The simple answer to the question above is no. A living trust accomplishes a lot of things, but protecting assets from long term medical care costs, or costs associated with a nursing home is not one of the things that a living trust can do. A living trust helps avoid the probate process, streamlines the process after you have passed away, and can help your survivors have less work to do, but a living trust does not protect against creditors or long term care medical costs. When trying to protect assets from long term care medical costs, you need to consider the timing of putting … [Read more...]
Can i Have An Estate Plan from Out of State?
When I got married, I went to open a joint checking account with my wife. As part of the process, the banker asked for my driver’s license. I handed over the license and the banker asked me if the address was current. I laughed and said, “Nope, that was about 7 addresses ago.” I was in law school at the time, and I had moved just about every year prior to going to law school, as I was in college and switched apartments often. I lived at home during the summers, and I lived in different apartments, usually with different roommates, while in college. I don’t move quite as often now, since … [Read more...]
The Benefits of Living Trusts: How They Can Save You Time and Save You Money
I take a lot of calls concerning trusts where people ask me how a trust can save them money. Many of these callers have the mistaken belief that trusts are a magical way to avoid paying taxes and that they can completely eliminate taxes by using a trust. As much as I would like for that to be the case, it simply is not. Taxes do not simply go away because you put your assets into a trust. While there may be some types of tax sheltering trusts, or ways to structure a trust to minimize taxes, there is no magic tax eliminating trust. (On the contrary, income to a trust is taxed at a higher … [Read more...]
Avoiding Common Estate Planning Mistakes for People of Moderate Wealth
Most people I know are not rich, but they are not poor, either. Instead, they are somewhere in the middle - not rich, not poor, but decently comfortable - which is probably a result of having such a large middle class in America. I count myself as part of the middle class, and chances are that you are, too. As such, we don’t have the same worries as the three billionaires I have met. They have a whole different set of problems, like how to preserve their money and pass it on to their kids without the government taking a huge cut of their fortunes. Those of us of modest - let’s call it … [Read more...]
Why Every Homeowner Needs and Estate Plan: Tips for Protecting Your Property
Most people that I know are fairly normal, regular people. They aren’t rich, and they aren’t poor, but they are somewhere in the middle. They own a house, have a few kids, and generally just go to work, pay their bills, and take a vacation every now and then. I am one of these people, and so I understand how this type of life works on a regular basis. Sometimes we are called “middle class” or “middle Americans.” I like to think we are able to live a comfortable life, not need to get too involved and have everyone else criticize us for how we live our lives, but also with enough to pay for … [Read more...]
Planning for Life’s Milestones: A Look at Changing Estate Planning Through Pictures
The Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “Change is the only constant in life.” Although this saying is often attributed to better known philosophers like Plato or Aristotle, Heraclitus gets credit for giving us this slightly oxymoronic truth. I think we all see how this plays out in our own life's. We are children, grow up, become adults, and have children of our own. Nobody really expects life to stay the same, although we sometimes try very hard to keep it that way! I have found that as life changes, so do our priorities and what is important to us, so that we focus our time and energy … [Read more...]
Coloradans: You Deserve To Have Your Estate Planning Questions Answered
In November of 2022, we spent Thanksgiving in Kansas City with friends. We drove out the Saturday prior to the week of Thanksgiving and planned to spend the entire week with our friends. Neither I, nor my wife, planned to work during the week of Thanksgiving. However, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, my wife’s second level supervisor called her at 8 pm to let her know they were going to have a company wide meeting on Monday, and that the company she worked for was likely to shut down. That was quite an unexpected phone call for my wife. She attended the virtual company wide meeting on … [Read more...]
How Do I Leave My Car, Boat, House, Money, Family Cabin, Family Business, Family Farm, Monkey, Cat, Dog, or Anything Else To My Family After I Die?
I get asked the question above a lot! OK, so not the whole question at once...mostly I am asked about one part, or the other, and not all of the items at the same time, but I do get asked about how to deal with specific assets quite a bit. I am not sure if people think that each different thing they own needs to be treated separately, or if people are just really concerned about one particular thing, but people ask about how to deal with specific assets all the time. Many times the person asking the question seems most concerned about a particular asset because that asset is so important … [Read more...]
What To Do If Someone Dies With An Estate Plan Already Set Up
Many of the topics I have covered on my blog have to do with what happens if someone dies without a plan, or how not having a plan can be problematic. I spend a lot of time encouraging people to set up a plan, so that they can have their affairs in order. Similar to my last blog post, where I talked about what you need to know about your estate plan after you die, this blog post will be devoted to what your survivors will need to do when you have a plan in place. The timeline for someone who has an estate plan in place is very simple, outlined here: First, We talk about what needs to … [Read more...]
What Do You Have to Lose? Protecting What Is Most Important In Your Estate Plan
I was talking to my friend the other day, and related the following quote from Steve Jobs: "Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose." I am fairly sure that had I not been an estate planning attorney, the quote would not have been all that intriguing to me, but I started to think about what this meant, and how it would apply in the context of estate planning. Much of estate planning has to do with figuring out what happens to your assets - your stuff - when you die. So, we are dealing with the stuff that you … [Read more...]