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Five Ways to Make Sure Health Care Wishes are Carried Out

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Maria_144pxEstate planning attorneys have the opportunity to speak to people at all stages of life. Some of the most profound conversations we have are with clients who have serious illnesses or are close to death.  They often have great clarity about life and what is important.  Many of them also have definite thoughts about how they wish to be cared for at the end of their lives, and care deeply that their wishes are heard and carried out.

We all have the right to make our wishes known about the type of end-of-life care we want. Making your wishes known while you are well is important as an accident or an unexpected illness may cause you to lose the ability to express your care preferences. This April marks the 10th anniversary of National Healthcare Decisions Day. Here are five ways you can ensure your care preferences are clearly documented and honored:

  1. Create a Health Care Proxy. If you are over the age of 18, make sure you have signed a Health Care Proxy that designates a person you choose (your Health Care Agent) to make health care decisions for you if you become unable to make or communicate your own health care decisions.  Give your doctor and your Health Care Agent a copy of your Proxy. Then, have a conversation with your Health Care Agent about your feelings about health care and the type of care you would want in certain situations.  See No. 5 below for some resources to get you started.  If you are hospitalized, remember to bring your Health Care Proxy with you to the hospital. This will ensure you are not asked to sign another Proxy that will revoke the Proxy you currently have in place and that may not be as comprehensive.
  1. Assemble a Care Committee. For those who have very definite ideas about where and how they wish to be cared for, consider assembling a Care Committee to ensure your care wishes will be carried out, particularly if you have a chronic illness.  This group may consist of your Health Care Agent, a professional care manager, your attorney, your physician, the person you have named to make financial decisions for you if you are incapacitated, and perhaps your financial advisor.  Choose the participants, have discussions with them about your care preferences, and develop a plan that is financially realistic. Have a discussion with your Care Committee periodically to modify the plan as your needs and wishes change.  Think of your Care Committee as a team that can help your Health Care Agent carry out your wishes as necessary.
  1. Sign a Living Will. There are many advance directives that can be used by clients to express care preferences. A Living Will typically expresses a general preference that no extraordinary measures be used at the end of life.  In Massachusetts, Living Wills are not legally binding, and your physicians will not act based upon your Living Will (only at the direction of your Health Care Agent).  However, a Living Will can serve as evidence of your wishes that will guide your Health Care Agent in making decisions about end-of-life care.
  1. Advance Medical Directives. A Medical Directive can be used to express care preferences in specific medical situations.   Do Not Resuscitate or Do Not Intubate orders are medical orders that a doctor will put in place at a patient or Health Care Agent’s direction in appropriate circumstances.  In Massachusetts, a MOLST (Medical Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment) form is a useful document created by patient and doctor together that includes medical orders for care preferences, including resuscitation, ventilation, intubation, dialysis, artificial nutrition and hydration, and whether or not you should be transferred to a hospital.  This initiative is known as POLST (Physician Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment) on a national level.
  1. Use the Available Tools. There are many Massachusetts and national organizations working to increase awareness of the value of advance care planning and to encourage people to express their care preferences.  The Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care and related organizations have designated April as Massachusetts Healthcare Decisions Month, and has tools and resources on its website. Honoring Choices is another Massachusetts organization bringing information about health care decision-making and outreach to many local communities, as well as helping people to create a Health Care Proxy and express their health care preferences.  The Conversation Project  is dedicated to making it easier for people to talk about their wishes for end-of-life care.  Both Honoring Choices and The Conversation Project have starter kits on their websites that make it easy to get started.

As part of Healthcare Decisions Month, several Boston-area organizations will also be hosting Before I Die,  a global public art project that invites people to share their personal aspirations in public, reflect on what’s most important to them in life and how they contemplate death.  Use whatever tool or inspiration works for you, and find a way to express your wishes about end-of-life care to the people who will make those decisions for you.

April 2017

© 2017 Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC

Your Real Estate and Owner’s Title Insurance

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Abby_144pxThe most valuable asset many clients own is their primary residence and/or vacation home. One “tool” in the estate planner’s toolbox to effectively avoid the time-consuming and expensive probate process at an owner’s death is to transfer or “convey” real estate into a Trust. However, such a conveyance should be completed with caution to ensure that you are protected in the event a problem with the property’s title is encountered in the future.

