The Estate Planning & Elder Law Practice of Mitch Cash

05/20/2026

HE WON’T ALWAYS BE THERE TO ASK

My husband handles the finances. I don’t know what I’d do if he goes before me.

__________________________

That worry is worth listening to.

If your husband does pass first, just imagine having to carry that worry alongside the grief. The bills don’t stop. The mortgage company doesn’t know your loss.

Make a plan now, while there’s no urgency or pressure. Sit down together. List every bank account, automatic payment, and policy number. Ask your husband to show you where he keeps the deeds and important papers. Then keep it all where your children or a trusted friend can find it too.

This doesn’t have to be a gloomy conversation. It’s about taking care of each other.

Have either of you done any estate planning? Think of it as a map for a hard stretch of road. With the right plan in place, you wouldn’t have to wonder how his property would transfer to you or to whomever he or you would want it to go. Check to see that beneficiary designations are current. An account still listing a deceased parent or an ex-spouse would come as a painful surprise at an already-difficult time.

Good planning can also keep you out of probate court, or at least streamline the process. Probate takes money and time, sometimes months, and ordinary life won’t wait for it to run its course.

When the hard time does come, you may take comfort from knowing you can call us and get answers. That’s what estate planning attorneys are for.

You don’t need to know all the financial details. You just need to know where to find out about them, and that a plan is already in place.

For over 20 years, our staff has provided effective legal solutions for our clients. Our focus is in estate planning and elder law.

05/13/2026

YOU DIDN’T PICK HER HUSBAND. YOU CAN PROTECT HER FUTURE.

My son-in-law and I don’t see eye to eye. Can I leave my things to my daughter without him getting his hands on it?

______________________

She tells you they can’t afford the truck he bought on credit. The savings account never seems to save. The good chainsaw is at the pawn shop. She feeds the animals at dawn while he sleeps in.

That’s why you’re worried that if you leave her everything you’ve saved, will anything be left?

A simple will probably wouldn’t work. Property that is inherited during marriage can end up in the marital estate, meaning that your daughter’s husband may have a legal claim on it. If he keeps accumulating debt, creditors could come after assets that the couple own jointly. If they divorce after you’re gone, he could walk away with a share of what you wanted her to have.

There's a better way: a trust.

A well-drafted trust is a powerful way for you to get the money to your daughter for her benefit, but the money doesn’t become fair game by ending up in a joint account. Instead, you can name an independent trustee to follow your instructions, written into the trust, about who gets at the money. Your daughter can withdraw the funds for herself or her children, but the trust could limit who gets access to the money otherwise. You can even direct that what’s left after your daughter passes goes straight to your grandchildren.

It’s true that some inherited property might be protected without a trust, but that protection is fragile and easy to lose. A trust makes it deliberate and durable.

Another advantage is that you never have to say a harsh word to or about your son-in-law. Instead, you simply provide your daughter with funds she can rely on when you’re no longer there to help.

That's something we can help you build.

04/29/2026

A FIGHT BEFORE SHE’D EVEN GONE

My dad is getting older. I’m worried that when he passes, my brothers and I are going to quarrel over who gets what. Is there anything we can do to prevent that?

_________________________

Please persuade your father that he must work out a solid plan in advance. Without one, a real-life case shows the damage that can result.

Ann Wisnovsky and her husband built a small winery in Oregon. After Ann’s husband died, she and two of her sons ran the business for years. Daughter Joanne and other son Robert moved away.

Ann’s first plan was to divide the winery equally. Later, though, she cut Joanne and Robert out entirely, giving everything to the two sons who had done the work.

Now if we had been Ann’s lawyer, we probably would have suggested a more balanced arrangement. But Ann had the right to decide for herself.

The problem was compounded because Ann’s ideas didn’t stay put. Joanne persuaded her to reverse course, and then Joanne sued the two brothers while Ann was still alive. Legal filings by Joanne or her lawyers were stuffed with fake artificial intelligence citations, even including a murder case that had nothing to do with wineries. The judge called it one of the worst abuses of AI he had ever seen. He threw out Joanne’s case and fined the lawyers nearly $110,000. Ann died before the case was resolved, never knowing how it would end.

So after five years and nearly a million dollars in legal fees (and more to come), the family was in ruins.

If Ann had made a solid estate plan, set up by a careful attorney after thinking through the whole family picture, her intentions would have been unmistakable from the start. Arrangements that shift over time invite conflict. When family members feel cheated, they fight. And fighting is expensive and painful, no matter who “wins” in the end.

Please share your concerns with your father and ask him to call our office today. Our goal is to help families keep the peace and protect what they’ve built.

For over 20 years, our staff has provided effective legal solutions for our clients. Our focus is in estate planning and elder law.

04/27/2026

Join us for a FREE Estate Planning Seminar where we 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.

