Senior Strategies

03/25/2024

Join Todd Whatley at the Bella Vista Library this Wednesday for an informative session on essential documents for aging individuals and strategies to avoid probate. Don't miss this opportunity to ask questions and gain valuable insights into securing your future. See you there!

07/19/2022

If you are in the Bella Vista area and want more educational information on what documents you need and which you do not, sign up for this event. Todd Whatley, Certified Elder Law Attorney, will speak at the Bella Vista Library on August 5th at 10:30 am. Please RSVP to 479-802-4767
Will = Probate = expensive= Public knowledge of your assets
There is a better way! Come and ask questions.

06/28/2022

06/27/2022

Todd, dad was in the nursing home for 5 years. Medicaid let us keep his home, which is only worth about $50,000. We paid the taxes and insurance on it since all of his income went to the facility. His will says the house goes to the two children. However, now Medicaid wants $63,000 out of the house. How did this happen? Jim
Jim, you just learned the hard way, of one of the worst surprises from Medicaid. You can qualify for Medicaid owning your home if that is where you intend to return if you get better. The value of this home can be up to $500,000. Why would Medicaid let you qualify for services owning a half a million dollar home? The answer is that Medicaid will go after it at the person’s death to be reimbursed for what they spent. This is called estate recovery. It is essentially a “death tax” on poor people. And, in your situation just like in many other people’s situation, is that you, as the child, will lose money since you spent money out of your pocket to keep up this house only to see it go to Medicaid. This is a huge problem and it’s another reason that you need to consult with an Elder Law Attorney when looking at Medicaid benefits. In some situations, we are able to protect the house using some Medicaid rules. There are some cases where Medicaid will not put a lien on the home but it is very limited and should not be relied on when trying to protect such a large asset.

Appointments call 479-601-4119

06/22/2022

Todd, my parents have a trust and I am the backup Trustee. How do I become the trustee when my parents can’t do it or I need to jump in and do it.

That’s a great question. Your parents can always resign and let you step in and do it. However, that is usually not how the transition happens. Many times, you need to jump in when something happens to them and they simply can no longer function as the Trustee. This is really important because in most estate planning documents, there is language so that a designated a successor trustee can take over when the current Trustee can no longer manage the trust. When does that person become the trustee? They become the trustee when your parent is deemed to be incapacitated by their physician. However, the successor trustee (you) cannot prove their incapacity until you get the letter from the physician and unless the successor trustee is listed on a valid HIPAA release, the physician may not give them that letter. We are then “stuck”. We then have to go to court to get a Judge to order the release of that information so the physician is protected from a HIPAA violation. The whole purpose of a trust is to avoid going to court. Without this one document, we may still end up there. Therefore, it is important to have a valid separate HIPAA release to help your estate plan to work as intended and to stay out of court. Please go look at your estate plan (or have your parents go look) to make sure there is a HIPAA form and that the successor Trustees are listed.