One form of protection is title insurance. Title insurance provides coverage in the event title defects, such as a fraudulent conveyance or an unknown easement or lien, are discovered after you have purchased your property.  These title defects typically come to light when you are in the process of selling or refinancing the property.  If you obtained a mortgage when you purchased your property, it is likely that “lender’s title insurance” was purchased at the time on behalf of the mortgage company.  As the buyer of the property you had the option to purchase “owner’s title insurance.”  Owner’s title insurance is purchased by paying a one-time premium as part of the closing costs.  If purchased, you should have received an owner’s title insurance policy.  The purpose of title insurance is to provide you, as opposed to the mortgage company, with financial coverage if title defects are later discovered.

Some detective work on your part may be necessary to determine if: (1) you obtained owner’s title insurance when you purchased your property, and (2) if your coverage will continue after the property is conveyed into Trust, depending on the terms of the policy.

If you have an owner’s title insurance policy, the company should be contacted to confirm in writing that coverage will continue upon conveyance.  If coverage will not continue under the terms of the policy, an endorsement (or amendment) to the policy should be obtained that will add the Trust to which the property is being conveyed as an additional “insured” on the title policy, thereby continuing the title insurance coverage after the conveyance. Title insurance companies sometimes charge fees of $100-$300 to issue an endorsement to the policy.

Be sure to take the time to determine if you have owner’s title insurance, and if your coverage will continue prior to conveying your property into Trust – it will be well worth the time and effort involved. Ensuring your coverage will not be inadvertently terminated will save you, the Trustee of your Trust, or the Personal Representative of your estate significant aggravation and expense when the property is sold in the future in the event a title defect is discovered.

March 2017

© 2017 Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC

Five Facts to Know about Life Estates

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Sue_144pxUsing a life estate deed as a way to protect real estate from long-term care costs has been a common planning technique for decades.  A life estate deed typically works like this:  parents sign a deed transferring their home to their children for nominal consideration (i.e. $1.00).  The deed includes a provision stating that the parents “retain the right to use and occupy the property during their lifetimes,” a so-called “life estate” in the property. Upon the death of the parents, the life estate ceases to exist and the children own the property free and clear of any lien for long-term care costs.

There are some downsides to using a life estate deed which can be eliminated if the parent conveys the property to an irrevocable trust.  This has made irrevocable trust planning very popular in the last several years.  However, the recent attacks on the use of irrevocable trusts by MassHealth, the agency that administers the Medicaid program in Massachusetts, have caused elder law attorneys to revisit the use of the simple life estate deed.

Here are five consequences to be aware of when considering the transfer of your real estate with a retained life estate.

