NC and SC Estate Planning and Elder Law Firm

Taking care of all the “stuff” that a loved one leaves behind is a daunting task. It’s both emotionally draining and physically exhausting.

From a legal perspective, the person in charge of sorting through all the stuff that a loved one leaves behind is the estate administrator named in the estate plan. Whether this person does the actual physical work of cleaning out a loved one’s home depends on his or her personal preferences. Many estate administrators find it easier to hire a professional to come in and handle things.

No matter who is doing the actual sorting, gifting, and selling, the first step in the cleaning out process should be passing on items that are specifically named in the will. If mom willed all her jewelry to sister Sue, get all of it out of mom’s house and in to Sue hands.

Do you have a plan for paying for your long-term care? Most people do not, which limits one’s options and leads to poor choices. That’s why there are so many horror stories out there about seniors losing properties that have been in their family for years because they fell and broke a hip.

Planning ahead is the only way to make long-term care costs manageable. For most people that means planning on relying on Medicaid. Though this popular government program was designed to be a last resort for people who have no other way to finance their long-term care, it has become the single largest payer of nursing home bills in America.

In order to qualify for Medicaid, an individual must have a low income and be under the age of 21 or over the age of 65, or be disabled or blind. The exact income eligibility requirements vary from state to state. People who have too many assets or make too much money to qualify can “spend down” in order to become eligible for for the program.

If you are starting to feel like Cary Grant in “Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House” or Tom Hanks in “The Money Pit” you are not alone. Experts say that the average homeowner should expect to spend at least 1 percent of his home's value each year on repairs and general maintenance. The older you get the more difficult this becomes as the house gets older and needs more work, and you get older and can handle less of that work yourself.

If you are having trouble keeping up with needed home repairs, you may want to consider applying for the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency’s...

Agent Orange was a powerful herbicide the U.S. military sprayed on jungle terrain and crop lands occupied by our enemies, and on our military bases beginning in the 1950s. Today its use is banned as we now know exposure to it causes many health issues. Some veterans who were exposed to it are eligible for compensation and others may soon be.

In October, Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the moon, will be appearing in court. The whole world will once again be watching him, but this time it is not a happy occasion. Earlier this year, Buzz’s children, filed a legal petition seeking guardianship over him, and he filed a lawsuit in response.

The tv commercials toting them aren’t as prevalent as they once were, but we still get a lot of questions about reverse mortgages from our estate planning clients. We’ve therefore put together this quick primer on them.

What is a reverse mortgage?

A reverse mortgage is exactly what it sounds like - the reverse of a mortgage.

The Frank Capra’s Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life was recently on tv as part of some sort of “Christmas in July” promotion, and I happened to catch the part where mean old Mr. Potter suggests that George Bailey is worth more dead than alive because all he has to his name is a $500 life insurance policy.

Setting aside the fact that most policies are void if the insured commits suicide, there’s a lot of folks in the world who are worth more financially after they are dead than while they were alive thanks to life insurance. The reason why draws you back to one of the lessons learned in Bedford Falls - you can’t overestimate the value of your life because the impact your life has on your loved ones and the world around you is far greater than you know.

Hopefully insurance companies appreciate this despite the fact that putting a value on a person’s life is precisely the business they are in.

Anthony Bourdain’s suicide left many of us shaken to the core. It is shockingly sad that someone so gifted, who seemed to have such a thirst for life, would want to give his up. His estate plan reflects what we as a public knew about him, and is a perfect example of why everyone should work with an experienced attorney to craft a customized estate plan rather than buying the legal equivalent of a fast food burger from an online, DIY site.

There are a lot of strange things you will have to do when a loved one dies, and handing out copies of their death certificate is one of them. You may need around 20 copies of your loved one’s death certificate in order to settle his or her estate.

A death certificate is a government form filled out by the funeral home or mortuary at the time of death.

Do you ever walk into another room to get something, and suddenly forget what that something is? Do you get confused and irritable when you are tired? Did you understand all of the fine print in the last contract you signed? Depending on how you answer these questions, someone might challenge your mental capacity to make an estate plan.

At its heart, an estate plan is a bunch of contracts. And one of the fundamental rules of contracts is that the parties entering into them must have the mental capacity to understand what they are agreeing to.

If you have a loved one with special needs, you already know that the benefits they receive from the government are both amazing and completely inadequate. Your loved one would not have the quality of life they currently enjoy without receiving government benefits, but the benefits only provide for very basic needs.

You likely supplement the government benefits, but understand there are rules you must follow in order to preserve your loved one’s eligibility. The need to carefully manage your loved one’s benefits and care while providing them with the highest quality of life possible will not end when you pass away. Therefore it is important to do what you can now to plan ahead for the time when you will no longer be there.