You have been close to your mother your entire life. She helped you in your times of need from infanthood through college, and now she needs help in her time of need as an aging person who can no longer live on her own. You are ready to make the last few years of her life as comfortable as possible. In setting up this new living arrangement in your home, you and your mother will avoid a long-term care facility and Read More

If you have a special needs child, it is natural to worry about what the future of your child will be like. Establishing a special needs trust may help provide a good life for your child when you are no longer around to provide love and support. The question you might grapple with is how much to place into the trust.  Exact amounts will vary from family to family, so only you and your loved ones have a good idea of Read More

You put in time and energy to create a proper estate plan for yourself and your loved ones in Georgia and elsewhere. Do you know when you may want to change or update your estate planning documents? Creating an estate plan is not a onetime task. Learn which circumstances call for you to realign your desires to protect your assets, hard work and loved ones. People enter or exit your life Perhaps one of your children Read More

If you are remarrying and have children from a previous relationship or if you are entering into a marriage with a person who has children, it’s important to think about the impact your new family may have on your estate plan. No one wants to find out after you’re gone that your ex will receive the entirety of your estate because you neglected to update your documents. One estimate claims that at least half of all Read More

Looking at care options for your parents is rarely an easy task, but affording what they need can be even harder. Medicaid could offer help, but will they have to sacrifice everything to meet asset limits? A private room at a care facility in Gainesville can cost over $80,000 every year. That’s around $220 every single day to get your loved one the assistance they need. Medicaid could help reduce that cost by about Read More

Estate planning is so much more than simply drafting documents. Documents also have to be coordinated with asset titling. Asset titling simply refers to either the way you own your assets (like your real estate) or the way you choose to designate a beneficiary to receive your assets when you die (such as with a life insurance policy or retirement account). This blog will explore some issues that might come up when Read More

As you create or revise your estate plan, you will want to consider how your beneficiaries will receive their share of assets. This point is especially worth pondering if you have children, some of whom may be more responsible with money than others. If one or more of them runs the risk of blowing through your estate, you will likely fear you must take drastic measures to prevent them from doing so. Yet, you have Read More

Most of the time, it is wise to take all steps possible in order to avoid probate. Probate can be very expensive, public and time-consuming. However, not all strategies to avoid probate are wise. Many seniors consider putting a child’s name on their house deed as a way to avoid probate. In some ways it seems like the perfect solution: your house goes automatically to your child upon your death and there is no probate Read More

The number of people without an estate plan is a cause for concern. In 2020, almost 48% of adults ages 55 and older have yet to begin the planning process. If you are among these, the absence of a plan puts you at risk of intestacy, which will create headaches and confusion for your beneficiaries. How intestacy succession works Intestacy refers to the absence of an estate plan when a person dies. When no plan exists, Read More

As you create or revise your estate plan, you will want to keep in mind how much privacy your current arrangement gives you. Your estate may not contain any assets that would cause scrutiny in the public eye. But the world does not need to know its every detail. By setting up a revocable living trust, your estate’s contents and beneficiaries will remain private. How revocable trusts work Your revocable trust will Read More