.

  • How to Choose People to Represent You, Part 2

    In this hour, Elder Law and special needs attorney Jim Koewler talks with Suzanne Newman about how to appoint people to represent you in situations where you’re unable to act for yourself – a who’s who of people who should be involved in your estate plan. This segment focuses on living wills. One person does the job – pick one person.

    A power of attorney document should be written as though it’s needed when you need long-term care, because it’s mostly used for that. Name your agent with long-term care in mind. Pick them for that reason – don’t name your son as general power of attorney because he handles money better and name your daughter as your health care agent; if the daughter reaches the end of her rope, the son might not agree to pay for help, and he would control the checkbook.

    Living Wills may be different in every state; this covers when you’ve suffered a brain death and you can tell the family whether to keep the respirator running. Keep your chosen people the same order for both the powers of attorney and the living will. That way you don’t have the person listed first on the health care power of attorney having to fight with the person listed first on the living will. Keep them all the same to avoid conflict at a time when conflict slows down your medical care.

    Living Wills

    • Person to receive phone call (that Principal seems to have suffered traumatic brain damage): Probably spouse
    • First alternate person to receive phone call: person most likely to take in Principal (person signing the Living Will) if Principal needs long-term care
    • Second successor agent: Person second-most likely to take inPrincipal if Principal needs long-term care
    • Others: The person listed on Living Will to receive the phone call doesn’t have any “power,” but many families don’t know that. So, to avoid “power struggles” among family members, it is prudent to list the same people in the Living Will as are named in the Powers of Attorney

    You can listen to the podcast or watch on YouTube. Learn more at protectingseniors.com.

  • New Year: Review Your Legal Documents

    Stephanie Haslam is an elder law and estate planning attorney with Compassionate Legal Care. January is a time for new starts, and it’s a good time to review your estate planning documents to make sure they’re all in order. If you don’t have them, then to learn about the types of documents that could become important, such as power of attorney, to have someone who can help you make decisions if you’re not able to do that by yourself. If you’ve made a will or trust, is it up to date? Are your assets properly titled in the trust? Are your healthcare directives up to date, based on the current condition of your health? It’s time to take stock of these items.

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