Various surveys indicate that more than 40 percent of Americans over age 55 ― and half of Americans with children ― don’t have a will. Following are five common reasons people give for their delays, and why they are poor excuses for not organizing an estate: I’m not wealthy enough to need a will. An [...]
Revocable living trusts, also known as inter-vivos trusts, are prepared for individuals and couples with sufficient property to alleviate the burdens and expenses of the probate process, and who wish that information about their assets and testamentary wishes be kept private. Like all legal documents, there are certain elements that a revocable living trust must [...]
What are the current Medicaid eligibility requirements? Medicaid currently covers all those whose modified adjusted gross income is up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level ― this will increase to 138 percent in 2014 for states like New York that have opted into the Medicaid expansion program. For our elder law clients, there [...]
Javier Castro’s last will and testament, drafted at his deathbed on his brother’s Samsung Galaxy tablet, was recently found valid by an Ohio court. The electronic will was signed and witnessed with a stylus, and this was sufficient to meet the requirements under Ohio law, which states only that a will be a written document [...]
A recent study shows that in 2011, 5.1 percent of American children between the ages of 5 and 15 were identified as disabled. That amounts to more than 2.3 million children with special needs. The study also shows that only 20.7 percent of working-age adults with disabilities had a full-time job that year, compared to [...]
The unlimited marital deduction allows a person to transfer any amount of funds to a spouse free from tax. However, if your spouse is not a U.S. citizen, your estate cannot use this marital deduction without a Qualified Domestic Trust (QDOT). QDOTs were designed to stop noncitizen surviving spouses from leaving the country with a [...]
When it comes to estate planning, one size doesn’t fit all, especially if your spouse is not a U.S. citizen. This is the first of two blog posts focusing on what you need to be aware of if your spouse is a noncitizen. If your estate is below the federal estate tax exclusion threshold ($5,250,000 [...]
George Steinbrenner had great timing. He was born on the Fourth of July and died in 2010, a year that there was no estate tax in the country. If Steinbrenner had died in 2009 when the estate tax threshold was $3.5 million and the rate 45 percent, the billionaire’s heirs would have had to pay [...]
You may be struggling to pay your mortgage and may not remember the last time you could afford a nice vacation without realizing that, according to the government, you’re a millionaire. Most people are surprised by the value of their gross estate. Although the amount that is exempt from federal estate taxes is currently $5,250,000 [...]
Managed long-term care services in New York are available for those over the age of 65 and younger people with disabilities or chronic illnesses who do not have sufficient income to pay for the care they need. All of these plans accept Medicaid. There are three types of managed long-term-care service plans in New York. [...]