There are assets that I call legacy assets that need a special level of protection that is not difficult to provide. What do I mean by legacy assets? I mean assets that are intended not to be sold and passed through from one generation to the next. Here are some common examples. A family farm [...]
What do you do when your loved one needs long-term care in a facility but can't afford to pay for it? Medicaid is the answer for 70% of this country's seniors. Medicaid is a means tested, federally-funded program for long-term care that is administered by the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. The most [...]
The most common will is one involving a married couple that says all to the surviving spouse and then equally to our children. Those wills have severe flaws. The first is that the surviving spouse, upon receiving the assets, has the full right to re-gift them how they wish. You might not imagine that your [...]
The trauma of a major medical crisis is compounded by a lack of advanced legal and financial planning. We can wag our heads all day about someone's failure to properly plan, but we must realistically deal with the hand that is dealt to the family of someone who has failed to plan. The key decision-making [...]
If a person has had a medical emergency and a long-term prognosis is poor, there is probably a need for long-term care, either at home or in a facility. Although it might sound desirable for there to be homecare, it is by far the most expensive solution. If there is serious impairment, 24-hour at-home care [...]
On January 31, 2020, the Federal Government declared a public health emergency (PHE) in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. In March 2020, Congress passed implemented a Medicaid continuous coverage requirement as part of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). In exchange for an increase in federal Medicaid matching funds, states were required to keep [...]
Would you self-diagnose your own medical problem? Sometimes as a self-help form of estate planning, family members will deed their property to their family, sometimes as a right of survivorship deed, an enhanced life estate deed (a ladybird deed), or an outright transfer. The form of a deed is fairly standard in Texas, so do [...]
Family farms and ranches often are intended to pass through multiple generations without being sold. If every member of the family is a model citizen, that may not be a significant problem; however, if even one member of the family has creditor or severe medical problems, that can threaten ownership of the family farm. If [...]
Medicaid planning seeks to ensure that your assets provide you quality care while maximizing what you pass on to your heirs. The probability that you will need long-term care is extraordinarily high: More than half of those turning 65 will need some type of long-term care services in their lifetimes. As life expectancy continues to [...]
I want to talk to you today about a Medicaid qualification issue. Most people are familiar with what they call the “five-year rule” or the “sixty-month look back.” The issue is whether you are disqualified from Medicaid if you've given away too much money during the five-year look back. And people think, [...]