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An IRA may not be transferred to a trust without causing the whole IRA to be taxed. The “I” in IRA stands for “individual” — it must be owned by a single person. In practice, there is no need to transfer an IRA to a trust since IRA’s avoid probate…
One of the most common and devastating misconceptions about elder law estate planning is that it is too late to save money from nursing home costs. On the contrary, there are crisis planning tools that may save substantial assets from being spent on nursing home costs, even after the client…
In the fall of 1990, some thirty-four years ago, your writer first heard of the proposition that if you set up a living trust your estate doesn’t have to go to court to settle – the so-called probate court proceeding for wills. Having spent the previous eleven years as a…
“Protecting Your Future” has been Ettinger Law Firm’s slogan since we began in 1991. These words have deep meaning to us and our clients. Following are the eight ways an Ettinger Elder Law Estate Plan protects your future: Makes sure your assets go to whom you want, when you want…
In second marriage planning, a co-trustee is sometimes recommended on the death of the first spouse. While both spouses are living and competent they run their trust or trusts together. But when one spouse dies, what prevents the other spouse from diverting all of the assets to their own children?…
Subtitled “Getting Older Without Getting Old” this new book starts with the premise “…imagine bringing a whole lifetime of knowledge, experience, skills, talent, relationships, wisdom (and, let’s face it, money) to two or three more decades ahead of you in which to leverage all those assets into an ongoing wonderful…
Clients often ask whether the home should be deeded to the client’s adult children, while retaining a life estate in the parent or whether the Medicaid Asset Protection Trust should be used to protect the asset. While the deed with a life estate will be less costly to the client,…
Spousal refusal is a legally valid Medicaid planning option in New York. By way of background, certain income and assets are exempt from Medicaid if there is a spouse. Generally, the spouse at home, known as the “community spouse” may keep about $3,950 per month of the couple’s combined income…
For health care decision-making, when a doctor determines you are unable to make medical decisions for yourself, New York has the Health Care Proxy. The proxy, or agent, may make any medical decision for you except one – they cannot withdraw life sustaining measures, such as feeding tubes or a…
A client came in to see us for their follow-up consultation. The client shared that, in between their two meetings with us, the husband‘s brother had suffered a stroke and was now in a rehabilitation facility. He was a bachelor. He had no power of attorney or health care proxy. …