Living Issues Archives - Page 4 of 5 - Law Offices of Daniel Timins

Simple Dos and Don’ts of Gifting for College Education

Posted on August 1, 2016

Higher education is usuriously expensive. The fact that a child’s education may cost as much as you paid for your first house should highlight the importance of gifting these funds in the correct way. You can pay an unlimited amount of money for a child’s education expenses, provided you pay the money directly to the educational institution. Qualified education expenses are looked at as a benefit to public policy, and therefore do not require the donor to fill in a gift tax return. The funds are also not deducted from your lifetime gift tax exemption, meaning you can continue to gift additional funds without having to assess a tax. Paying a child back for their student loan payments

Why ITF & TOD Accounts Are (Sometimes) Worse Ways of Transferring Assets than Using a Will

Posted on August 24, 2015

If you read my blogpost dated August 8th, 2015 you saw my argument stating that “In Trust For” and “Transfer on Death” accounts are better ways of transferring your assets than using a will because these transfers are accomplished quickly, free of legal expenses, and are not public information. Transferring assets by probating a will, on the other hand, is not immediate, which assesses court filing fees and legal costs, and makes it a public affair. But I only told you one side of the story… There are several instances in which transferring assets by probating your will may be preferable, especially when utilizing a “Testamentary Trust” in your Last Will and Testament. While I can appreciate that the following

When to Begin Medicaid Planning

Posted on August 17, 2015

I have several prospective clients approach me to discuss Medicaid planning. They have typically just finished handling their own parent’s age-related issues (dementia, Parkinson’s Disease, etc.), and want their younger relatives to avoid the same kind of emotional turmoil and financial commitments when they age. Medicaid compliance requires a person to relinquish either assets or control over those assets, but many people in their 60s are just not ready to part with either of these. A large percentage of these individuals are not even retired and have yet to enjoy the best years of their lives in which they have the physical, mental, and emotional capacity to enjoy their free time. In many cases, their knee-jerk response is based on

Cain and Abel: When Siblings Despise Each Other

Posted on July 17, 2015

There are no perfect families. Even the first biblical family had an extreme sibling rivalry (with some rather bad results). And while most of us don’t have to worry about such an extreme outcome, many parents do worry that their children will not play well in the estate sandbox as their parents age and pass away. The worries: One child helps mom and dad as they age, is given a lot of money prior to and after their passing, and the other child brings a lawsuit for absconding with the money that they feel is one half theirs. One child helps mom and dad as they age, is given the same amount of money as the child who did nothing,

Smart Ideas for Making Your Agents Known (When Needed)

Posted on June 27, 2015

Too many attorneys make the mistake of not informing a person’s Power of Attorney, Health Care Agent or Executor that he/she has been named as a person’s agent or, even worse, not telling a client how to inform these people of their responsibilities. These practitioners appear to have the attitude of “I’ve been paid, you have your legal documents, let’s both move onto the next thing in our lives.” While this does not rise to the level of legal malpractice, it certainly is inconsiderate and potentially dangerous: These documents are not public record. If there is an emergency, how is a Health Care Agent going to be identified by the admitting health care facility? The documents may be hard to

You Are Not Entitled to Medicaid

Posted on June 1, 2015

I meet a lot of procrastinators. People who wait too long to deal with a serious issue, then figure they can fix it just by coming to an attorney. The best example is Medicaid Planning: Maybe a person wants to preserve their assets, but does not want to give up control and does not trust their children to have control. Or he wants to see what the future holds and then…and…and….. …And then “the event” that finally requires wealth preservation happens and no steps have been taken. The client has held onto their assets for too long and then has a stroke, or quick onset of dementia, maybe Parkinson’s develops, and the client is now in a rush to become

“There’s No Place Like (the Nursing) Home…” Avoiding the Trip from Kansas to Oz

Posted on March 24, 2015

Many of us remember Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz saying “There’s no place like home.” And it’s true. Whether we own or rent the premises in which we reside, the one place we hold as sacred is the one we relax and sleep in: Home. No client wants to be swept away in the tornado that is a Nursing Home. Elder Law attorneys try to smooth over the term by calling it an “institution”, a chilling word which is (shockingly) not that much more comforting. Either term instantly invokes the thoughts of bad smells, confused or infirmed individuals, bad food, hospital beds, and misery before death. Truth be told, the “best” nursing homes I have seen are not places

Doing Separate Finances Right

Posted on November 17, 2014

Today, more spouses and unmarried cohabitants maintain separate finances. This is probably due to a number of factors, including increased salaries for women and an increase in second marriages and relationships with children from a previous relationship. While these arrangements may work amongst couples during life, they present significant estate planning challenges upon the death of one or the other. How much should the surviving partner get (which could conceivably be left to a future partner) and how much should the children get (to the detriment of the partner)? There is no easy answer. The majority of clients in this position have very concrete opinions about what they want, which makes my life far easier: I’m not a fan of

“Estates a la Carte”: Restaurant Owners – A 3 Course Catastrophe

Posted on November 17, 2014

One of the more-challenging clients for estate planners is restaurant owners. While owning a restaurant is difficult enough during life, the problems that face these professionals at death are equally complex, time consuming and expensive. First, Appetizers: Most restaurant owners spend most of their money on additional restaurants. This creates a major problem with estate liquidity, particularly if they happen to own the real estate where their dining establishments are located (typically in high-tax areas). Otherwise, the establishment is locking into a long-term lease to which the lessor has the right to pursue rent for the remaining term of the lease against the deceased owner’s estate. In either case, substantial cash funds may be needed but are not available. Next,

“The Doctor is Out”: Medical Practices & Unexpected Death

Posted on November 17, 2014

Modern day medical doctors face a myriad of challenges: Lawsuits, hardships with creating referrals and collecting payments from third-parties (insurance companies and Medicare), onerous requirements of the Affordable Care Act and patient records, and the like. So just when we think the logical conclusion of these hardships would occur (death) we find out just how hard it truly is to be a doctor. A doctor has a requirement to maintain patient records for several years. This requirement does not end at the time of their passing. While today’s insurance environment and staff requirements have effectively made solo practitioners a dying bread, even a small group of doctors may not be prepared to process all of the records of their departed