17 Tuesday Jan 2012
Posted in Elder Law
From caring.com, they put out a caregiver’s guide to elder law attorneys. I found this to be a good read and it should a good resource about what different types of elder law attorneys do. Continue reading »
04 Wednesday Jan 2012
Posted in Elder Law
A common question for Jacksonville, Florida seniors is whether the VA pays any benefits for senior long-term care? First off, veterans have access to Tricare for medical insurance. But what about long-term care such as in-home companions, caregivers, and assisted living facilities? Continue reading »
19 Monday Dec 2011
Posted in Elder Law
Tags
irrevocable grantor trust, Long Term Care Planning, medicaid laws, medicaid qualification, Medicaid Trust, Nursing Home, Qualified Income Trust, Taking Care of Others, Trusts
Qualified Income Trust – now that is a mouthful. Trusts come in many flavors and I use this trust in Medicaid planning or nursing home Medicaid qualification in Jacksonville, Florida – this is part of the world known as elder law. A Qualified Income Trust is a specialized irrevocable grantor trust that Medicaid requires in some circumstances. A Qualified Income Trust is sometimes referred to as a QIT or a Miller Trust.
Under Medicaid rules, if a Nursing Home resident has a monthly gross income of over a certain amount, the Nursing Home resident’s income is excessive under Medicaid eligibility rules and the resident is not Medicaid eligible. To determine the Medicaid applicant’s income, the department of children and families adds up all the applicant’s income from social security, pensions, investments and other sources for the month. Basically, what is deposited in the applicant’s account each month?
Annually, the Florida Department of Children and Families sets the amount of monthly income an applicant can have. For example, for 2011 an applicant cannot make more than $2,022 a month and qualified for Medicaid. In reality, $2,022 is not enough to pay monthly nursing home costs. Therefore, a QIT is needed to cure this problem of having too much monthly income to qualify for nursing home Medicaid.
Do you need an attorney for this QIT that I speak of? First, the actually document needs to be drafted. Second, the trust needs to be administrated correctly.
A QIT is a trust, which has a grantor, trustee, and beneficiary. You can learning about the basics of Florida trusts from a youtube video of mine. The Medicaid laws acknowledge the existence and viability of qualified income trusts in Medicaid planning, but the laws require the trust be drafted in a certain way.
The second step of properly utilizing QITs in Medicaid planning requires someone to properly administrate the QIT. A new account must be set up at a bank. Monthly income must be directed correctly through the account to maintain Medicaid qualification. Some of the money goes to the nursing home, as essentially, a co-pay for care. A portion of the money goes to the applicant’s needs and allowed expenses. Upon the death of the applicant, the money remaining in the QIT account goes to the state of Florida.
In the end, the Florida Medicaid laws do not consider the money passing through the QIT and QIT account as belonging to the nursing home resident – the trust owns the money. As a result, the applicant qualifies for Medicaid to assist in the costs of providing nursing home care.
02 Friday Dec 2011
Posted in Estate Planning
Couples who choose to marry later in life have different concerns than those marrying earlier, and a good Jacksonville estate planning lawyer can help you make the right decisions for your circumstances. Each situation is a little different, but there are some fairly common topics that should be considered:
When estate planning, older couples usually do best by choosing an independent trustee. The passing of a loved one often brings out the worst in people, so naming either you or your spouse’s child as the trustee can have unexpected negative consequences. Your Jacksonville estate planning lawyer can help you identify a good candidate or even recommend a trust company to keep your trust or will from being ignored or misused.
In addition, the estate planning lawyer can help you uncover other areas of concern that are not obvious at first glance, such as updating legal documents to reflect the new relationship and setting up powers of attorneys, living trusts, etc.
If you need help and are ready to get started, simply call our Jacksonville estate planning law firm at (904) 357-0076 and ask for the date of our next workshop.
