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Estate and Elder Planning, LLC
We understand that planning for the future is about more than just documents—it’s about peace of mind. Our team specializes in crafting personalized estate plans designed to protect your assets, ensure your wishes are honored, and provide security for your loved ones. Whether you’re planning a will, establishing a trust, or navigating the complexities of Medicaid asset protection, we’re here to guide you every step of the way. Let us help you create a plan that reflects your values and secures your legacy.
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Our Services
What We Offer
Estate Planning
Estate planning ensures that your assets are protected and distributed according to your wishes, providing security for you and your loved ones. From wills and trusts to powers of attorney, a well-crafted estate plan helps prevent legal complications, reduces taxes, and prepares for future healthcare needs. At Estate and Elder Planning, LLC, we’re here to guide you through every step with expertise and compassion.
Medicaid
Medicaid and asset protection planning helps safeguard your hard-earned assets from the high costs of long-term care while ensuring you qualify for essential benefits. Without careful planning, nursing home and medical expenses can quickly deplete your estate. At Estate and Elder Planning, LLC, we specialize in strategies to protect your assets, preserve your wealth, and secure Medicaid eligibility, offering peace of mind for you and your family.
Probate
Probate is the legal process of settling an estate after a person’s death, ensuring that assets are properly distributed to heirs and any outstanding debts are addressed. While probate can be complex and time-consuming, careful planning can simplify the process for your loved ones. At Estate and Elder Planning, LLC, we guide families through probate with sensitivity and expertise, helping to minimize stress and avoid unnecessary delays.
Alzheimer’s Planning
Alzheimer’s planning is a crucial part of estate planning and Medicaid preparation for individuals and families affected by this progressive illness.
What can we help with today?
Estate planning is essential for ensuring your assets are distributed according to your wishes, and your loved ones are cared for after you pass. Here's why estate planning is important:
- Control Over Your Assets: Without a plan, state laws decide how your estate is divided, which may not align with your desires. An estate plan lets you dictate who inherits your property, finances, and valuables.
- Minimizing Taxes: Proper planning can help reduce estate taxes and protect more of your wealth for future generations.
- Avoiding Probate: A well-crafted estate plan can help your family avoid the time-consuming and costly probate process, ensuring a smoother transfer of assets.
- Guardianship for Minor Children: If you have young children, an estate plan allows you to designate guardians, ensuring their care and upbringing align with your values.
- Health and Financial Decisions: Estate planning includes documents like powers of attorney and living wills, which designate trusted individuals to make healthcare and financial decisions if you're incapacitated.
- Protecting Beneficiaries: Through trusts and other tools, you can provide for loved ones with special needs, manage inheritances for minors, protect your assets from the nursing home, and protect assets from creditors.
Estate planning is about providing peace of mind, ensuring your wishes are followed, and minimizing potential burdens on your family during difficult times.
Why you need Estate Planning? | Click here for video
How to transform your future! | Click here for video
Planning For Retirement | Click here for video
How to protect your life savings from the Nursing Home? | Click here for video
Consult with an Estate and Elder Planning Attorney | Click here for video
How to transform your future! | Click here for video
Planning For Retirement | Click here for video
How to protect your life savings from the Nursing Home? | Click here for video
Consult with an Estate and Elder Planning Attorney | Click here for video
A Durable Power of Attorney is a legal document that allows you to appoint someone (an agent) that can make financial and legal, on your behalf if you become incapacitated. This prevents potential conflicts or difficulties in managing your affairs and ensures that your wishes are honored even when you're unable to communicate them. Unlike a regular power of attorney, a durable one remains in effect even if you lose the ability to make decisions for yourself, ensuring continuous management of your affairs.
| What is a Durable Power of Attorney? | https://youtu.be/v_uePMx9uXU?si=3YMUlcJUcgxKn49z
A Medical Power of Attorney is a legal document that designates someone (an agent) to make medical decisions on your behalf if you are unable to do so due to illness or incapacity. This ensures that your healthcare preferences are respected and that decisions are made by someone you trust.
| What is a Medical POA? | https://youtu.be/mKnqAS6amD4?si=17zSU6cpf4iz_9tP
A Living Will is a legal document that specifies your preferences for medical treatment and end-of-life care in the event that you become unable to communicate your wishes. It typically addresses issues like life support, resuscitation, and other critical medical interventions, ensuring that your healthcare decisions are followed according to your desires.
| What is a Living Will? | https://youtu.be/a3R6t-9LnPI
A Last Will and Testament is a legal document that outlines how a person’s assets and property will be distributed after their death and can also name guardians for minor children.
A Last Will and Testament is important because it ensures that your assets are distributed according to your wishes, helps avoid family disputes, and can designate guardians for minor children. Without a will, state laws determine how your estate is divided, which may not reflect your preferences.
| What is a will? | https://youtu.be/vXZD9RCajds?si=0Wd4IxEePLBsvjUD
A Revocable Trust is a legal arrangement that allows you to manage your assets during your lifetime and specify how they will be distributed after your death. It can be changed or revoked at any time and helps avoid probate.