04/21/2026

A DEED CAN SHIELD THE FARM FROM MEDICAID. BUT MAYBE NOT FOR LONG.

A friend told me that my mother should leave the farm to me with a special kind of deed. Then, if Mom needs Medicaid benefits to pay for a nursing home, Medicaid couldn’t claim the farm after she passes. Is that true?

___________________________

Yes, for now. The deed your friend is thinking of is called a “beneficiary deed.” That deed transfers real estate automatically to designated people when the owner dies. It bypasses the lengthy and expensive probate-court process.

Currently, the deed also protects your mother’s home and the land around it, as long as both are contained in the same plot. It used to be that Medicaid administrators could place a lien on the property after your mother died, as reimbursement for money paid for her care during her lifetime. However, the legislature eliminated that lien right some years ago. So, as of now, your mother could leave the farm to whomever she wants, free and clear of any Medicaid debt.

That advantage may not last much longer.

This is due to the federal law known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Signed last July, this cut roughly $1 trillion from Medicaid nationwide. As a result, Arkansas is projected to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicaid funding over the next decade.

That leaves our state legislature facing some hard choices.

One of the possible options is to reverse the beneficiary-deed advantage. The legislature could reinstate the state’s ability to lien against property passing by beneficiary deed. Another option could include tightening the hardship exemptions that currently shield modest estates.

Nothing has changed yet. But “not yet” foreshadows what may come.

Readers whose estate plans rely on a beneficiary deed might consider letting us review their plans, to account for where things may be heading. If you’ve been meaning to set up a plan and haven’t done that yet, the choices are narrowing.

Keep checking this column for heads-up about changes once we hear of them. Depend on us to know what to do.

For over 20 years, our staff has provided effective legal solutions for our clients. Our focus is in estate planning and elder law.

04/21/2026

A DEED CAN SHIELD THE FARM FROM MEDICAID. BUT MAYBE NOT FOR LONG.

A friend told me that my mother should leave the farm to me with a special kind of deed. Then, if Mom needs Medicaid benefits to pay for a nursing home, Medicaid couldn’t claim the farm after she passes. Is that true?

___________________________

Yes, for now. The deed your friend is thinking of is called a “beneficiary deed.” That deed transfers real estate automatically to designated people when the owner dies. It bypasses the lengthy and expensive probate-court process.

Currently, the deed also protects your mother’s home and the land around it, as long as both are contained in the same plot. It used to be that Medicaid administrators could place a lien on the property after your mother died, as reimbursement for money paid for her care during her lifetime. However, the legislature eliminated that lien right some years ago. So, as of now, your mother could leave the farm to whomever she wants, free and clear of any Medicaid debt.

That advantage may not last much longer.

This is due to the federal law known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Signed last July, this cut roughly $1 trillion from Medicaid nationwide. As a result, Arkansas is projected to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in federal Medicaid funding over the next decade.

That leaves our state legislature facing some hard choices.

One of the possible options is to reverse the beneficiary-deed advantage. The legislature could reinstate the state’s ability to lien against property passing by beneficiary deed. Another option could include tightening the hardship exemptions that currently shield modest estates.

Nothing has changed yet. But “not yet” foreshadows what may come.

Readers whose estate plans rely on a beneficiary deed might consider letting us review their plans, to account for where things may be heading. If you’ve been meaning to set up a plan and haven’t done that yet, the choices are narrowing.

Keep checking this column for heads-up about changes once we hear of them. Depend on us to know what to do.

04/08/2026

ESTATE PLANNING NEEDS AN ATTENTIVE EAR. NOT ARTIFICIAL “INTELLIGENCE”

Why not use forms I can get online to do my will and powers of attorney?

__________________________

Free, fast, and easy, that’s the appeal of online forms or legal subscription services. What you won’t see are problems you never thought to look for. Those can cause trouble in the long term, trouble your family won’t discover until it’s too late to fix.

Online documents like form powers of attorney and wills or trusts are often incomplete or wrong. They’re based on “knowledge” pulled from the internet. That often isn’t up to date with laws or court cases.

Moreover, the documents work best if they are truly fitted to your life. That takes skill, much more than just filling in blanks. An attentive lawyer will notice if you hesitate before naming the person you want to receive your property. Or if you pause when discussing a second marriage. Or if you look concerned about who will take care of finances or assist you in medical decisions if you can’t speak for yourself.

Online forms can’t catch any of that. They won’t ask “are you sure?” when something doesn’t line up. They might not factor in children from a prior relationship. Or if you’re caring for a loved one with special needs. They won’t help you think through family dynamics, long-term care, or the “what ifs” that don’t fit neatly in a box.

An in-person conversation with a skilled lawyer will point out questions that you wouldn’t know to ask. The discussion will focus on the complex decisions that are necessary to shape your family’s future well-being, safeguard your money and property, and assist with your health care if you need a trusted person to step in.

