The Law Offices of Brenton C. McWilliams

Call Directions Website Contact the practice

The Law Offices of Brenton C. McWilliams An estate planning, wills, trusts and probate law firm. The Law Offices of Brenton C. At the Law Offices of Brenton C.

McWilliams is a law firm concentrating its legal practice on estate planning, wills and trusts, elder law and probate estate administration. With offices in Orange Beach, Foley and Daphne, the firm serves clients throughout Baldwin and Mobile Counties. Through the firm's virtual estate planning offering, the firms serves clients throughout Alabama. McWilliams, the best interest of the client comes first. Legal guidance is provided by an experienced attorney in a warm, hospitable atmosphere. The firm has glowing reviews from previous clients who describe the law firm staff as exceptionally friendly, professional and attentive to the needs of their clients. Brenton is described as a patient, down to earth person who is easy to talk to and has an ability to explain complicated legal concepts in a language that non-lawyers can understand. To find out more information, visit brentonmcwilliams.com. To schedule a consultation, please call (251) 215-9275.

10/11/2026

Building on this morning, here is what that actually means.

The clock does not start until they would have qualified for help that very day, if that transfer had never happened.

Which means the person has to already be in the facility. Already spent down. Already applied. Standing at the line, qualified, with nothing left in the way but the penalty.

That is the starting line.

So those four years did not run down a penalty. There was no penalty running.

What those four years did do is move that transfer closer to falling out of the sixty month window, and that is worth something. It is just not the same thing, and people trade one for the other constantly.

I want to be clear that this is not carelessness on anyone's part. It is genuinely counterintuitive, and most of what is written about it never says this part out loud.

Tomorrow, the third part, and the number I would be most careful about believing from a search result.

10/11/2026

If a transfer does land inside that sixty month window, the next question is the one that decides everything. How long does the family actually wait?

When a gift shows up in the look back, the rules call for a penalty period. That is a stretch of time when Medicaid does not pay for that level of care.

And the natural assumption is that the penalty started the day of the gift and has been burning off ever since. Four years down, one to go.

But under federal law, the penalty period does not begin when the gift is made.

It begins when the person would otherwise be eligible and is receiving that level of care, except for the penalty.

Here is the window in one picture, and this is the one to save.Sixty months, counted backward from the day the applicati...
10/10/2026

Here is the window in one picture, and this is the one to save.

Sixty months, counted backward from the day the application is filed. Not forward from the day of the gift.

Which means it is not a countdown somebody starts. It is a window that travels with them, and a transfer leaves it from the back end as time passes.

One date in this rule does not move. The look back reaches transfers made on or after February eighth, two thousand six. That is the floor of the whole thing.

Save this one. Tomorrow, the second clock, and it is the one almost nobody knows exists.

10/10/2026

Measured backward, not forward:

Start with the window, because almost every article out there gets the direction right and the starting point wrong.

People hear five years and picture a countdown that begins the day they sign the deed or write the check.

That is not what the rule does. The look back is measured backward, not forward.

When someone applies for long term care Medicaid, the agency looks back sixty months from the date of that application. It reviews what was given away, or sold for less than it was worth, inside that window.

So the window moves. It is anchored to the day the application is filed, not the day the gift happened.

Every month a person waits before applying, the window slides forward with them, and the oldest transfer eventually falls out the back of it.

Tonight, the one date in this rule that does not move.

10/10/2026

Most people who ask about the five year look back have already done the math.

But there is a second clock, and most families do not know it exists.

That second clock is the one that decides how long the wait actually is. Mixing it up with the first one is how a family ends up making a real decision on bad information.

This week you'll learn where the look back window actually starts, where the penalty clock starts, and why those are two completely different dates.

Stay with me through the third part. That is where the numbers people find online are usually wrong for Alabama, and I'll show you why.

Here is the whole week in one place. Three questions, and not one of them is how much do you have.1. Do you own real est...
10/09/2026

Here is the whole week in one place. Three questions, and not one of them is how much do you have.

1. Do you own real estate in another state? A lot, a cabin, the house you kept back home. That is the clearest fact pattern there is.

2. Who is receiving this, and when should they? A minor child. A child whose benefits depend on their income and resources. A twenty year old who would otherwise get all of it at once.

3. Is incapacity the only reason a trust is on the table? If it is, look at your power of attorney first, and check the date on it.

If you answered yes to the first two, that is worth a conversation. If the only yes was the third one, it may not be, and I would rather tell you that now.

The first estate planning meeting is free. The pricing is fixed, so you know the full cost before any work begins, and there is no obligation to go forward. We help you decide which plan meets your goals.

Give us a call or visit our website.

10/09/2026

So, no threshold in Alabama for either one.

It comes down to how the document gets signed, and what you want to happen afterward.

And the single clearest fact pattern is property sitting in a second state.

The choice was never about your net worth.

How much do you need before a trust makes sense?Alabama never set a number. Not for a will, and not for a trust.Here is ...
10/09/2026

How much do you need before a trust makes sense?

Alabama never set a number. Not for a will, and not for a trust.

Here is what actually decides it.

The line from today worth writing down.A trust nobody finished funding is an expensive will.This is the real reason the ...
10/08/2026

The line from today worth writing down.

A trust nobody finished funding is an expensive will.

This is the real reason the question people open with, how much do I need, is the wrong one. You can clear any threshold you ever imagined and still end up right here, because the amount was never what made a trust work in the first place.

A trust holds what you put in it. That is the whole mechanism. It is a to-do list, not a signature.

10/08/2026

Here is how we handle it, and we say this before somebody hires us rather than after.

In our office we handle retitling real estate.

The financial accounts are on the client, with written instructions.

That is not us getting out of something. It is the part where a trust either works or quietly does not, and the person who can actually call the bank and sit through the hold music is you. What we can do is tell you exactly which accounts, exactly what to say, and what finished looks like.

The reason to say it up front is simple. A trust nobody finished funding is an expensive will, and you should know whose job each piece is before you pay for any of it.

Tomorrow, the whole week in one place, plus the three questions that actually decide this.

Address

25814 Canal Road, Ste #5
Orange Beach, AL
36561

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+12512159275

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Law Offices of Brenton C. McWilliams posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to The Law Offices of Brenton C. McWilliams:

Shortcuts

Share

Category