Trusts can undermine Medicaid eligibility even if they accomplish other goals
A “Trust” is an estate-planning structure that has many different uses and purposes. Fundamentally, to be valid, there needs to be (a) a Trustee — the manager, who is not the owner of the assets; (b) a Beneficiary – the party that the trustee can spend assets on, who is not the owner of the assets, (c) terms and conditions – usually contained in a legal document...
Trust Reformation? What’s that?
Trusts are prepared with an eye toward longevity. A trust is designed to protect assets for benefit of a beneficiary, both now and for the future. The Trust will specify who will manage it now (the Trustee) and will typically contain a list of successor trustees who can step in later if necessary, and a mechanism for someone to appoint a successor Trustee if there ever is an unfilled vacancy....
What’s a Trust? and Who’s who?
Oftentimes, a client will come to talk to me and say “I want to put my assets into a trust.” My question of course is, What are you trying to accomplish? Who suggested it?What do you think a trust is?” Sometimes the answer is, “so my assets don’t get spent on a nursing home.” Often the client says,”I don’t want my assets to be spent on a...