You are over 70 and have been on Medicare for a few years, you may ask yourself what else would you need. You probably want to control who makes the health, financial, and asset distribution decisions and the types of decisions that are made if you become incapacitated or die. Planning for when something happens, and not if something happens, can save your loved ones a lot of heartache during a difficult time. Now is the time to make sure you have an elder law-based estate plan to protect yourself, your loved ones, and your hard-earned assets. Additionally, you should be planning in case you need Medi-Cal assistance to cover the costs of in home and long-term skilled nursing care should you need it.
Taking care of your planning at this stage of your life is the best gift you can give yourself and your loved ones.
You may be just starting to see what comes with age by experiencing it and seeing others around your age going through it. If you haven’t thought about planning for the future, you certainly don’t want to do it when you may not be as clear headed to make good decisions about your future and your health. You may want to consider what will happen to your family and what burdens your incapacity or death may place on them. Now is really the time to get your affairs in order, so you don’t put your family through the expense of costly nursing home care or a lengthy probate. Breunig Law can easily guide you through the process of estate planning based on your unique financial situation, gifting goals, and protecting your assets in case of long-term care needs.
There are several options for the type of trust you will want to put into place for your estate plan. It will depend on a number of financial factors, and goals.
Revocable Living Trust – With a revocable trust you will continue managing your assets over your lifetime making changes as needed, but your assets will be held in your trust. The beauty of this is that when you pass your assets will pass to your beneficiaries without the need to involve the court with a probate. It will be much faster to distribute assets and preserve dollars for your beneficiaries.
Asset Protection Trust – While there are many different types of trusts based on your unique needs, the asset protection trust cannot be altered during your lifetime. This type of trust is used when there are a variety of objectives, such as providing for a loved one with special needs, long-term care planning to qualify for Medi-Cal covered skilled nursing and in home health care service, charitable giving, reduction or elimination of federal estate taxes, and asset protection from the creditors and predators of you and your loved ones
Breunig Law provides compassionate, skilled, and experienced services you can trust.We will deliver counseling, drafting, and execution of a well-thought-out estate plan that will protect your assets and support your families’ unique needs.This will save you and your family money and the stress of probate. We explain these things in plain language and answer all your questions prior to drafting your unique estate plan.
Together we can prepare a plan that works for you and your loved ones. Contact us today for a consultation at 916-672-2042 or info@breuniglaw.com.