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As a trust beneficiary, you may feel that you are at the mercy of the trustee, but depending on the type of trust, beneficiaries may have rights to ensure the trust is properly managed.

Accumulated frequent flier miles can be valuable assets, but what happens to those miles after someone dies? Can a spouse or other heirs inherit them, or do the miles simply evaporate like a contrail?

Running a small business can keep you busy, but it should not keep you from creating an estate plan. Not having a plan in place can cause problems for your business and your family after you are gone.

Medicaid imposes strict rules on how much money and assets an applicant can have. To qualify for Medicaid, you must fall under the asset limit, which is $2,000 in most states. Even with greater than $2,000 in assets, however, you may be able to get on Medicaid by establishing a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT). When you put your assets in a MAPT, Medicaid will not count the money in the trust toward its resource limit.

Sports fans with season tickets may want their families to enjoy the tickets after they are gone, but passing on these tickets may not be simple.

A recent survey by the American Advisors Group (AAG) finds that 55 percent of adult children say they are not financially prepared to help their Baby Boomer parents cope with rising inflation and living expenses.

Trusts are great tools for leaving assets to your heirs while maintaining control over their access to those assets. In many cases, you would tell your beneficiaries that you have made a trust for them. However, this is not always desirable — and this is where a “quiet” trust may be helpful.

A Roth IRA does not have to be used as just a retirement plan; it can also be a way to transfer assets tax-free to the next generation.

If your loved one is entering a nursing home, you may worry whether you could be liable for their care. Under federal law, a facility cannot require a family member or friend to co-sign an admission agreement and take on personal liability. However, nursing homes around the country still try to do so, and often these matters end up in court.

It is hard to know what documents to trash and when. Before you know it, your spare room, office, basement, or garage is overflowing with boxes of papers that all seem important.

Leaving a nursing home to return home is a goal for many residents and their families, but it requires careful consideration. While returning home is a good move for some, it won't work for everyone.

When an individual passes away without a funeral plan, responsibility for arranging the funeral often falls on the deceased’s close family members, such as surviving spouses and children. Planning your own funeral arrangements can assist your loved ones in an emotionally challenging time, while also protecting them from incurring extraneous costs.

If you apply for long-term care assistance through Medicaid and your application is denied, the situation may seem hopeless. The good news is that you can appeal the decision.

Even if you've created an estate plan, are you sure you included everything you need to? There are certain provisions that people often forget to put in a will or estate plan that can have a big impact on a family.

Navigating the Medicaid application process can be complicated, especially if you are applying for long-term care benefits. Hiring an attorney to help you through the process can be extremely helpful.

Naming a revocable trust as a beneficiary of your retirement plan can be a good idea in some circumstances, but it can be dangerous if you are worried about creditors coming after your estate. 

Being the executor of an estate can be a time-consuming job, depending on the size and complexity of the estate. While a simple estate can take a few months and not require a huge time commitment, if there are problems, the job can drag on for years. 

Not everyone wants to take the required minimum distributions from their retirement accounts right away. If you don’t want your distribution, one option is to donate it to charity and get a tax deduction. 

Saying that there has been "undue influence" is often used as a reason to contest a will or estate plan, but what does it mean?

When a married couple applies for Medicaid, the Medicaid agency must analyze the couple’s income and assets as of a particular date to determine eligibility. The date that the agency chooses for this analysis is called the “snapshot” date and it can have a major impact on a couple’s financial future.

A federal court has ruled that hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries who were switched from inpatient to observation status can appeal the decision, making it easier for them to receive coverage for subsequent nursing home care. The ruling appears to bring to an end more than a decade of litigation on behalf of Medicare recipients.

On July 8, 2022, the Internal Revenue Service issued new guidance that allows a deceased person’s estate to elect “portability” of their unused gift and estate tax exemption for up to five years after their death. So, if your spouse passed away less than five years ago, you may be able to file an estate tax return to transfer their unused estate tax exclusion to yourself.

When loved ones pass away, there are lots of considerations, including what happens to their Social Security. The decedent's payments need to be stopped, but survivor's benefits may be available to the spouse or, in certain cases, children.  Social Security benefits stop at death. ...

Medicaid applicants must prove that they have limited income and assets in order to be eligible for long-term care services. Before beginning the application process, it is helpful to understand what information you will be required to provide to prove your eligibility. 

Collecting art or other valuable items can be a passion for many people. Often such a pastime is more about enjoying the art or the medium itself than about ensuring financial gain. However, once you have accumulated a sizable collection, what do you want to happen to it after you pass away?