On the front end, online tools save time and money. But when the stakes are this personal and the consequences so long-lasting, it is wiser to sit down with experienced professionals like us. We know the law and we will spend the time it takes to understand you and your people.

04/01/2026

WHO WOULD BE IN CHARGE IF NOT YOU?

What if I’m laid up from an accident tomorrow? I don’t know who’d feed the cattle and pay the hands.

_______________________

This question could be asked by anybody, not only those who work the land, whether it’s running a herd, managing a hay field, or earning income from rent farms.

The fact is that without the right legal documents or title, nobody could step in for you. Not your adult kids, not your most trusted hired hand. Not even could your spouse, if your bank accounts or equipment loans are in your name only. Even in an emergency, banks won’t take instructions from someone who isn’t legally authorized to act for you. Bills go unpaid. Decisions stall. And you’re flat on your back.

A financial power of attorney fixes that. It names someone you trust to manage your finances and keep operations running if you’re not able to. A health care power of attorney does the same for medical decisions, ensuring that doctors will be hearing from the right person and following your wishes.

Power of attorney documents are the easiest first step in any estate plan. You don’t have to figure out who gets what yet. What you need right now is to get these documents done before something happens. Few rural families protect themselves like this. They’re left one bad diagnosis away from a preventable crisis.

You can plan for drought. You can plan for market swings. Putting your legal documents in order moves toward the same goal: to protect what you’ve worked for. Call us this week. Establishing powers of attorney is a straightforward process, and you will likely enjoy feeling more confident once they’re done.

03/04/2026

CLARIFY HEALTH-CARE WISHES BEFORE THEY BECOME URGENT

You have convinced me that my elder parents and I should talk about their end-of-life health care. But I can’t imagine how to start that conversation without upsetting them.

_________________________

It’s true, the conversation may not be the easiest in the world. But it’s an important step in preparing the legal documents that will protect your parents’ right to get the medical care they need. Filling out a mere form probably wouldn’t meet that objective. Instead, detailed documents should be grounded in the specifics of what your folks would want. And that can only be known by talking it through first.

You can start by persuading your folks that you want to help them preserve their independence. What do they understand about their health right now? What is a normal week like for them? What do they enjoy doing on a good day? What’s hardest on a bad day?

Use some good checklists to narrow down the health-care specifics. Find these by searching on-line for “The Conversation Project.” These will help your parents clarify their priorities. Once they name those, then the person they choose as their trusted agent can team up with them to request care that matches their wishes. Discussing the specifics before an emergency is important, because doctors would see only a snapshot under those circumstances.

We provide our clients with four health-care documents and a checklist. Each of these addresses a different aspect of the overall picture. Taken together, they give clear legal authority to your parents’ trusted person, and guide that person in communicating medical choices if your parents cannot. The documents prevent family disagreements, avoid confusion in emergency conditions, and make clear who has the authority to speak with doctors.

Hard conversations today, backed by comprehensive legal documents, will protect your parents’ dignity and spare your family painful uncertainty later.

02/02/2026

IT SURE SOUNDED LIKE HER GRANDSON. IT WASN’T.

My neighbor got a call from somebody who convinced her he was her grandson. He was crying, saying he’d been arrested after a car crash and she should wire $50,000 bail. Turns out it was fake and she lost the money. How could she get fooled like that?

_____________________

Your neighbor was taken in by a new scam using artificial intelligence (AI). Criminals could grab recordings that the real grandson probably posted of himself on-line. With AI, they could have used his voice to create a phony message.

Scammers can construct convincing but fake videos of public figures. They can build bogus websites that look legitimate. Actor Tom Hanks recently warned about an AI-generated video falsely showing him endorsing dental insurance.

These scams work because they do seem real. Often, they trick by applying pressure. It can be a “grandchild in jail.” Or a bank warning about account fraud. A message from a boss or pastor asking for help. Payment is frequently demanded in gift cards, cryptocurrency, or wire transfers. These methods are hard to trace and almost impossible to reverse.

To protect yourself, set up an emergency code-word or sentence with your family members that only you all would know. If you do feel tempted, scared, or hustled by an approach, stop and take a breath. Scammers rely on emotion. Always double-check before acting, by calling phone numbers you know are real.

Never respond to unverified calls by sending money via gift cards, wire transfers, or cryptocurrency.

Help raise public awareness. Report scams to banks and to the U.S. Senate Fraud Hotline. Call (855) 303-9470, or leave a report at https://www.aging.senate.gov/fraud-hotline.

We at the Cash law firm can help prevent loss, or assist if it has already happened. We can set up financial safeguards. We can recommend credit protections. Our powers of attorney can discourage exploitation. And we can steer fraud victims to a document from the Arkansas Attorney General, to restore victims’ good names and halt wrongful legal action or arrest.

If something feels off, trust your instincts. Call us first.