01 Thursday Dec 2011
Posted in Elder Law
Happy Holidays! Good news from congress (really), the improved pension rates, including, aid and attendance, has risen today, December 1, 2011. The new rates are as follows:
| Single Veteran | $1,704 |
| Married Veteran | $2,020 |
| Widowed Surviving Spouse | $1,094 |
The VA improved pension benefit allows qualifying veterans to receive a tax free monthly benefit to help cover the costs of long term care such as in home caregivers (including family caregivers), assisted living costs, and nursing home costs. I have helped Jacksonville, Florida families qualify for VA aid and attendance, and I can attest to the incredible relief that a family gets when they qualify for the monthly aid and attendance benefit.
For veterans receiving the benefit, you will see the increase starting on January 2012 VA improved pension benefit check.
If you are a Jacksonville, Florida resident with a family member in need of assistance with long term care costs, visit my VA aid and attendance information page on my website about the requirements to qualify or give my office a call.
01 Tuesday Nov 2011
Posted in Estate Planning
Many clients who seek out estate planning with me in Jacksonville have concerns when it comes to caring for their pets. I’m not talking just about dogs and cats, but birds and horses too! After all, our pets rely on us for everything, although we all know that we gain so much in return. I recently rescued a 3 year old beagle at the City of Jacksonville pound, which spurred this post. You all should check out the new building on Forest Street in Riverside – it is very nice. Continue reading »
27 Thursday Oct 2011
Posted in Elder Law, Estate Planning, Uncategorized
I hear the same excuse over and over….
I don’t have an“estate.”
I have more debt than assets.
The only thing I have is my home.
As you may have guessed, these are excuses that people in Jacksonville, Florida make for not preparing an estate plan. Is it the culture of our area? They think that they don’t need it. These people are sadly misinformed. They think estate planning is only about money and transferring that money on their death. Estate planning does take care of financial issues, but the way I see it, the most important reason for doing an estate plan is for the benefit of the people that you leave behind. Continue reading »
25 Tuesday Oct 2011
Posted in Asset Protection, Estate Planning
Tags
I find that it often makes sense to advise clients to create multiple LLCs when they own more than one investment property. While it might seem more convenient to simply set up one LLC for all of your properties, you can maximize your asset protection by putting each into its own limited liability company. This LLC should not include any business activity that is not directly related to that particular investment property.
The point of creating an LLC in the first place is to protect your personal assets in the event that your insurance cannot cover damages relating to the investment property. Business and corporate lawyers have long advised this approach. It keeps the landlord or property owner from being personally liable when a tenant sues for damages or creditors are looking for payment for various other reasons. The LLC is attached to the property, but not to the landlord’s personal home, vehicles, and life savings.
By creating separate LLCs for each property, you limit liability to that one company. If something goes wrong with one property, a lawsuit will not be able to draw from the others. On the other hand, if four properties are held in one LLC and something happens with one, a lawsuit can go after the equity and assets of the other three. Creditors are only able to seek compensation for the individual LLC and will not have access to funds from the others.
For example, if you have $100,000 equity and assets in each of four properties and are sued over one, there is $400,000 available to settle that suit. If each property had its own LLC, then only $100,000 would be available, saving you considerably.
While there is a cost associated with forming additional LLCs, it is minimal compared to what most property owners stand to lose by overlooking this option. We can help you with this process here in Jacksonville, Florida so that you’re fully in compliance with all applicable laws. Many property owners look at it in the same way as they do insurance, knowing that it provides considerable asset protection.
By taking the extra step to have your Jacksonville asset protection lawyer create an LLC each time you invest in a property, you are protecting your future earnings and personal assets.
18 Tuesday Oct 2011
Posted in Estate Planning
If you’re thinking about having a prenup drawn up before you tie the knot in Jacksonville, Florida, you may want to find an attorney who focuses on estate planning, too – especially if you are looking at marriage in your retirement years and you both have adult children. Perhaps surprisingly to some, a prenuptial agreement can be a key piece of estate planning documentation because of the rights married couples have at death under Florida law.
