Money & Law

Asset protection attorney Darol Tuttle explains how a spousal protection trust will double your tax exemptions.

If you are a single Medicaid applicant, what happens to your income? Almost every dollar is accounted for in the Medicaid rules — where can you expect that money to go? Generally, for a single person, a person's income is used before Medicaid dollars. There are three places where money is usually going to go: 1) your personal needs allowance (spending money); 2) rent if you're in an assisted living community; and 3) health insurance premiums.

People who've been retired for a while say they wish they'd saved more of their money and invested it more. They also advise to keep investing in yourself, learning how to do your job better, which gives far better returns than anything you'll get from the investment markets. Retirement Watch CEO Bob Carlson provides Suzanne with action steps to improve you retirement planning. Financial wellness is one of the 8 foundational principles of wellness, part of the Vitality Revolution podcast series sponsored by Humana.

Probate is a court process to retitle assets. Probate is designed to create a “final accounting” upon death. It is the legal process of “proving up” a will, or verifying that a will is valid, takes place in one of two instances. First, if a person dies leaving behind a will, or second, if the deceased has died intestate, that is, has not left behind a will or estate plan of any type or the will cannot be found. Estate planning attorney Steve Waltar with Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to give us a primer on probate.

Rob Haynie joins Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders Radio Show to talk about selling your life insurance policy for cash. Rob serves on the Board of Directors of the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA) and is a charter member of the Association’s PPC committee, which is charged with the regulatory and legislative activities of the industry. The Managing Director of Life Insurance Settlements, Inc., he has been proactively in the industry for more than 31 years.

Kelley Smith at CarePartners Senior Living talks about funding options for senior care. If a retirement/assisted living/memory care community really is the best solution, then we are going to talk about financing. What are you supposed to do if your dad’s gone, and all your mom has is her social security and her house? We have the largest floating Medicaid license in the state. Mom can take what little assets she has, and when she runs out of money, Mom qualifies for the state benefits and is guaranteed to be able to stay with us.

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.

Generally, until you cross into this world of needing to find options for care and housing for elders, it’s not something you think about,...

If you are a married couple, what happens to your income as a Medicaid applicant? Elder Law Attorney Jim Koewler joins Suzanne to answer this question. They must be married; some states recognize common law marriage, others not. The income of the well spouse does not get to be used under Medicaid rules to pay the expenses of the ill spouse.

Attorney Darol Tuttle joins Suzanne to talk about going beyond estate planning. 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.