A Trust to Protect the Family Farm
You wrote about qualifying my parents for Medicaid with a trust that would require them to give up control of our farm. Is that really necessary? ________________ Not necessarily. With the right trust, plus other legal tools depending on your parents’ situation, nothing in their lives will change. Turning over the farm to a trustee […]
PLANNING TO PRESERVE A SUCCESSFUL FAMILY FARM
My husband and I make a good living from our tree nursery, but we want to retire andhand the farm over to our children. We also need estate planning. Can you help withboth? Yes. The two questions are intertwined. For the farm, we can find strategies to keepyour land productive and to protect value for […]
Planning Ahead
I recently got diagnosed with an illness that eventually might lead to me being unable to manage my finances and health care. What should I do? Put legal plans in place now. Don’t wait until you need a guardian. Guardianship proceedings in court are expensive, time-consuming, and emotionally draining. Please come in and let’s review […]
Long Term Care Insurance
I’m looking into buying some long-term care insurance. A policy I found excludes payment for care provided by family or household members. Is that really right? If I ever get seriously sick, my daughter says she’ll move in and care for me. Isn’t long-term care insurance supposed to cover that? No. Unfortunately, almost all long-term […]
Health Care POA
My parents paid for my health-care power of attorney documents when I turned 18. I’m glad they did that, but I’m not thrilled that they can now see my most private medical information. It’s not that I don’t love them. It’s just that I want to protect my privacy and make my own decisions. Congratulations […]
What’s all this about Britney Spears’s conservatorship?
For those who might not know, Britney Spears is a wildly successful pop singer who got her start in show business at the age of eight in the Mickey Mouse Club. No small wonder, then, that around twenty-six years later she was reported as having a bit of an emotional melt-down and ended up spending […]
Equal is Equitable, Most of the Time
When it comes to deciding how to leave property to your children, the clearest choice is to divide everything into equal shares. That is the straightforward choice when all your children are doing equally well. But if not – if, for example, your son is a starving artist with mouths to feed and your childless […]
Your Personal Possessions: Memories Are Made of These
Suppose that your estate plan is all set. It will be taking care of your home, savings, and investments, making sure that your family will get those valuable estate items fairly and efficiently. Your plan will also protect your legacy from your children’s potential divorces or bankruptcies. What could go wrong? Plenty, unfortunately, when it […]
Take This Timeshare – Please!
When Mom and Dad bought a timeshare in a holiday resort, the resort agent suggested that they sign a deed leaving the share to their children, so that when the parents passed, the kids could continue to enjoy the property. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Unfortunately, once Mom and Dad did […]
“Per stirpes”: Zebras have nothing to do with it.
I read that when making a will, I could leave my property to my children “per stripes.” Why is the law talking about us like we’re some kind of zebra? The phrase is Latin and it is “per stirpes,” not “per stripes.” Some bits of property law are extremely ancient in origin and this is […]