The Estate Planning & Elder Law Practice of Mitch Cash

07/27/2026

✨ Thank You, Calico Rock! ✨

What a wonderful day! We are incredibly grateful to everyone who joined us for the Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting of our new Calico Rock office.

Thank you to our clients, friends, community members, and local leaders who came out to celebrate this exciting new chapter with us. Your warm welcome and support mean so much to our entire team.

We are honored to be part of the Calico Rock community and look forward to serving individuals and families with their estate planning, elder law, probate, and asset protection needs for many years to come.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Thank you again for helping make our Grand Opening such a memorable success!

07/17/2026

Join us for the Grand Opening of our Calico Rock office! Come get to know Mitch Cash and Carter Horton and enjoy some free hamburgers and hot dogs! We are excited to be serving a great community!

When: Saturday, July 25 from 11:30-1 p.m.

Where: The Nook behind Main Street in Calico Rock

07/14/2026

Free Estate Planning Seminar Tuesday, July 21 at the Searcy County Library. We hope to see you there!

07/13/2026

MEDICAID “WORK RULE”: SPEAK NOW

What’s this about working while on Medicaid ARHOME benefits? What’s my ailing mom supposed to do?

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Starting next year, many ARHOME enrollees — low-income Arkansans aged 19 to 64 — must prove they’re working 80 hours a month to keep their Medicaid health insurance. “Work” can mean a job, job training, community service, or school.

Arkansas tried something similar once, but it didn’t pan out. The state had hoped to promote self-sufficiency and program integrity. But 18,000 people lost coverage, with no evidence that anyone had been encouraged into a job. So the courts halted the program.

Now Congress tries again. This time enrollees might be excused if they're “medically frail” or have other “special medical needs.” But a federal agency has layered on an even stricter, but vague, standard: the illness must also “significantly impair” the “ability to comply with the community engagement requirement,” or, in other words, the ability to “meet ordinary demands.”

But what might “significantly impair” mean? Would arthritis or a bad back qualify? An inability to handle online reporting paperwork? Nobody knows yet.

Advocates fear that just like before, the sick will be dropped from Medicaid simply because of undefined bureaucratic hurdles. Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have sued. If they win, “significant impairment” won’t apply to them. But Arkansas isn’t in that suit, so we’ll just have to see how our authorities interpret the phrase. It’s been reported that they’re working on an automated process to check eligibility. In other words, a computer program would decide.

The work requirement is now the law of the land. “Significant impairment,” however, is open for reconsideration, but for a short time only. The public is invited to comment until July 31st.

So hurry. For suggestions on what to write, search online for “disabilitybelongs.org” and “action center.” Then search “regulations.gov CMS-2026-2047-0002 comment.” Click on the blue box and let them hear from you.

Then help your mother prepare. If she can’t work, gather documents to show why not. If she is working, track her hours. Starting in January, she will likely need proof either way.

06/30/2026

06/30/2026

MORE THAN JUST CROSSING OUT. MAYBE MORE THAN A WILL.

I had a fight with my brother and cut him out of my will. Now we’re getting along again. Can’t I just cross out one bit, initial it, and be done with it?

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Your idea might or might not work.

Arkansas law allows revoking some or all of a will by “burning, tearing, cancelling, obliterating, or destroying” it. So drawing a line through the bit you want to remove could be “obliterating” or “cancelling,” if your will is entirely handwritten.

But if your will is typed and not handwritten, your act must be formally witnessed and you must clearly express your intent as final.

So your idea could be setting up your heirs for a court battle. Judges have had to decide when will-makers have scratched things through, or made twenty-five or more changes and the changes were not witnessed. None of the changes worked. If the original language was still readable, the judge could reconstruct what was there and put it back in. If not, the law would take over. And the law doesn’t know what you intended.

So your idea probably, possibly, or maybe might work. But that kind of answer, in the estate-planning world, adds up to: do not do it!

The easiest way would be to add a document called a “codicil.” This is an amendment signed and witnessed the same way the original was.

But if you’re going to all that trouble, we could possibly find a better solution than relying on only a will. Wills must go through probate, the court process that takes time and costs money. There are other ways to pass property to your heirs that skip probate entirely, like beneficiary designations, joint ownership, or transfer-on-death deeds.

It’s understandable to want a quick fix when life changes. But scratching out a provision on a will could create a problem that will show up when you’re no longer around to explain yourself. Come talk to us instead. We can get this right for you the first time.

06/20/2026

Join us for a FREE Estate Planning Seminar at the Nook on Peppersauce Alley 105 Main Street, Calico Rock, on Friday, June 26, 2026, at 10:00 A.M., where one of our attorneys, Carter Horton, will cover a variety of important topics-including powers of attorney, covering the costs of nursing home care and how to protect your assets for the future.

06/17/2026

Join us for a FREE Estate Planning Seminar in Salesville at the Community Center between City Hall and the Fire Department on Tuesday, June 23, 2026, at 2:00 P.M., where one of our attorneys, Carter Horton, will cover a variety of important topics-including powers of attorney, covering the costs of nursing home care and how to protect your assets for the future.

06/11/2026

SHE MEANS WELL NOW. BUT LATER?

My second wife is the best ever. So if I die before her, I’ll just leave her everything. She knows to take care of my kids from the other marriage. Right now I’ll be outside checking up on my new baby calves.

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It’s great that your marriage is solid, and those calves won’t wait. But good intentions don’t always hold up against what life might have in store.

Suppose that after you pass, your wife eventually remarries. If you hadn’t made a plan now, and if she dies married to her new husband, her estate — including everything you worked for — could pass to that other man, or his kids, or to whomever your wife might have picked depending on her changed circumstances. Your children could get nothing. Not because your wife was untrustworthy. Just because life has a way of moving on.

Or suppose your wife doesn’t remarry, but she needs long-term care in her final years. Nursing home costs in Arkansas can run $6,000 to $8,000 a month. A few years of that could erase the inheritance you had in mind.

Many people never get around to doing estate planning. It’s probably just human nature to want to keep putting it off. But good intentions don’t specify where property goes. A good plan does, backed by proper documents. Without those in place, there’s no telling what the future might hold. The law could decide for you, according to one-size-fits-all rules that wouldn’t consider your specific wishes.

There are tools that we can tailor to work in your situation. A well-crafted estate plan can provide for your wife during her lifetime and still deliver to your children what you intend. You don't have to choose between the two, or leave it to chance.

Go check on your calves. Then call us when you’re done. One conversation could protect everything you’ve spent a lifetime building.

06/10/2026

Join us for a FREE Estate Planning Seminar in Flippin/Rea Valley where our attorneys, Mitch Cash and Carter Horton, will cover a variety of important topics-including powers of attorney, covering the costs of nursing home care and how to protect your assets for the future.