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Encino Trust Attorney Answers, “What Should a Special Needs Trust Pay For?”

Trustees of special needs trusts shoulder an incredible amount of responsibility. In addition to providing care for the individual with special needs, they must also make sure the assets in the trust are spent wisely and will not disqualify the person from any benefits they may be receiving.

How to Qualify for Medi-Cal – Even If You Have Too Many Assets

Medi-Cal is a needs-based program meant to help those without considerable resources access medical care and benefits. Since it is needs-based, there are significant asset and income limits attached to eligibility, which can easily lead to a disqualification from receiving benefits if the assets are not monitored closely. However, there are several ways to prevent a Medi-Cal eligibility disqualification through the use of trusts. For the purposes of this article, we’ll focus on how an irrevocable trust can help if a person expects to receive Medi-Cal benefits in the future and a First-Party Special Needs Trust if a person is ready to receive Medi-Cal benefits.

Encino Estate Lawyer: What Happens to Your Digital Assets After You Pass Away?

Digital assets and what happens to them after you pass away are fairly new concerns for people. However, this issue must be given significant thought, since so much of our lives are impacted by the digital age. To help alleviate these concerns and give more control to those managing estates of the recently incapacitated or deceased, Congress passed The Revised Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, otherwise known as RUFADAA. This act allows fiduciaries (executors, trustees, and agents working with a Power of Attorney) to manage digital accounts owned by others, while at the same time affording the account owner a level of privacy.

LA County Elder Law Attorney: How to Help an Elderly Parent Manage Money

A concern for many adult children with an aging parent is whether or not they can still handle money and make sound choices regarding their financial affairs. There are many reasons why an elderly parent would have trouble handling their own finances, usually due to some physical or mental ailment or the loss of a spouse who normally handled the finances, though there are other times when the parent just decides they would rather have someone else handle financial decisions, so they may focus on other things.

Encino Trust Lawyer Answers: “What is a Qualified Personal Residence Trust (QPRT)?”

Family homes and other real property are usually the most valuable assets in an estate. While homeowners may want to leave these properties to children or other beneficiaries as part of an inheritance, tax burdens can throw a wrench into those plans. Unfortunately, without proper planning, most beneficiaries cannot afford the taxes that come along with inheriting property, which usually forces the sale of a family home or other property after the homeowner dies.

Encino Trust Lawyer on What Every Trustee Needs to Know

Revocable Living Trusts are designed to serve a variety of functions, such as providing individuals with greater control over how their assets and property are handled in the event of incapacitation or death, while also sparing loved ones from having to deal with the costs and delays of probate court. …

Encino Estate Lawyer: Organize Your Financial Life and Streamline Your Estate Planning Process

Being organized makes life easier, while setting your financial life in order will help you become more efficient when dealing with day-to-day tasks like paying bills. It will also put you in a perfect position to take care of your estate planning, once and for all.

Los Angeles County Elder Attorney: Everything You Need to Know About Senior Tax Deductions

There are many different tax breaks and loopholes in our system for religious organizations, schools, and businesses, as well as for certain groups of people. One such group is senior citizens, who may especially benefit from certain tax deductions. Each year, seniors have expenses that can be deducted from their state and federal tax returns, which can have a positive impact on their financial situation, including medical, financial, and even standard deductions.

Encino Special Needs Lawyer: 3 Things You Need to Know About Special Needs Trusts

When you have a loved one with special needs, you want to make sure that they’re taken care of in every instance – especially after you’ve passed away or if you can no longer care for them by yourself. That’s why creating a special needs trust is so important when it comes to keeping a continuity of care and making sure your loved one can receive all the benefits available to them from state and local agencies. Here are three things you need to know about special needs trusts and how they’ll help provide for your loved one with special needs.

Is Long-Term Care Insurance Right for You?

As medicine has advanced over the past several decades, lifespans have happily increased, and people are living longer, healthier lives well into retirement. However, one downside as people age further and further is the need for skilled, long-term care. Long-term care is extremely expensive – in some cases, it may cost more than $10,000 a month for a senior citizen in a nursing home. Long-term care insurance was created to help defray the costs of long-term care, but there are many things to consider before buying this type of insurance.

Encino Trust Lawyer: Everything You Need to Know About Estate Planning for Blended Families

Here is a situation that happens all too often to seniors and boomers who decide to remarry late in life:

Following their wedding, a couple who each have their own children and grandchildren do not create an estate plan. When the first spouse dies – in this case, let’s say the husband – any community property he has with his wife will pass directly to her. Or, in the event of separate property, it’s split 50/50 if there is one child, or if there is more than one child, one third will go to the new wife and two thirds to the kids.

Encino Elder Lawyer Asks, “How Much Do You Know About Long-Term Care?”

A stay at a long-term care facility is a common reality for many seniors, whether it’s a brief stay in a nursing home for recuperation and rehabilitation after a procedure or a more permanent stay in the case of a chronic disease such as dementia or Alzheimer’s. Choosing the right …

Are You Prepared to Avoid California Probate?

Did you know that an estate valued at $400,000 is estimated to cost $22,000 in attorney fees and executor fees in California without proper estate planning? In fact, the cost only goes up from there depending on how much your estate is worth: a $500,000 estate can cost $26,000, while …