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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.

Prepaying for your funeral is one way to ease the burden on your family following your death and make sure your wishes are carried out. But pre-paid funeral plans come with risks, so you need to exercise care when purchasing a plan.

The Internal Revenue Service announced today in Rev. Proc. 2019-44 the official estate and gift tax limits for 2020: $11.58 million per person (was $11.4 million in 2019). That means you can leave $11.58 million to heirs and pay no federal gift or estate tax. If you are married, the two of you can leave up to 23.16 million combined without incurring a federal gift or estate tax.

Medicare's Open Enrollment Period, during which you can freely enroll in or switch plans, runs from October 15 to December 7. Don't let this period slip by without shopping around to see whether your current choices are the best ones for you.

Being appointed guardian of a loved one is a serious responsibility. As guardian, you are in charge of your loved one's well-being and you have a duty to act in his or her best interest.

Married couples have a special way to jointly own property in some states that has advantages over regular joint ownership. If you are married and own property jointly, you should make sure you have the right form of ownership.

When it comes to long-term care costs, the charges for home care are now rising faster than those for nursing home care, according to Genworth's 2019 Cost of Care survey. In the past year, the median annual cost for home health aides rose 4.55 percent to $52,624, while the median cost of a private nursing home room rose only 1.82 percent to $102,200.

California's small estate provisions will change as follows for the estates of decedent's who pass on or after April 1, 2022.

A secret trust is created when an individual entrusts property to another person with the understanding that the second person (let's call him the "trustee") should hold the property for the benefit of a third person (let's call him the "beneficiary"). The problem is, none of this is in writing. It's secret.

Medicaid Pre-Planning is a process of using legal techniques to transfer assets to your spouse or children or other beneficiaries, or to otherwise cause the assets to be exempt from consideration in qualifying for Medicaid. These techniques (1) preserve these assets for your heirs, (2) while allowing you to maintain a certain degree of control while you are still living, and (3) allow you to qualify for Medicaid coverage much sooner than if your assets were just spent down.

Sometimes the most loving thing you can do is protect children and other loved ones from themselves. You might want to make sure that your children are financially secure during their lifetime or that your nephew’s education is paid for. Whatever your goals are, a proper estate plan can put provisions in place to make sure your loved ones are provided for, rather than having their inheritance squandered on a Ferrari, seized by a creditor, or given to an ex-spouse during a divorce.

A comprehensive estate plan can contain your wishes with as much detail as you want, including instructions for your funeral or memorial service. Make sure your family has a chance to remember and celebrate your life instead of placing the burden of arranging final plans—like what song will be playing at your funeral—on your already grieving loved ones.

You’re a unique individual with your own wishes, hopes, and dreams. Should a will that works for a single, 20-something be the same one used for a well-invested grandparent of 12? You’ve worked hard to create the life you have—make sure you trust your planning to an experienced estate planning attorney and not a fill-in-the-blank, cookie-cutter document generator (you know you’ve heard of them) with a final product resembling a Mad Lib game.

Make sure your valuables, mementos, and family heirlooms are handed down to the right person (or organization) who will really appreciate them. Failing to memorialize your wishes in a comprehensive estate plan with a will and/or trust results in intestate succession—the state’s best guess at what you would have wanted to be done with your things.

In 2008, Congress recognized the need for the public to understand the importance and benefits of estate planning by passing House Resolution 1499, which designated the third week of October as National Estate Planning Awareness Week. Nevertheless, according to a 2019 survey carried out by Caring.com, 57% of adults in the United States have not prepared any estate planning documents such as a will or trust despite the fact that 76% viewed them as important. Many of the respondents said this was due to procrastination, but many others mistakenly believed that it was not necessary because they did not have many assets.

If you are married, a good estate planning attorney will ask you during the information gathering process whether you have ever lived in a community property state. This is because community property retains its character as such when a couple moves to a state with different marital property laws. Your estate planning attorney needs to know this because it can have an impact on what is included in your estate when you die and to what extent the property received a step up in basis when you die.

The answer is, as in so many things in life, it depends. There is no one-size-fits all trust, and sometimes more than one is needed. Factors that need to be considered include:

There often comes a time in a older adult's life when he or she cannot handle his or her finances any longer. The usual solution is to already have a general durable power of attorney in place that authorizes a trusted person (such as a healthy spouse or an adult child) to handle the elder's financial affairs in the event of incompetency or other disability. This is a sound strategy but, unfortunately, does not apply to management of Social Security benefits. This is because the Social Security Administration (SSA) simply does not honor powers of attorney and, because SSA is a federal agency, they do not concern themselves with state laws that require financial and other institutions to honor valid power of attorney.

In 2018, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) enacted a new rule designed to help protect senior investors. Under this rule, financial advisors are required to make reasonable efforts to obtain the name of and contact information for a "trusted contact person" upon opening a new account or when updating account information for existing clients.

To help protect seniors and other vulnerable investors from financial exploitation, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has developed a Senior Helpline to provide assistance and advice.

An Arizona beneficiary deed is a nonprobate device to transfer residential real property to a named beneficiary upon the owner's death. Like a will, no consideration is required and the beneficiary’s acceptance is not required. Capacity to contract is required. Beneficiary deeds are revocable by recording a revocation, recording an absolute conveyance, or recording a subsequent beneficiary deed.