CLIENT QUESTION: My wife and I established a Medicaid Trust with you about 3 1/2 years ago. The only asset in the trust is our house. The only other major assets we own are our IRAs. We have each named the other as Primary Beneficiary and our children, per stirpes, …

CLIENT QUESTION: Your firm created an irrevocable family trust for me 3 years ago to protect my assets from Medicaid.  Do I have to file a Form 1041? The trust is under my social security number and it did have taxable income from investments. I was told that I didn’t have …

Here’s an article from the SNA (Special Needs Alliance) which is a National Alliance of Disability Lawyers. I’m a founding member and from time to time I like to share their information with all of you. This one is very timely considering that it’s tax season right now. The primary …

CLIENT QUESTION: After spending time in the hospital, my wife was sent to a nursing home for therapy where she suffered a stroke. I don’t know if she will be able to return home. There may be a time that I have to evaluate her assets. Over 20 years ago …

Here’s an article from the SNA (Special Needs Alliance) which is a National Alliance of Disability Lawyers. I’m a founding member and from time to time I like to share their information with all of you. This one is very timely and offers some good advice. This post was authored …

CLIENT QUESTION: I have an irrevocable trust. My husband recently passed away. My house is the only asset in the trust. Can you give me any info on capital gains on my home when I pass? Thanks for all your wonderful emails. MY RESPONSE: This is an excellent question and one …

In one of my recent LISTEN TO LAWRENCE emails, I talked about the fact that a surviving spouse is entitled to their spouse’s car if they only had one car and the value is not more than $25,000. I mentioned that all you have to do is go down to the DMV for …

Dear Clients and Friends, NEWS ALERT! THANK YOU, COVID! GOOD COVID NEWS (SORTA): POSTPONEMENT OF THE COMMUNITY MEDICAID LOOK-BACK I have some new legal news that I wanted to get to you right away. Through my contacts at the New York State Bar Association, I have learned that the implementation of the …

From time to time, I get a request for an interview and most articles usually focus on Elder Law or Estate Planning in general, but this time, I was asked a specific question that I answered in understandable terms and I’d like to share it with all of you. The …

QUESTION: My wife recently died.  Practically all of our assets were joint or I was named the designated beneficiary, so I figured that we avoided probate.  However, her car was in her name alone.  Do I have to probate her will over her car? MY RESPONSE: The answer may depend on whether the …

I am writing this entry to LISTEN TO LAWRENCE on Monday, February 15th, 2021.  Today is Presidents’ Day.   Since I am in a holiday mood, I am writing this while sipping a glass of Long Island red wine from the McCalls Winery in Cutchogue on the North Fork, specifically their top-notch Bordeaux blend, Ben’s …

LISTEN TO LAWRENCE My last article about Roth IRAs prompted another follow-up question that I will present and answer here. QUESTION: I do not understand what you mean by “pay status” for a ROTH IRA. As an accountant, we know that you don’t have to take an RMD from a Roth …

My posts last week about life insurance and Roth IRAs prompted some follow-up questions that I will present and answer today and on Thursday. I think this conversation that we are all having is terrific. Keep the questions coming. QUESTION: What about term life insurance that has no cash value? Would it …

In my last LISTEN TO LAWRENCE email, we established that it is common for people to transfer their life insurance policies into irrevocable trusts.  Among other reasons, this is done for estate tax and Medicaid protection reasons.  We also discussed that once the trust owns the policy, the trustee should pay the premiums, if …

I hope you all faired well with our big snowstorm yesterday. I have at least 18 inches of snow on my driveway and I can’t wait to get out there and attack it with my monster snowblower. UGH! To postpone that inevitability, I decided to write this LISTEN TO LAWRENCE entry.  By the way, …

LISTEN TO LAWRENCE QUESTION: I have a question. I know that if you go to a nursing home on Medicaid that they cannot demand that you take more than your RMD from your IRA or pensions. I assume that would also be true if you went in on self-pay and then ran …

QUESTION: What are the 2021 estate tax exemption amounts? MY RESPONSE: The estate tax exemption is the amount of money and other assets you can die owning and pay no estate tax. This number has been rising each year based upon a complicated inflationary formula. The bottom line is that we wait …

In a previous LISTEN TO LAWRENCE email, I spoke to you about how irrevocable Medicaid trust assets cannot be returned to the grantor or spent on his or her behalf. Remember, “if the grantor can get it, Medicaid can get it.” On the other hand, I also said that the Trustee could pay out …

QUESTION: I have a question regarding my mom’s irrevocable trust created on 3/5/16 at your firm. Mom is in an assisted living facility and I take care of her expenses. So far I have not touched any of the monies in the Trust but probably by the end of next …

Question: Is it true that once you place your home into an irrevocable trust you cannot refinance the mortgage? My Response: The short answer is that it is NOT TRUE! A trustee can absolutely get a mortgage (or re-mortgage) on a house held in an irrevocable trust. But I didn’t say it …