Many couples in Jacksonville see the importance of creating a binding prenuptial agreement in order to protect their assets and plan for their future.
Today, blended families are far from unusual. During the newlywed planning phase, the couple needs to consider what happens to “yours, mine, and ours” in the event of divorce, as well as death. You may each have certain items or financial support that you want designated specifically for your own biological children, and a prenup in combination with estate planning documents is used to make these wishes known.
This is also the case when older couples marry. They may each have their own grown children and grandchildren that they wish to provide for. Without the proper agreements, a surviving spouse will often become default heir to the other’s estate, allowing the spouse to do with it whatever he or she sees fit. It could be perfectly legal for the deceased spouse’s children to inherit nothing.
Working with a Jacksonville estate planning lawyer before exchanging vows can help to clarify each partner’s wishes, as well as to provide legal documentation. Simply discussing your preferences is not enough, either. To be binding, the prenuptial agreement must be in writing, and both spouses must sign it. In fact, it is necessary for each spouse to take the appropriate amount of time to read the entire document to ensure that he or she agrees with it and is not being pressured into signing something.
A prenup that seems grossly unfair to one spouse or the other may not hold up in court, so this step is pretty important. Some states even require that each party is advised by his or her own prenup lawyer rather than sharing the same attorney. If one spouse omits information or outright lies about it in the prenup, that can also render it invalid.
While creating a prenuptial agreement may not be the most romantic way to go into a marriage, it can be important from an estate planning point of view. Wouldn’t you want to prevent fighting and facilitate what you think is fair for your new spouse and your adult children? It allows you to plan for the future and to designate your own heirs. Some people who skipped this step are now coming to prenup lawyers to request “post-nuptial agreements.” These documents work quite similarly to the prenuptial agreement but are simply done after the wedding is over. It’s best not to wait, but if you have to, a Jacksonville, Florida estate planning lawyer can still get the ball rolling for you.
If you’re ready to get started with this process, we invite you to call our office in Jacksonville, Florida at (904) 357-0076 and ask to schedule a vision meeting with an estate planning attorney.
12 Wednesday Oct 2011
Posted in Elder Law, Estate Planning
Tags
Many people like the idea of choosing a funeral home and making their own
arraignments to ensure their loved ones are never burdened with the task, which
is also quite expensive. Pre-paid funeral plans allow you to make all the decisions ahead of time and pay for it in installments. Not having your loved ones put in the position of planning and paying for your funeral is a wonderful idea, but, before signing on the dotted line on any agreement, be sure to ask the following questions:
Another key consideration is to find out what happens if the prices increase by the
time the services are needed. Make sure that you are being guaranteed the
services you selected at the contracted price. Some pre-paid plans sneak in
additional payments for “final expense funding” which allows the funeral home
to charge the difference in price.
There are a number of alternatives to pre-paid funeral plans. For example, you can
buy life insurance to cover funeral costs. Another is to set up a bank account
solely for the purpose of paying your funeral expenses. Both of these options
allow you more flexibility to change your plans if you so choose.
However, if either of these options is chosen, it is important to make sure your loved
ones know your wishes. Additionally, clearly lay out these plans in your estate
planning documents. Then there will be no doubt about what you want, which will
go a long way in reducing the stress that your loved ones may experience upon
your passing.
Pre-planned funerals also come into play in my long term care planning practice for
Medicaid planning and VA aid and attendance planning. Depending on the terms of the contract, some prepaid funerals are not counted as available resources for those planning for Medicaid benefits for nursing home care or VA aid and attendance for assisted living. Thus, prepaid funerals often purchased for legitimate spend down purposes.
Before you make any decisions, be sure to consult with an experienced Jacksonville, Florida wills and estates attorney. Estate planning attorneys know which questions to ask and can help you better understand all of your options. Then,
you really can feel secure that you’ve taken the burden of making end-of-life
decisions off of the shoulders of your family.
