Michael Cohen Dallas Elder Lawyer |

09 Feb SUCCESS STORY OF THE MONTH

Posted at 09:00h in Asset Protection, End of Life Care Planning, Estate Planning, Home Equity, Lady Bird Deed, Long Term Care, Medicaid Planning, Medicare, Nursing Home, Short Term Care, Success Story of the Month, Transfer of Death, Trusts

A married couple owns a homestead located out-of-state held in a trust. They move to Texas to be closer to their children since the wife needs long-term care. They have no long-term care insurance, and their liquid assets and income are insufficient to pay for...

26 Nov SUCCESS STORY OF THE MONTH – SAVING THE FAMILY MINERAL INTERESTS, COSTS OF CARE AND MORE

Posted at 16:33h in Asset Protection, Estate Planning, Home Equity, Lady Bird Deed, Long Term Care, Medicaid Planning, Nursing Home, Probate Administration, Success Story of the Month, Transfer of Death, Veterans

Elderly client, whose health is declining, owns a trailer and 11 acres that is treated as his homestead presently valued at around $55,000. He also owns 60 acres of undeveloped property where he would prefer to live which is much more valuable. The only other...

22 Oct SUCCESS STORY OF THE MONTH – THE WORLD ISN’T ALWAYS PERFECT

Posted at 09:00h in Asset Protection, Beneficiary, End of Life Care Planning, Estate Planning, Guardianship, Home Equity, Lady Bird Deed, Long Term Care, Medicaid Planning, Mortgage, Power of Attorney, Probate Administration, Special Needs, Special Needs Trust, Success Story of the Month, Transfer of Death, Trusts

This story is an illustration of some of the many thoughts that should be considered even if one has a small estate. In this case, the client’s major asset is her home that was deeded to her by her six siblings as it was their...

06 Sep SUCCESS STORY OF THE MONTH – USING DIFFERENT LEGAL TOOLS (LADYBIRD DEED, REVERSE MORTGAGE AND REVOCABLE LIVING TRUST) IN THE TOOLBOX

Posted at 09:00h in Beneficiary, Disability Benefits, End of Life Care Planning, Estate Planning, Guardianship, Home Equity, Lady Bird Deed, Long Term Care, Medicaid Planning, Mortgage, Nursing Home, Power of Attorney, Probate Administration, Success Story of the Month, Transfer of Death, Trusts

Client had created a revocable living trust several years ago prepared by another attorney. The most common reasons for such a trust is to avoid probate (the laws that govern the probate process which is the process to determine if the Will is valid and...

28 Aug SUCCESS STORY OF THE MONTH – WIDOW PROBATES HUSBAND’S WILL SEVEN YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH TO GET FULL TITLE TO HOME

Posted at 09:00h in Beneficiary, Estate Planning, Inheritance, Probate Administration, Success Story of the Month, Wills

Many people incorrectly assume that the surviving spouse will always get full title to their homestead that was bought together after the first spouse dies. In this case, the husband, who had two children from a prior relationship and four children born of his marriage...

05 Aug ADDITIONAL SUCCESS STORY OF THE MONTH – THE USE OF UTMAs IN MEDICAID PLANNING

Posted at 09:00h in 529 plan, Estate Planning, Long Term Care, Medicaid Application, Medicaid Planning, Success Story of the Month, utma

Long-term care Medicaid helps pay for long-term care costs if certain eligibility requirements such as medical necessity, Medicaid bed availability, “countable” resources being below a $2,000 limit, restrictions on most uncompensated transfers if made within five years of application, etc., are met. In this case the...

02 Aug SUCCESS STORY OF THE MONTH – HOW TO PROTECT CHILDREN FROM THEMSELVES YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE WEALTHY TO USE TRUSTS

Posted at 09:00h in Asset Protection, Beneficiary, End of Life Care Planning, Estate Planning, Lady Bird Deed, Long Term Care, Medicaid Planning, Probate Administration, Retirement, Short Term Care, Special Needs, Special Needs Trust, Success Story of the Month, Trusts, Wills

Many have the misconception that only the wealthy need or can use trusts for estate planning. In this case, an elderly couple has two children – one of the children has a drug problem and the other is a spendthrift and has creditor issues. The...

10 Jul SUCCESS STORY OF THE MONTH – LADYBIRD DEED INTO PET TRUST IS CATS’ MEOW

Posted at 13:55h in Beneficiary, End of Life Care Planning, Estate Planning, Lady Bird Deed, Medicaid Planning, Success Story of the Month, Transfer of Death

The goal of a self-proclaimed “cat lady”, who is on Medicaid, is to make sure her 14 cats are adequately cared for after her death. However, her only assets are her home, car and a small bank account. Her home and car are “non-countable” resources...

04 Jun SUCCESS STORY OF THE MONTH – PROTECTING THE LOAN ON PARENTS’ HOME FROM MEDICAID ESTATE RECOVERY – LADYBIRD TO THE RESCUE

Posted at 19:44h in Asset Protection, Divorce, End of Life Care Planning, Estate Planning, Lady Bird Deed, Long Term Care, Medicaid Application, Medicaid Planning, Michael Cohen Dallas Elder Lawyer, Probate Administration, Success Story of the Month, Taxes, Transfer of Death, Wills

Parents own homestead as their major asset. Their health is beginning to decline, and neither of them have long-term care insurance or enough income or assets to pay for long-term care. As a result, if either of them needs long-term care, Medicaid is likely to...

01 May SUCCESS STORY OF THE MONTH

Posted at 15:05h in Dementia, End of Life Care Planning, Estate Planning, Home Equity, Lady Bird Deed, Long Term Care, Medicaid Planning, Michael Cohen Dallas Elder Lawyer, Nursing Home, Power of Attorney, Social Security, Success Story of the Month, Transfer of Death, Trusts

Client, a 78 year old widow in the early stages of experiencing dementia, creates an irrevocable trust which gives her the right to occupy her homestead which was deeded into the trust. Her goal was to save her homestead (or the proceeds therefrom if sold...

Success Story of the Month