Online legal document services have become very popular over the last couple decades. People are using these template services to generate their written will, durable power of attorney, living will, healthcare directive, and more. While these services can be helpful for simple wills, many times they are my best referral sources. That’s mainly due to […]
8 Things That Shouldn’t Be In Your Written Will Read More »
As we’ve often said about estate planning, trusts are not just for the rich and famous. You don’t need to be wealthy to benefit from a trust. Many of our clients use trusts for asset protection from nursing homes, taking care of special needs children, and more. Below we’ll discuss the differences between a revocable
Why Do You Need an Irrevocable or Revocable Trust? Read More »
Estate planning is not only for the rich and famous. If you have a house, you have an estate. If you have a car, you technically have an estate. Even if you don’t have a tremendous amount of wealth, you still need an estate plan. In this blog we’ll discuss the top 7 estate planning
The Top 7 Estate Planning Mistakes and How to Avoid Them Read More »
In this blog we’re going to share some letters that we recently received from people needing help with estate planning and Medicaid qualification. Below we’ll have each letter followed by our response. Our first letter involves a family who is concerned that their mother has a gambling problem. They’re worried that their mother will spend
How to Deal with Family Members That Have a Gambling Problem Read More »
What is the greatest threat to the family farm here in America? Some say it’s the rising costs of fertilizer or farm equipment. But actually, the greatest threat to the family farm is long-term care. As we’ve mentioned on previous blogs, 70% of us will need long-term care at some point in our life. If
Long-Term Care Planning for Farmers: How to Save the Family Farm from Medicaid Read More »
Estate planning is just not for the rich and famous. It’s for everybody — especially Veterans who are receiving benefits from the VA. So we wanted to take this opportunity to talk about the unique challenges of Veteran estate planning. We love our Veterans and we want them to be prepared in their later years
Veteran Estate Planning Techniques to Protect Your Assets and Family Read More »
In this blog we’re going to talk about something that will affect 70% of people in the United States — long-term care. We’re all going to be affected by this either directly or indirectly through a family member. Since long-term care is inevitable for most of us, what are your options to pay for it?
Planning for Long-term Care: Who Will Pay for It? Read More »
Estate planning is not just for the rich and famous and it’s not just for seniors. Anyone over the age of 18 can benefit from having some basic estate planning documents, especially if they are married and have children. Below we’ll discuss why estate planning is for everyone and not just the wealthy. Estate Planning
Do You Need a Will if You’re Young? – Estate Planning Documents Everyone Needs Read More »
As an estate planning attorney, we see many cases where family members feel like they’ve been slighted by their parents or grandparents when it comes to the contents of a will. This usually results in what we call a will caveat case. These family members are usually pretty upset because their parents or grandparents didn’t
Family Disputes and Will Caveat Cases — What Can You Do To Avoid These? Read More »
What is “undue influence?” This is a term frequently heard in the estate planning realm, but it’s not a common term that you hear everyday. Even if you’ve never heard of undue influence, you’ve probably seen it happen or heard of it happening to someone you know. We most frequently hear the term undue influence
We have a saying around here in our office: “You truly don’t know someone until you have to share an inheritance with them.” When two or more heirs are splitting an inheritance, there’s always the potential of a family feud. We do see some cases where heirs are cordial to one another, but that’s not
How to Prevent a Family Feud with Proper Estate Planning Read More »
Have you had a family member that had to be placed in a nursing home? If not, you probably know someone who has. Statistics say that 70% of us will need some type of long-term care in our lifetime. That’s a scary statistic — almost 3 of every 4 people! If those statistics are true,
Are you a veteran suffering from PTSD as a result of traumatic events that you experienced while in service? It is likely that you are entitled to disability benefits through the VA. These Disability Indemnity Compensation (DIC) benefits require that you meet several criteria relating to your diagnosis and your time served. Here we’ll discuss
In a previous blog we explained the different types of trusts you can use for estate planning. These would include revocable, irrevocable, and testamentary trusts. Today we’re going to be digging deeper into the topic of trusts and talking about a type of trust that is used to ensure proper care for your pets if
So what exactly is a trust? Many people think that a trust is a very complicated document, and it can be depending on the complexity of your situation. There are different types of trusts that you can use. There are trusts that you can change and trusts that you can’t change. The trusts that you
Today we have a really interesting topic that almost everyone has to address at some point when doing their estate planning. We’re talking about the concept of fair versus equal when it comes to dividing your estate among your children or grandchildren. Several years ago I had a family that was struggling to determine how
So what do you think is the greatest threat to the American farmer today? Do you think it’s the environmental concerns? Do you think it’s the taxes? I personally think that the biggest threat to the American farmer is the issue of long-term care and how to pay for it. Medicare vs. Medicaid First, let’s
The majority of farms in this country are family owned and operated. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service’s Census of Agriculture, family farms account for almost 96% of the 2,204,792 farms in the United States. According to this census, there are three basic types of family farms: (1) Very large with gross sales over
Family Farms: How to Properly Plan for Your Estate and Preserve the American Heritage Read More »
We don’t want to accept the fact that we are getting older. We also don’t want to accept the fact that we may require nursing home assistance or long-term care in the future. Because we avoid thinking about these tough circumstances, we rarely consider how we would pay for it. According to the Genworth Cost
