Trust Roles Easily Explained: Grantor, Trustee, and Beneficiary
Trust Roles Explained Easily: Whether you're setting up a trust or are currently an interested party in a an existing trust, understanding who does what is essential.
Gifting Your House with a Life Estate vs. Medicaid Trust
I recently published an article called “Don’t Gift Your House To Your Children” which highlighted the pitfalls of gifting your house to your kids versus setting up a Medicaid Trust to own your house, as an asset protection strategy to manage the risk of a long-care care event taking place in the future. That article prompted a few estate attorneys to reach out to me to present a third option which involves gifting your house to your children with a life estate. While the life estate does solve some of the tax issues of gifting the house to your kids with no life estate, there are still issues that persist even with a life estate that can be solved by setting up a Medicaid trust to own your house.
A CFP® Explains: Wills, Health Proxy, Power of Attorney, & Trusts
When we are constructing financial plans for clients, we inevitably get to the estate planning portion of the plan, and ask them “Do you have updated wills, a health proxy, and a power of attorney in place?
Should You Put Your House In A Trust?
When you say the word “trust” many people think that trusts are only used by the uber rich to protect their millions of dollars but that is very far from the truth. Yes, extremely wealthy families do use trusts to reduce the size of their estate but there are also a lot of very good reasons why it makes sense for an average individual or family to establish
The Medicaid Spend Down Process In New York
You are most likely reading this article because you had a family member that had a health event and the doctors have informed you that they are not allowed to go back home to their house and will need some form of health assistance going forward. This article was written to help you understand from a high level the steps that you may need to take to
How Are Trustee Commissions Calculated & Taxed?
If you are the trustee of a trust, in most cases, you are allowed to be paid a commission from the trust assets. States have different rules with regard to the trustee commission calculation. This article will assist you in understanding how the commission is calculated, how the payments are taxed, the rules for commissions not taken in past years, and how
Do Trusts Expire?
Do trusts have an expiration date after the death of the grantor? For most states, the answer is “Yes”. New York is one of those states that have adopted “The Rule Against Perpetuities” which requires all of the assets to be distributed from the trust by a specified date.
