What is a Medicaid trust? While modern medicine provides frequent breakthroughs for disabled patients, a long-term disability can be very costly for an estate. In fact, many modern couples may spend down their entire estate paying for medical care during a long-term disability. A Medicaid trust or spend down trust is a form of trust designed to preserve the trustor’s assets in anticipation of a possible long-term disability. → Read More
Special Needs Trusts Overview To qualify for most government programs, there are strict limits on the special needs individual’s income and assets. Inherited assets are counted when looking at what assets are available to a special needs beneficiary. Therefore, the family members of a special needs individual should consider passing wealth to that person through a trust. → Read More
Resulting Trusts It’s always the goal of the court to follow the wishes of the deceased person, so resulting trusts are a very common occurrence. The first, and most common way a resulting trust occurs is when a trustor attempts to create a living trust without drafting the proper documents or noting the trust in the will. → Read More
Administering a Living Trust The simple answer to this question is: very carefully. As trustee/administrator to a living trust, you are considered liable for any substantial damage to the trust. Ideally, the grantor kept a trust portfolio while he was alive that can be used to ensure a smooth transition. If not, you’ll have to begin the same way someone executing a will begins. → Read More
What is a bypass trust? A bypass trust is a trust designed to contain property that bypasses the surviving spouse’s estate thereby avoiding inclusion in that later estate. Bypass trusts are especially useful for spouses with large estates who are eventually planning to leave the remainder of their estate to children because it reduces the amount of estate taxes owed and aids in avoiding probate court. → Read More
What is a special trust? A special trust requires the trustee to actively execute the settlor’s instructions. These actions to execute a special trust can include selling the trust property and using the proceeds to pay off debts or investing cash that is part of the trust in a particular manner. → Read More
What is a unit trust? Unit trusts are created with both wealth management and estate planning in mind. A unit trust is not actually a “trust” at all, but rather a form of mutual fund. A unit trust differs from a regular trust in that it’s completely unmanaged and not handled by attorneys, but are sold by brokers. → Read More
Where There’s a Will: Fixing Mistakes in the Making of a Last Will & Testament Despite all the care that some people put into their wills, it is inevitable that a will sometimes will contain a mistake or an error. When a will doesn’t serve its purpose of fulfilling the intent of the will maker with regard to disposal of their property after death, there are ways to fix the problem. → Read More
What goes on in the probate of an uncontested will? A hearing on the probate petition is typically scheduled several weeks to months after the matter is filed. It may be necessary to bring the persons who witnessed the deceased’s signature on the will to the hearing to testify. Whether this will be necessary depends on several factors: on the laws of the state, sometimes on who the named beneficiaries are, how long before the death the will was signed, whether the will was prepared by an attorney, who supervised the signing (execution) of the will, and/or whether the will was executed with certain affidavits. → Read More
Will Contests A will contest occurs when someone challenges a will and asks that it be thrown out as invalid. Although they are relatively rare, will contests do occur. They can only be brought by a person with standing – that means something to gain, such as inheriting a larger share of the deceased’s estate, or greater voice in managing the estate, if the will is found to be invalid and thus will not be admitted to probate. → Read More
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