  1. Five-year ineligibility period: The transfer is a gift under the Medicaid (MassHealth) rules and the parents will be ineligible for Medicaid benefits to pay for their long-term nursing home care costs for five years following the transfer.  Under the current Medicaid rules, once the five-year ineligibility period has passed, the parents would be eligible for Medicaid benefits to pay for the cost of their care, assuming they otherwise meet the eligibility criteria.
  1. The property will be subject to a lien for the life estate Medicaid benefits. It is important to understand that if the parent receives Medicaid benefits, whether in a nursing home or in the community, the Commonwealth will place a lien against the parent’s property.  However, if the parent owns a life estate in the property, the Medicaid rules prevent the state from forcing the parent/life estate holder to sell the property during the parent’s lifetime.  Upon the death of a Medicaid beneficiary, the state can collect the amount it paid out on behalf of the person from his probate estate.  A person’s probate estate consists of assets in his individual name.  Because the retained life estate disappears upon the death of the parent, it is not a probate asset and therefore the state cannot enforce its lien against the property under current law. It is important to understand that if the property is sold during the parent’s lifetime, the lien will have to be satisfied from the parent’s share of the sale proceeds.
  1. Children’s creditors. If you transfer your home to your children, they will be the owners of the property even if you retain a life estate. That means your children’s creditors may be able to place a lien against your home for your children’s debts.  However, when the parents have retained a life estate, the creditors of a child cannot force the sale of the property to satisfy a child’s debt.  That is because a child’s creditors are not in any better position than the child.  Since the child could not sell the property and force the parents out of the property, neither could a child’s creditor.  The creditor will have to wait to enforce its claim until after the parents die.  Having said that, parents need to know that a recent bankruptcy case resulted in the court ordering the sale of property owned by the debtor child, in which the still-living parent had a life estate.  When the house was sold, the father received his share of the proceeds.  However, since the value of a life estate is calculated based on the life expectancy of the life estate holder at the time of the sale, the value of the parent’s life estate decreases with every birthday.  The end result of this case was that dad received a little bit of money when the house was sold, but had no place to live.
  1. Stepped up basis/estate tax inclusion. A big advantage of retaining a life estate in property that is transferred:  The full value of the property is taxable in the estate of the life estate holder at death for estate tax purposes.  While it may seem counterintuitive to want assets to be included in the taxable estate, for Massachusetts estates valued at $1 million or less, this is actually a benefit.  Under current law, assets that are included in a taxable estate receive a “stepped-up” basis at the owner’s death equal to the fair market value of the asset.  For example, if I bought my house for $50,000 many years ago and it is now worth $300,000, upon the sale of the house during my lifetime there would be capital gain of $250,000 ($300,000 – $50,000).  I would not have to pay any capital gain tax because there is a rule in the tax law that allows a person who has owned and occupied a home for two out of the five years preceding the sale to exclude $250,000 of capital gain on the sale.  If I gave my house to my children outright, without retaining a life estate, when my children sell the property they will be have to pay capital gain tax on $250,000 because the home is not their primary residence.  But, if I retain a life estate in my home when I transfer it to my children, my house will be included in my taxable estate at my death and my children’s tax basis in the property will be the then current fair market value of the property.  So if the property is worth $300,000 at my death, and my children sell it for $300,000, there will not be any gain, so no tax will be due.  In this example, that means about $50,000 of tax savings.
  1. Capital gain exclusion on sale of primary residence. As a general rule, you should not transfer your home to your children if you are planning on selling the property.  However, times change and sometimes property that was transferred to children needs to be sold during the parents’ lifetimes.  It is important to understand that if this happens, there may be capital gain tax on the sale that would have been avoided if no transfer of the property to the children had been made.  That is because the tax laws permit an individual to exclude up to $250,000 of capital gain on the sale of her primary residence, provided she has owned and occupied the property for two out of the five years preceding the sale.  For a married couple, the exclusion is $500,000.  However, if your children own an interest in your home and if they do not occupy the home as their principal residence, they will not be able to exclude the gain on their portion of the sale.

Another consequence to be aware of is that if the property is sold during the parent’s lifetime, the parent will be entitled to some (not all) of the proceeds.  This is not necessarily a bad result, but if the parent is in a nursing home or about to go into a nursing home when the property is sold, a portion of the sale proceeds will be countable assets of the parent.  The value of the parent’s life estate interest is calculated based on the age of the life estate holder and an interest rate mandated by the IRS.   For example, in March 2017 the current value of a life estate held by a parent who is 80 years old is about 17.4% of the value of the property.  If the property is sold for $400,000, the parent will receive 17.4% of the proceeds, or $69,600.  If the parent is residing in a nursing home with Medicaid paying for the cost of care, then the receipt of $69,600 from the sale of his former home will cause him to become ineligible for Medicaid until those proceeds are spent down.

While transferring property with a retained life estate can be an excellent long-term care planning tool, there are significant consequences that property owners should understand before undertaking this planning.  If you are wondering whether this type of planning would be good for your family, consult with an experienced elder law attorney to make sure you do not end up facing one or more unexpected outcomes.

Attorney Suzanne R. Sayward is certified as an Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation.  She is a partner with the Dedham firm of Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC.  This article is not intended to provide legal advice or create or imply an attorney-client relationship. No information contained herein is a substitute for a personal consultation with an attorney. For more information visit www.ssbllc.com or call 781/461-1020. 

March 2017

© 2017 Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC

SSB Partners with Honoring Choices

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Samuel, Sayward & Baler recently joined with Honoring Choices as a Community Partner. The mission of Honoring Choices is to help individuals make their health care wishes known and to ensure those wishes are carried out.  As a Community Partner, SSB will help adults in our area make their health care wishes known through the creation of Health Care Proxies and medical directives, and by creating Durable Powers of Attorney that will enable a trusted individual to handle their financial affairs if they are unable to act for themselves.  We look forward to working with Honoring Choices and their other Community Partners in this endeavor.

March 2017

© 2017 Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC

We Get Around

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Our attorneys have been out and about in the community, speaking about the importance of estate planning and continuing our education series on matters related to our practice areas.

