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.
