A Personal Family Lawyer® is a trusted advisor who helps you to make the very best personal, financial, legal and business decisions for your family throughout your lifetime and is there to guide your loved ones when you can’t be.
Back in the day, before lawyers became all about the billable hour, form documents, and transaction, the trusted family lawyer was who mom and pop turned to for guidance throughout life’s ups and downs.
As firms grew and became more focused on billable hours and profit centers, the personal relationship began to fall by the way-side.
And, in the early 90s, planning with living trusts became so popular that every lawyer and his brother decided to start dabbling in Wills and Trusts and the practice soon became about fill in the blank form documents.
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A Special Needs Trust can be established by a parent to preserve the child’s government benefits, enhance the childs qualify of life, provide a system of adequacy and address the child’s ongoing ‘life’ issues.
How does the special needs trust preserve government benefits?
A child with a disabilty at age eighteen is going to be eligible to receive social security income (SSI). To qualify for SSI you must have less than $2,000 in assets and limited income. Prior to the age of 18, the parents income is deemed to the child and therefore most children will not qualify. At age 18, parental deeming stops, and then the disabled child can qualify for SSI
SSI is designed to pay for food and shelter and provides a monthly benefit in 2009 of _________. Some states add an additonal benefit. For example in California the total monthly benefit is __________. Even with this combined benefit, the monthly stipend is not going to
Happy 4th of July!
By · CommentsI hope you had a wonderful July 4th Holiday! It’s been a little quiet in the office since this was a big week for vacations and long weekends for many of my clients.
We went to a fireworks show, which was a lot of fun. I’ve heard stories from several who live in places like San Pedro, at the Port of Los Angeles… what a fireworks display they had! From Palos Verdes to Long Beach and all cities in between and beyond, to the cruise ships’ shows… there can be as many as 10-15 going on at one time. I’d love to experience that sometime and maybe next year… Read More→
Protecting Your Children’s Nest Egg
By · CommentsParents often set up trusts as a way to ensure their assets reach their children and successive generations without being diminished by courts costs and taxes. When leaving assets to a child, parents will be faced with some choices on how to handle or set up their children’s future inheritance.
Should they leave them to the children outright (no longer held in the trust), how much and when should the children receive the assets and will their inheritance be protected from future creditors are amongst some of the questions a parent must ask. Read More→
Katrine’s New Venture
By · CommentsIt’s been coming for a while. I’ve been doing everything I could do to prepare for it, but it’s like most things that change when you don’t want them to change, I’m not happy about it.On the other hand, what can I say? It’s really a huge step in the right direction.
What am I talking about? Katrine Berger, our firm’s Client Services Director, is leaving us to go to Southwestern Law School for her law degree. That is the good news and the bad news. Read More→
Keep The Change And Get $4,000 In Bonuses
By · CommentsChanges in our lives can bring a wealth of opportunity or surprising disappointment.
We can anticipate some changes, like getting married or the birth of a child, and other times, Change just struts in and makes itself at home without warning.
It’s easy to evaluate and plan for those big or significant changes that we know are going to happen: what they entail, when they will happen, how they will affect our lives, and how we can be better prepared for them when they do. Read More→
April Is National Autism Awareness Month
By · CommentsAs many of you know, I have a daughter with autism. Since April is National Autism Awareness Month, I wanted to speak to you a bit about what it is and what it is not. Because so many Americans are diagnosed with it, you probably know someone who is autistic.
One thing you should know is that autism is not a disease. It is a neurological condition that can develop in children between the ages of 3 and 5 years old. It manifests itself as uniquely as individuals are different from each other, but there are some common displays of autistic behavior. Read More→
Shooting Myself In The Foot
By · CommentsThis week, I’ve been taking an inventory, so to speak, of how I’m doing with my New Year’s Resolutions. My main Resolution was to say, “Yes, I can!” more often, stepping outside my comfort zone and being more open to new things.
To be honest, I think I’ve done pretty well. But I’m not perfect. I have probably missed some opportunities, some I’m sure of and some I will never know what I could have realized had I said, “Yes!” Read More→
Is Your Business Putting Your Personal Assets At Risk?
By · CommentsAll professionals are aware of the challenges of running their business amidst a barrage of lawsuits. The number of lawsuits filed each year against physicians and small businesses is staggering and has reached over 15 million. That works out to one new lawsuit every two seconds! Or one lawsuit filed for every 12 adults in America. This is truly a large number of lawsuits.
Professional small business owners are at risk of losing their business assets, savings, and livelihood with one malpractice case. Steps can be taken to minimize the threat of these lawsuits and insulate assets from liability. Read More→
Sneak Preview
By · CommentsWow! This week has been so busy! It’s what I love, though, with new clients, and talking to people about their particular situations and providing the solutions that work best for them and their families. Plus, I’m getting ready for the upcoming free seminars, where I have the opportunity to speak face with face to parents about this important part of their planning.
I’m also preparing to introduce some new features to my website, www.estplan.com, so stay tuned for some exciting announcements about that soon. Read More→