In November, all of our attorneys attended the Massachusetts Bar Association’s day-long Probate Law Conference, which is always an informative event.  This year’s highlights included the Probate Court’s move toward electronic filing of probate documents and further clarification of the best way to ensure clear title to real estate passing through the probate estate.  Additionally, Attorney Greenfield chaired the annual Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education Program, “The MassHealth Process from Application to Approval,” in Boston.

In December, Attorney Baler gave a presentation on Powers of Attorney at the Westwood Senior Center in conjunction with our new community partner, the Honoring Choices program (see separate article on this program).  Attorney Greenfield testified at a public hearing in Worcester regarding changes to proposed MassHealth regulations (see article on proposed changes).

February 2017

© 2017 Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC

MassHealth Update

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2017 started off with a bang in the MassHealth world!  The end of 2016 brought with it some unexpected proposed MassHealth regulation changes which forced elder law attorneys across the state to scurry like mad before the holidays to review and comment on the new regulations which were originally set to take effect on February 1, 2017 but still have not been officially implemented.  Some of the most impactful changes are the proposed elimination of pooled trusts for nursing home MassHealth applicants over the age of 65, and no longer permitting MassHealth applicants to fund supplemental needs trusts for non-child beneficiaries.  While the written comments prepared by MassNAELA members as well as the testimonies of 15 lawyers at a public hearing in Worcester in mid-December may prove helpful in convincing MassHealth to reconsider some of the changes, we expect that many of the proposed regulations will take effect soon.

On January 5, 2017, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) heard oral argument on two pending irrevocable income only trust cases.  We should finally receive some clarity on the future of these trusts for MassHealth planning this spring.  Stay tuned for updates in this ever-changing area of the law!

February 2017

© 2017 Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC

Employer Sponsored Retirement Plans: What You Need to Know

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While many employers offer retirement accounts as an employee benefit — even those that offer generous matching contributions — many do not offer adequate education on how to choose among the investments offered in the retirement plan. If you have engaged a financial professional to advise you, make sure that their advice about your overall investment strategy incorporates the money in your (and your spouse’s) retirement accounts.  If you don’t have a financial advisor and don’t have the time to educate yourself about investments, Target Date Funds (TDFs) may be a reasonable alternative if you do a bit of research yourself.  Here are the basics of what you need to know:

Employer Sponsored Retirement Account Basics

If you are employed and eligible to contribute to your employer sponsored retirement plan, congratulations!  Your employer is giving you the opportunity to contribute much more than the IRS maximum allowable contribution amount for Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA). Maximum contribution to a company retirement account in 2017 is $18,000 ($6,000 more if you are over 50 years old) compared with $6,500 to an IRA.  And, your employer may match some of your contribution.  That’s free money and worth a conversation with your employer to find out if you are eligible to contribute, as well as determine if you are taking full advantage of this opportunity.

Contributing to an employer sponsored retirement plan also requires choosing among the several investments offered by most plans. Investment choices are typically mutual funds and there may be many dozens from which to choose. Unless you are an experienced investor or have help from someone who is, deciding what funds to invest in and when to make changes bewilders most employees.  If your employer offers employee education, it will be time well spent; and, if you are an employee who has a financial advisor, make sure to ask for help with retirement plan investments — something many advisors overlook.  If none of these options apply to you, consider TDFs.

Target Date Funds

TDFs automatically spread an employee’s contribution among a mix of mutual funds that hold stocks, bonds and cash in proportions targeting a specific year of retirement.  About ten years ago, the U.S. Department of Labor began allowing the use of TDFs in retirement accounts.  TDFs alter the mix of stocks, bonds and cash, by reducing the percentage held in stocks and shifting the allocation toward more conservative investments the closer you are to retirement.

TDFs aren’t managed by the investor, who may make panicked decisions during turbulent markets that they may later regret.  But, not all TDFs are alike.  Before investing in a TDF, it is important to understand how it invests and adjusts its mix of stock, bonds and cash over time as well as what the TDF costs.

TDF Glide Path, Costs and Other Investments

Glide path is the name TDFs give to the timing of changes in the mix of investments as the years pass toward the targeted retirement, analogous to an airplane moving through take off and voyage to landing.  Some TDFs have a glide path that move entirely to cash at the target date, others continue to hold a significant amount of stock through the early retirement years or even through the entire retirement. Because the percentage of stock in an account is a major factor in how an account will perform during market up and down times, it is important to know and be comfortable with a TDF glide path before investing in it.

Some employees have not only an employer sponsored retirement account, but also a spouse’s employer retirement account and perhaps other investment accounts.  If you choose a TDF, check whether its mix of stocks, bonds and cash is consistent with the investment strategy in your other accounts.

