Recently, at two different MCLE (continuing legal education) presentations, I spoke on the “Elder Law Essentials.”  The goal of the presentation was to distinguish the solutions of elder law vs. the solutions underlying traditional estate planning.

I was originally trained as a tax attorney, and my principal estate planning solutions were motivated by the client’s desires to:

• Minimize or avoid estate & gift tax costs; and
• Minimize or avoid probate expenses; and
• Minimize problems at the time of ultimate distribution to heirs/beneficiaries.

As an elder law attorney, however, the usual client motivation is the diagnosis of a long term illness.  This is illustrated by the life-changing call I received at my office almost ten years ago.  A family friend called me and she asked, “Rick, what are we going to do?  Bob has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.  Am I going to lose my home?  Are we going to lose EVERYTHING?”  There was panic in her voice.

In those days, I was not prepared to give appropriate answers.  I was a traditional estate planner—and she was not asking for a traditional solution.  She was asking me for answers to these questions:

• How are we going to maintain sufficient income?
• How are we going to pay for Bob’s health care needs?
• Will I ( the healthy spouse) be forced  move out of my home by health care expenses?

When someone asks these type of questions, elder law has the answers.  Our goal is to work with our clients to try to assist them to protect their income, obtain quality health care, and protect the marital residence for the healthy spouse.

If a traditional estate plan is not the right fit, please call us to discuss how we may be able to help you.

Rick Law

Right now estate planning lawyers look like ants after the anthill has been kicked over.  We are frantically scurrying in a blind search for answers to The Big Question:  What are the estate planning rules now?

For years, Congress has known that the current rules would fall off a legal cliff on January 1, 2010.  Congress always promised to fix the “temporary” expiration of the rules before now…  But as we have seen, who can trust Congress to do what needs to be done, when it needs to be done?

All nationally known estate tax gurus have believed that the likelihood of 2010 with no estate tax was as improbable as the Cubs winning the World Series, pigs flying, etc.

Okay, so there is no estate tax this year…  What does that mean to your existing will or trust estate plan?  Answer:  You should contact a skilled estate planning attorney to schedule a review of your existing estate plan!  ALMOST ALL EXISTING HUSBAND-AND-WIFE ESTATE PLANS MUST BE REVISED TO AVOID SOME UNEXPECTED BAD RESULTS!

I am telling all of my current estate planning clients that we will make their wills/trusts convertible so as to accommodate new tax law changes.

Ignorance is not bliss!  Now is the time to schedule a review of all existing estate plans!