Plan Ahead Before Seeking Nursing Home Care: Avoid Unnecessary Debt for You and Your Family
Unfortunately, neither health insurance nor Medicare covers long-term care. Medicaid could become your only option, so do what you can to plan ahead.
Selling Your Life Insurance Policy to Help Cover Expenses
The National Council on Aging reports that more than 16.5 million adults 65 and older experience economic insecurity. Rising housing and health care bills can also burden seniors on fixed, limited incomes.
Medicaid Estate Recovery and Medicaid Payback Rules
Under Medicaid law, following the death of the Medicaid recipient a state must attempt to recover from his or her estate whatever benefits it paid for the recipient's care.
When Does Someone Need Financial Guardianship?
When individuals cannot manage their finances, courts can appoint guardians. Financial guardianship is for those who need help handling money.
An Overview of Grantor-Retained Income Trusts
In estate planning and wealth transfer, people sometimes seek strategies that preserve their assets as well as provide them with financial benefits for life. One such strategy is the grantor-retained income trust (GRIT). GRITs offer a unique opportunity for individuals…
Living Wills Address Which Situations?
If you become incapacitated, your living will provide instructions regarding medical preferences. Incapacity can happen for many reasons, including an accident, an illness rendering you too sick to communicate, dementia, anesthesia, a stroke, a coma, and more. While you are…
The Importance of Passing on Family Values
Family values and assets can be difficult to address and legally formalize, especially if parents wait too long to begin instilling them. Undoubtedly the best time to teach and empower your children as eventual inheritors of your family legacy is…
The Process of Contesting a Will
An estate will details who will receive a deceased person's property and which person (called the executor) will be responsible for settling the estate after death. For many reasons, beneficiaries can feel slighted by what they did or didn’t receive,…
Probate: How to Determine If You Need It
Even though probate sounds expensive and complicated, it is a standard legal procedure that describes how estate assets pass from one family member to another. Whether or not you require probate depends on the type of property and how you…
A Guide to Managing Wealth and Irrevocable Trusts
Due to an anticipated decrease in the federal estate tax exemption allowance, it may be time to rethink how you plan to pass generational wealth to your heirs. Senate Democrats are proposing to lower the current estate tax exemption from…