Investing in a TDF costs more than putting money in individual mutual fund choices offered through an employer sponsored retirement plan.  TDFs offer the additional service of choosing the funds and adjusting the stocks, bonds and cash mix, so some additional charge is justifiable. However, some TDFs add more than 1 percent per year to the other costs of the retirement plan and can be a major drag on performance.

As always, when you have questions about important financial matters, consult your trusted financial advisor.

Investments in target date funds are subject to the risks of their underlying holdings. The year in the fund name refers to the approximate year (the target date) when an investor in the fund would retire and leave the workforce. The fund will gradually shift its emphasis from more aggressive investments to more conservative investments based on its respective target date. The performance of an investment in a target date fund is not guaranteed at any time, including on or after the target date, and investors may incur a loss. Target date and target retirement funds are based on an estimated retirement age of approximately 65.  Investors who choose to retire earlier or later than the target date may wish to consider a fund with an asset allocation more appropriate to their time horizon and risk tolerance.

Samuel Financial LLC is located at 858 Washington Street, Dedham, MA 02026 and can be reached at 781.461.6886.  Securities and advisory services offered through Commonwealth Financial Network, member FINRA/SIPC, a registered investment adviser.  

Options to Protect the Primary Residence from Long-Term Care Costs

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Pam_144pxIf you are following along with the irrevocable trust saga, you know that on January 5, 2017, the Supreme Judicial Court heard oral argument on two irrevocable income only trusts where the MassHealth applicant placed his or her primary residence into the trust prior to applying for nursing home benefits.  It was incredible to watch the attorneys argue their opposing sides before the panel of elite judges at One Pemberton Square.  One of my clients lovingly called the hearing “the Superbowl of Elder Law” (but I think he was making fun of me).  With the fate of irrevocable trusts literally hanging in the balance, what other options do we as elder law attorneys have to advise our clients on how to protect their primary residence from the placement and collection of a MassHealth lien?  Since the home is often our clients’ most valuable asset, preserving the home from a MassHealth lien often feels like the million dollar question.  Here are some options:

  1. Consider purchasing long-term care insurance before it’s too late and too expensive. Under the MassHealth regulations, a policy which meets minimum requirements of $125/ day of nursing home care coverage for a period of two years will prohibit MassHealth from placing a lien on the applicant’s non-countable Massachusetts primary residence.  An added benefit—often these policies are absolutely crucial in allowing seniors to age in place with private-duty home care services or pay for assisted living care where there are minimal public benefits available.
  2. Consider the pros and cons of a life estate deed. The actual concept of a life estate deed is simple to explain and even simpler to execute, however the devil lies in the details which is why it is critical to be fully versed in all of the ramifications of executing a deed with a retained life estate before giving away a substantial interest in your most important asset.  In a typical life estate deed arrangement, the grantor-parent transfers the property to the children but reserves the right to reside in the property for his or her lifetime.  MassHealth may still place a lien on the home should the life tenant ever apply for MassHealth benefits, however, MassHealth releases its claim at the death of the parent and the lien is extinguished.  The end result is that the property passes to the children without any encumbrance or need to go through probate.  However, some unintended consequences of life estate deeds may include capital gains tax issues, difficulty in mortgaging/refinancing the property, creditor claims and even uncooperative or self-interested children (and spouses of children).  While life estate deeds may seem like a terrific substitute for irrevocable income only trusts, there are many issues to consider before jumping into this option.
  3. Consider an outright transfer of the property. Sometimes a simple “get all of the assets out of mom’s name and into the kids’ name” approach seems tempting.  However, this is usually not the best strategy for our clients.  The above-mentioned issues with life estate deeds are present here in an even worse way.  There are capital gains tax consequences, potential creditor issues, and of course, the ever present evil child syndrome.  But perhaps the most important concern is more of an intangible one—financial independence and autonomy of our clients.  It is important to remember that actions taken to “protect the primary residence” do not benefit the parent directly.  Such actions allow parents to take some comfort in knowing that if they ever need nursing home care something has been done to increase the chance that some inheritance will pass to their children.  However, our focus had always been on helping our clients achieve their most important goals which often means staying in their homes. With many more options for care coming to the marketplace each day—most of which are not covered by MassHealth—giving away assets to achieve Medicaid eligibility to pay for long-term care is often not in keeping with the goal of remaining at home.  Don’t get me wrong, as elder law attorneys, it pains us to see elders spend their life savings on nursing home care when there were viable options for preserving assets.  However, giving away assets to achieve future Medicaid eligibility is sometimes contrary to our clients’ goals for themselves and we focus first on those goals before recommending a plan that deprives our clients of their interest in the primary residence.