A Revocable Trust is important because it allows for seamless management and transfer of assets without going through probate. It offers flexibility, as it can be changed during your lifetime, and provides privacy while ensuring your assets are distributed according to your wishes.
| What is a revocable trust? | https://youtu.be/VJ2V0Oot1uI?si=trjQQHQzSZAK0Tzz
The main difference between a Last Will and Testament and a Revocable Trust is how and when they take effect. A Will only takes effect after death, directing how your assets will be distributed and going through the probate process. A Revocable Trust, on the other hand, takes effect immediately upon creation, allows for the management of your assets during your lifetime, and helps avoid probate after death, providing a more private and efficient transfer of assets.
| The difference between will and trust | https://youtu.be/PH6uiEDZrW8?si=7GLYBe7CgwJMZ1_I
An Irrevocable Trust, often referred to as a Medicaid Trust, is a legal tool used to protect assets while qualifying for Medicaid benefits. Once assets are placed in this trust, the trust's terms cannot be changed or revoked. This allows individuals to protect their assets from being counted as part of their estate when applying for Medicaid to cover long-term care costs, while still preserving those assets for beneficiaries.
| What is an Irrevocable Medicaid trust? | https://youtu.be/l8LHvBW8qmI?si=SOusMeDCUSu6UWS3
| Medicaid asset protection trust pros and cons | https://youtu.be/l760e4EbNqM?si=Ptz3SpituEYAFaXU |
| Medicaid asset protection trust pros and cons | https://youtu.be/l760e4EbNqM?si=Ptz3SpituEYAFaXU |
The key difference between a Revocable Trust and an Irrevocable Trust lies in control and flexibility:
Revocable Trust: You can change, amend, or revoke it at any time during your lifetime. You retain control over the assets, but they are still considered part of your estate for tax and Medicaid purposes.
Irrevocable Trust: Once established, it cannot be changed or revoked. You give up control over the assets, which helps protect them from estate taxes and creditors and can qualify you for Medicaid, as the assets are no longer counted as part of your estate.
| Difference between revocable and irrevocable trusts | https://youtu.be/QwFYYZ4w7B4?si=5E8CgsnJpFg-HooI
Estate planning for individuals with dementia is crucial, as cognitive decline affects decision-making abilities. We help families by:
1. Legal Capacity: Ensuring plans are made while the individual can still legally make decisions.
2. Durable Powers of Attorney: Assigning trusted individuals to handle finances and healthcare when the person is no longer capable.
3. Living Wills & Advance Directives: Setting up healthcare directives to guide future medical decisions
4. Guardianships: Assisting families with court petitions if legal documents weren't prepared in advance.
5. Long-term Care & Medicaid Planning: Addressing the high costs of care through Medicaid and asset protection strategies.
This planning provides peace of mind and ensures the person’s wishes are honored.
| Dementia estate planning | https://youtu.be/3rmiVanS2R0?si=LdKBphzvc_dV8edO
Probate is the legal process of administering a deceased person's estate. It involves validating their will, if one exists, and ensuring their assets are distributed according to their wishes or state law if no will is present. Here’s a breakdown of the probate process:
1. Will Validation: If the person left a will, the court first ensures it's valid.
2. Appointing an Executor or Administrator: If there's a will, the executor named in it oversees the estate. If there's no will, the court appoints an administrator.
3. Inventory of Assets: The executor or administrator identifies, collects, and values the deceased’s assets, which may include real estate, bank accounts, and personal belongings.
4. Paying Debts and Taxes: Before distributing assets, any outstanding debts, funeral costs, and taxes must be paid.
5. Distributing the Estate: After debts and taxes are settled, the remaining assets are distributed to beneficiaries according to the will or state law.
Probate can be a lengthy and costly process, but proper estate planning can help avoid or simplify probate.
| What is probate? | https://youtu.be/wDpg3BHNC7E?si=gle6X8T_4lvathDy |
| Probate problems and issues | https://youtu.be/nFNGRn1JkWg?si=2VWk1Tukpk920QrL
Avoiding probate can save your loved ones time, money, and stress. Through strategic estate planning, there are several effective ways to bypass the probate process:
1. Establish a Revocable Living Trust: By transferring your assets into a living trust, you can manage them while you're alive and designate how they’ll be distributed after your passing. Since the trust owns the assets, they don’t go through probate.
2. Joint Ownership: Property held in joint tenancy with the right of survivorship automatically passes to the surviving co-owner without the need for probate.
3. Beneficiary Designations: For assets like life insurance policies, retirement accounts, and payable-on-death bank accounts, you can designate beneficiaries who will receive these assets directly, avoiding probate.
4. Transfer-on-Death (TOD) or Payable-on-Death (POD) Designations: You can designate beneficiaries for certain accounts and real estate with a TOD or POD designation, which transfers the asset upon your death without going through probate.
5. Gifting Assets During Your Lifetime: By gifting property or money while you’re alive, you reduce the size of your estate and avoid having those assets pass through probate.
With proper planning we can ensure your assets are distributed efficiently and in line with your wishes, without the delays and costs of probate.
| How to Avoid probate | https://youtu.be/5Nrc0rXZTls?si=L7Saf865D876lofh
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Setting up an appointment with Estate and Elder Planning, LLC is the most important step you can take to protect your family and ensure your wishes are fulfilled. Whether you’re planning for the future or facing immediate concerns, our team is here to provide guidance and solutions tailored to your unique needs. Reach out today to safeguard your legacy and make your intentions clear.
Don’t leave your family’s future to chance. Schedule an appointment today to secure peace of mind.
