My new blog 9087

Families usually come see me after something scary has already happened. A parent has fallen, rehab turned into long term care, and suddenly the family hears a phrase they had never considered: Medicaid estate recovery. The next question comes fast and blunt: “Can Medicaid take our house?” The short answer is that Medicaid does not send a truck, change the locks, and throw you out. But Medicaid can, and often does, assert a claim against a home after the owner d

Most families I meet are not trying to build a perfect estate plan on day one. They simply want two things. First, they want to keep their family out of court. Second, they want what they worked for to land cleanly in the right hands, with as little cost and drama as possible. Beneficiary designations are one of the most underused tools for doing exactly that. When used correctly, they can move a large portion of your wealth outside probate, often faster and at a fracti

Most people walk into an estate planning office thinking they need “just a will.” After a decade of sitting across the table from families, I can say that almost never turns out to be true. A will is one tool. A comprehensive estate plan is a coordinated set of tools that handle what happens if you become incapacitated, how your assets pass at death, how taxes and long term care might affect what you leave, and how to protect the people who receive it. The difference ca