If you have specific questions about protecting your home from long-term care costs, please call me at 781/461-1020.

February 2017

© 2017 Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC

Five Reasons to Call an Estate Planning Attorney

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Maria_144pxEstate planning attorneys work with clients every day to ensure their wishes are carried out in the event of illness or death. While it’s not pleasant to think about, planning ahead will make it easier for your loved ones during difficult times. An estate planning attorney can help you create documents (such as a Will and/or Trust) that provide instructions about distribution of your assets at death, minimize probate expenses and estate taxes, name guardians for minor children, and manage inherited assets for your beneficiaries. An estate planning attorney can also help you plan for incapacity by creating powers of attorney and health care documents that allow individuals you choose to make financial and health care decisions on your behalf.

Some estate planning firms advise clients on elder law matters — how to plan for long-term care (both pre-planning and addressing a crisis situation when the need for care is imminent), how to pay for that care (including whether you are eligible for public benefits such as Medicaid benefits), and whether advance planning is appropriate.

Here are five reasons you should call an estate planning attorney.

  1. You are a parent. If you are the parent of a minor child (defined as under the age of 18 in Massachusetts) you should have a Will that names a legal guardian for your child. Parents of minor children and young adults should also consider creating a Trust that will hold and manage assets for your child’s benefit, to ensure your child does not receive control of inherited assets at age 18, and to designate a trusted individual to manage those assets for your child until your child reaches an age that you deem is appropriate. If an adult child has substance abuse, gambling, or creditor problems, or is in a bad marriage, it may be appropriate to hold assets in trust to protect the assets and ensure they will be available for the child’s benefit in the future.
  1. You (or your spouse) receive a serious medical diagnosis. If you have a serious illness, sitting down with your estate planning attorney may not be at the top of your list. However, it is important to plan while you are competent to make decisions about your future. If you or your spouse need long-term care or anticipate the need for care in the future because of physical or mental decline, an estate planning attorney with knowledge of elder law can advise you about  estate plan documents you should have in place and about your options for care and payment.  Make it a priority to become educated about your options and work with an attorney to make a plan for the future.
  1. You are getting married or divorced. Marriage and divorce both impact your existing estate plan and necessitate changes to your documents. If you do not have an estate plan in place, these events provide a good reason to plan. An attorney can also help you review asset ownership and beneficiary designations to ensure a new (or ex-) spouse is provided for (or not) as appropriate. Prior to marriage, an estate planning attorney will help you determine whether a prenuptial agreement is appropriate. These agreements can protect assets owned prior to marriage (such as an interest in a family business or vacation home) or assets that are inherited during the marriage in the event of death or divorce.  Prenuptial agreements are also important in second marriages to protect assets for children from a prior marriage.
  1. You have a spouse, child, grandchild or other beneficiary who has a disability. If you wish to leave assets to a disabled individual you need to take special care with your estate plan documents. Leaving an inheritance to a disabled beneficiary may cause a loss of benefits, including medical benefits. Leaving an inheritance in a properly drafted Trust can preserve eligibility for benefits and protect assets for the benefit of the disabled beneficiary.
  1. You have not reviewed your plan in a while. If you have a Will, Trust or other estate plan documents, it is important to keep your plan current. If it has been more than five years since you have met with an attorney to review your plan, take the time to do so. A few simple amendments to your documents may be all you need to bring your plan up to date. Even if more significant changes are needed, make those changes to ensure your plan will work as you intend, save time and expense, and minimize taxes — both for your benefit and for the beneficiaries of your estate.

You can find more information about these topics, including many articles on estate planning and elder law at www.ssbllc.com.

Attorney Maria Baler is an estate planning and elder law attorney and a partner with the Dedham law firm of Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC. She is also a former director of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (MassNAELA). For more information, visit www.ssbllc.com or call (781) 461-1020. This article is not intended to provide legal advice or create or imply an attorney-client relationship. No information contained herein is a substitute for a personal consultation with an attorney.

February 2017

© 2017 Samuel, Sayward & Baler LLC

Wills • Trusts • Elder Law • Long-Term Care Planning • Estates

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