MAY 6, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 18 Last week we wrote about questions we often hear from our clients in the wake of big changes to the federal estate tax structure. Almost immediately we heard from a reader asking about portability and disclaimer trusts; our reader suggested we try to explain the two concepts and…
APRIL 29, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 17 You probably have read that Congress has made big changes to the estate tax system. More accurately, Congress has made “permanent” the big (but piecemeal and temporary) changes introduced over the past decade. We hear a lot of questions from our clients about what those changes mean. Here…
APRIL 22, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 16 This week we bring you a story that is simultaneously simple yet profound. It involves an arcane corner of law — the intersection of trust administration and Medicaid eligibility. Its simplicity is obvious: it results in a court determination that Medicaid eligibility is determined by the state Medicaid…
APRIL 15, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 15 We keep bumping into versions of the same story: “Mom and dad created a revocable living trust. They wanted to avoid probate, and my sister lives in a group home because she is developmentally disabled. The trust named me as trustee, and my sister’s share goes into a…
APRIL 8, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 14 More than three years ago we wrote about what you need to do when a family member dies. Our focus was on the immediate things that need to be dealt with: securing the house, taking care of pets, forwarding the mail. We thought we would get back to…
APRIL 1, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 13 Driving. It’s an issue for seniors. And their families. According to the Centers for Disease Control, drivers over age 75 are at particular risk for fatal accidents, and that risk continues to grow as those older drivers age. The CDC is candid: it’s hard to tell how much…
MARCH 25, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 12 You may have heard about a potentially significant new tax liability for special needs trusts. With adoption of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (what is often referred to as “Obamacare”) Congress created a new tax intended for high earners to contribute to Medicare. A fairly complicated…
MARCH 16, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 11 A colleague recently asked if we knew why long-term care insurance premiums might be climbing significantly in the next month or so. We didn’t, but it got us thinking about how the industry has changed over the past few years. Is it still a good idea to purchase…
MARCH 9, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 10 We don’t very often focus on trial court decisions, and especially not in cases from outside Arizona. Trial judges are often very dedicated and bright, and their opinions may be eloquent and well-reasoned, but they do not establish precedent we can describe for our readers. Once in a…
MARCH 4, 2013 VOLUME 20 NUMBER 9 Last week we posed the question, and then mostly wrote about competence (or capacity) to sign a will. We promised to explain more about the level of competence required to sign other documents. So let us now tackle that concept. A person with a diagnosis of dementia may…