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As a Crossville elder law attorney, I often meet senior clients as a result of them coming into our offices with their adult children. When this situation happens, it is the lawyer’s job to recognize the differing needs and rights of both parties. The lawyer must be clear on who is being represented and then do his or her part to focus on that client.

As 2019 draws to a close, it may be time to take a fresh look at your financial and legal documents to ensure that your affairs are in order and that you are ending the year on a solid foundation

The Baby Boomer generation is growing older and beginning to incur the financial costs and strains of aging. Many are caring for their own elderly parents while beginning to recognize long-term care challenges of their own. Boomers are also starting to learn first-hand that long-term care is expensive, and the resources they may have been counting on to cover costs (including private insurance or Medicare) typically don’t pay. This situation leaves many searching for alternative legal and financial options, which is where a qualified Crossville elder lawyer can become a tremendous resource to a family in need.

Nursing home residents do not automatically have to sell their homes in order to qualify for Medicaid (called TennCare in Tennessee), but that doesn't mean the house is completely protected. The state effectively has a lien on the house while the resident is living and will attempt to recover the property after the resident has passed away. Medicaid is very aggressive about estate recovery in Tennessee.

Because most people either having nothing more than a will, or no will at all, most estates will have to go through probate, and the courts will appoint an administrator (or executor) who is in charge of taking care of each step in the process. The executor will often make things a bit less overwhelming by hiring a local estate planning lawyer. One of the first things either the courts or the lawyer will tell the executor is that they need to create a list of assets.

Many married couples in Tennessee think that if one of them dies without a will, the other will inherit everything from the deceased spouse. That is only true if the deceased spouse died with no living descendants. Whether you intend to or not, if you fail to do some kind of estate planning, you could end up disinheriting your spouse to some extent.

Many married couples in Colorado think that if one of them dies without a will, the other will inherit everything from the deceased spouse. That is only true if the deceased spouse died with no surviving parents and no surviving descendants from another relationship. Whether you intend to or not, if you fail to do some kind of estate planning, you could end up disinheriting your spouse to some extent.

Many married couples in Alaska think that if one of them dies without a will, the other will inherit everything from the deceased spouse. That is only true if the deceased spouse died with no surviving parents and no surviving descendants from another relationship. Whether you intend to or not, if you fail to do some kind of estate planning, you could end up disinheriting your spouse to some extent.

Many married couples in Arizona think that if one of them dies without a will, the other will inherit everything from the deceased spouse. That is indeed true most of the time but it is not true if the deceased spouse has children from a previous relationship. Whether you intend to or not, if you fail to do some kind of estate planning, you could end up disinheriting your spouse to some extent.

Many married couples in California think that if one of them dies without a will, the other will inherit everything from the deceased spouse. That is only true if the deceased spouse had no separate property or no surviving parents or children. Whether you intend to or not, if you fail to do some kind of estate planning, you could end up disinheriting your spouse to some extent.

It is rather common these days here in Fairfield Glade and Crossville, Tennessee for a married couple to reside in a home that is the separate property of one spouse, and often the owner has children from a previous marriage or relationship.  The owner of the home ultimately wants to leave the ho...

It is bad enough when a parent dies, but then the hounding from the parent's creditors begins. The creditors try to convince the grieving children that they are personally responsible for paying the parent's debts. As a general rule, this is simply not true, but some of the exceptions can swallow up the rule completely, so it is important to understand the nuances.

Gifting a home outright to a child during lifetime is almost always a bad Medicaid pre-planning strategy. Click through to read more.

Ideally, when a second marriage joins two families together, it should be a joyous occasion that creates one bigger family unit. Unfortunately, it too often also creates inheritance fights between stepparents and children. A good estate plan is necessary to help avoid these types of family squabbles.

You have planned your life carefully. With your spouse you have drawn up a will and established trusts to organize your estate after your deaths. You have made decisions about the guardianship of your children should anything happen to you both before they come of age. Together, you have put insurance policies in place for health, life, and disability. And most likely you are each named beneficiaries on the other’s retirement plan. The only thing you didn’t plan for was divorce.

Over the past few years, estate planning has experienced unprecedented change. As we conduct more of our lives online, planning for digital assets and online accounts is crucial to securing your legacy. Click through to read more.

It's not as strange as it sounds: people are very close to their pets, and it's natural they want them to be taken care of after they're gone. Click through for some help in making sure your beloved animal friends are provided for.

How do you know when it's time to put a loved one into a nursing home? You have to face the financial, practical and emotional decisions. Click through if you're caring for elderly relations who may need more help than you can give me.

Driver's licenses — issued by states — have long been the de facto national ID card. However, the federal government has now set higher security standards. Click through to find out how the ID situation has changed.

I answer a lot of "Ask A Lawyer" questions online. Here is one that came up recently (slightly edited for spelling and grammar): "My mom moved from GA to NC with me. We recently went to get a new license plate for her but we could not because the title of her car had her name and her deceased husband's name on it with no "and/or" beside the name. The plate office told us to go to the clerk of court with a will and death certificate. When we got to the clerk of court they told us we had to go to GA as the title was in GA. However, we are a minimum of 4 hours from GA. Is there anything else we can do switch the title without taking a long trip?"

While you aren't technically required to hire a lawyer to draft a will, failing to do so can lead to costly problems for your family and other heirs.

Some people do only enough research to figure out that you have to be nearly broke to qualify for Medicaid, so when it starts becoming apparent that they are going to need long-term care, they quickly gift things to their children and/or other people, which can result in a long Medicaid penalty period. Unless they are lucky enough to somehow convince the recipients of those past gifts to gift them back to pay for your care, you end up paying for those gifts twice. Even worse, the private pay rate is virtually always higher (a lot higher) than the Medicaid rate, so you end up having to pay out of pocket substantially more than the value of the gifts that you made.

The greatest risk facing nearly all seniors is the need for long-term care services. If you are an adult reading this blog, you have about a 70% chance of eventually needing some sort of long-term care, ranging from occasional home visits by nurse or other caregiver to residing in an assisted living facility (ALF) and possibly residing in a skilled nursing facility (SNF or nursing home) . Nursing home care is extremely expensive and can wipe out the life savings of most people.

There are lots of misconceptions about estate planning, and any one of them can result in costly mistakes. Understanding who needs an estate plan and what it should cover is key to creating a plan that is right for you.

An annuity can be a useful tool for long-term care planning, but annuities are also complex financial products that are hard to understand. If purchasing an annuity, you need to consider your options carefully.