What is a Caregiver Trust?
Video Summary
Good afternoon. My name is Tom Mitchell. I’m a partner at the law firm of Waller & Mitchell. We’re located at 5332 Main Street in Downtown New Port Richey, Florida. I specialize in elder law. That is: I deal with wills and trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare surrogates, living wills, will and trust administration, public benefits qualifications, guardianship, and asset protection for seniors.
Hey there, 50 and 60-year-olds. How are your 70 to 90-year-old parents doing? Are you concerned that they’ll have enough money to live to the end of their lifetime and have quality of life? Are they concerned that they’ll have enough money to live to the end of their life and have something left to give to their children and grandchildren? If so, you need to consult with Waller & Mitchell. We can help you with this.
The average cost for a nursing home in the State of Florida, in the West Pasco area, is about $6,500.00 a month. If one of your family members – your parent, mother or father – is looking at the prospect of going into a nursing home in the near future, there are several things that we can do to help them get qualified at an earlier time, and to help preserve funds for the senior generation to pass to the junior generation.
One of the techniques that we use in this circumstance is called a “caregiver trust.” It’s specifically referred to in the Florida statutes, and it allows the spouse who is living at home – the well spouse, as we refer to it – to set up a trust for the benefit of the spouse who’s living in the nursing home, which we call the “institutionalized spouse.”
If that trust that’s set up by the well spouse contains at least 30 percent of the assets that are owned by the husband and wife team, then the money can be in the trust, and the nursing home spouse is not disqualified from receiving public benefits.
So if you’d like to look into something like this, please contact Waller & Mitchell at 727-847-2288, and I can help you.
What Do I Need to Know About Asset Protection?
Video Summary
Good afternoon. My name is Tom Mitchell. I’m a partner with the law firm of Waller & Mitchell. We’re located at 5332 Main Street in Downtown New Port Richey. I’m an elder law specialist. That means that I do wills, trusts, powers of attorney, living wills, healthcare surrogate documents, trust and estate administrations, public benefits qualifications, and guardianship work.
Okay. All you 50 and 60-year-olds out there, how are your 70 to 90-year-old parents doing? Are you concerned that they’re going to have enough money to last the rest of their lives? Are they concerned that they’ll have enough money to last ‘til the end of their lives, and that there’ll be something left to give to you when they die?
If so, you need to consider consulting with us about asset protection. There are a number of federal and state programs that provide assistance to seniors who need help. These are generally means-tested program, which mean that you can’t have more than a certain amount of assets or a certain income level.
At Waller & Mitchell, we know how to get you qualified for those programs. And in some instances, we can accelerate that eligibility by legally transferring the money from the older generation to the younger generation, without incurring a penalty.
So if you’re interested in trying to help your parents live a better life and insuring that their goal of leaving something to their children and grandchildren is accomplished, please give me a call at Waller & Mitchell. The number is 727-847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos
What is the Difference Between a Will and a Living Will?
Video Summary
What’s the difference between a will and a living will? A will says that I devise and leave everything that I own to my beloved spouse or names a beneficiary and deals with the leaving behind of your property, leaving your property to whoever you would like whenever you pass away. A living will is a dying declaration that says that you do not want your life prolonged artificially.
Florida statutes have set forth three areas, three time periods in which you can direct and authorize life support to be discontinued: one is if you have an end-stage condition, which is really when you’re in the dying process; two is if you have a terminal condition; and three is if you have a permanent vegetative state. All of these circumstances are whenever you’re unconscious. And therefore you have to leave directions behind and the medical community must make the determination that you have any one of these three conditions. And then they turn to whoever you designate in your living will to make the decision to terminate life support. And then you’re on your own and usually when you remove the ventilators, well then you pass away without any assistance.
So the will leaves behind your property to whoever you designate. A living will is whenever you’re in the twilight time of your life and you’re authorizing that the plug be disconnected or that you do not want life-saving or mechanical ventilators to sustain your life mechanically. I think it’s ‘artificially’ continue your life.
So if you have any questions about a will or a living will, well, give me a call at 727-847-2288. Thank you.
What Does Eminent Domain Mean?
Video Summary
Hi. What does eminent domain mean? Eminent domain is usually in conjunction with a government entity such as the Florida Department of Transportation or a county building a road, although it can be used by utilities to obtain easements. The government must compensate private property owners if they take their property and the process is called eminent domain and is a lawsuit that is filed to take someone’s property for public use.
The process usually starts by the governmental entity or utility contacting a property owner and asking them to donate the property. And usually the answer, it may be yes or no depending on if they need to road to go by their property or through their property. They don’t have to give the property to the governmental agency and the governmental agency or utility will then get an appraisal and tell them that they will pay them this certain amount of money.
The property owner does not have to take the amount that’s offered. If they don’t, they can negotiate with the county but usually the county will proceed with what they call a quick take program or lawsuit, which is an eminent domain proceeding whereby they deposit the money that they’ve offered to the property owner in the registry at the court and the court will then let the county take the property.
Then if you hire a lawyer and you negotiate further with the county then the price can go up once the property owner gets his own appraisals. If they can’t ever agree on or settle on an amount for the property, it then goes to a trial by jury and in Florida there’s only two times that you get twelve people in a jury box: one is a first-degree murder case and the other is an eminent domain proceeding. And then the jury of your peers are the ones that would determine how much money you would receive for your property in an eminent domain proceeding. One other nice thing about Florida’s eminent domain proceeding is the government entity is responsible for paying your attorney fees, which is a percentage of the increase between the amount that you receive and the amount that’s offered by the government or utility that’s taking your property.
So if you have any questions about eminent domain or if you get a letter in the mail that they’re gonna be taking your property, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate, Videos