Estate Planning Blog

Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts (MAPTs) are a strategic way to qualify for Medicaid benefits and to preserve your assets. This blog explores how MAPTs work and their benefits.

Plan your asset transfers and tax-free gifting before December 31, 2025, to take advantage of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act's higher exemption amounts. Most of the TCJA's tax-related provisions will revert to the provisions in place before the TCJA was enacted.

Estate planning is more than writing a will; it’s a plan to manage and distribute assets to your dependents. It documents your healthcare preferences, so a loved one decides on medical care according to your wishes. The National Council on Aging (NCOA) Adviser’s article, “Estate Planning Guide and Checklist for 2024,” offers a comprehensive overview of what to consider when planning your estate. This blog post distills the key points from the article and provides an actionable checklist for 2024. Understanding Estate Planning Estate planning organizes your affairs to fulfill your wishes after you pass away. It encompasses decisions about…

For years, practitioners have freely used irrevocable trust decantings as a means to make various changes to irrevocable trusts without concern of giving rise to gift tax consequences.

The Social Security Administration will introduce six major changes to benefits in 2024 that will impact seniors receiving Social Security retirement benefits. Working with an elder law attorney allows retirees to navigate these adjustments and take advantage of strategies to protect assets.

Explore the benefits and challenges of co-owning a vacation home, and how an estate planning attorney can help prevent potential disputes.

Learn from a teen's loss of a $250K inheritance and discover how inheritance trusts can protect and guide your family's future financial decisions.

Estate planning for singles: make a will, draft a durable power-of-attorney, name an attorney-in-fact, and a health care proxy.

There are many people who know estate planning quite well but draw blanks when issues about gift tax returns are raised.

The speakers touched on the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement (SECURE) Act of 2019, including the provision that a designated beneficiary must distribute the entire inherited IRA by Dec. 31 of the 10th year after the employee’s or IRA owner’s death (the 10-year rule), thus doing away with the stretch IRA for most beneficiaries.