NC and SC Estate Planning and Elder Law Firm

One goal of estate planning is to provide for our loved ones when we are no longer around. At times, however, some beneficiaries may irresponsible or have other issues that could lead them to squander an inheritance. In these situations, it is possible to leave assets to a troubled heir by creating a spendthrift trust. In short, the objective is to limit a beneficiary's access to trust property in order to protect it from him or herself, or creditors.

The trust is set up so that assets or funds are not provided directly to the beneficiary.
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The Department of Veterans Affairs operates several programs that provide financial, medical, and other forms of assistance to veterans. At the federal level, there are four major benefit programs:

• Disability compensation

• Free or low-cost medical care

• Education programs

Pension programsMany other types of veterans’ benefits are available as well, including special benefits regarding home financing, job training, PTSD support, small business loans, counseling, life insurance, and burial and memorial services. Benefits for survivors are also often available.
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Although they are not as popular as they were a few years ago, long-term care insurance plans are still being sold to many 50 and 60-somethings worried about how they will pay for in-home care or a nursing home stay. Before buying a long-term care plan, or making changes to an existing plan, there are a few things to look out for.

In theory, long-term care plans are great. Hiring an in-home nurse or moving into an assisted living facility can cost upwards of $90,000 per year. A lot of people are not able to afford this sort of care without government assistance.
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Although one of the attorneys in our office is a Duke alum who never cheers for the Tar Heels, it was still exciting to see North Carolina win the men’s NCAA tournament last month. And it was even more thrilling to see South Carolina win their first ever women’s title. The Carolinas are home to some really fine ball players, and we can all be proud of how the student athletes represented us.

They play so well, and are so poised during interviews, that it is easy to forget that the players in the March Madness tournament are students. (Some students are arguing that this is evidence that they are virtually professionals and should be paid like it, but that is a topic for another day.

When the ball dropped on New Year’s Eve we hope you were having a good time, and not thinking about your power of attorney documents. But we have a confession to make. We were thinking about power of attorney documents. Weird yes, but not totally bizarre. You see, South Carolina adopted a new law governing power of attorney documents in 2016, and it went into effect on January 1, 2017.
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Earlier this month the popular tech company Snap, owner of the hot app Snapchat, went public. It is just the latest example of a tech start-up that grew phenomenally by bucking the trends and cutting its own path, but that ultimately decided to take a more traditional route to fully capitalize on its success.

The crazy thing about Snap, is that its main product, Snapchat, is notoriously difficult for anyone over 30 to understand. Yet its IPO was a resounding success. Some reports suggest that the company’s devoted, young fan base may be the reason why.

Sorting out a loved one’s estate can be overwhelming. There funeral expenses to take care of right away, and other bills soon start to pile up. And there are lots of non-monetary things to take care of as well, including grieving.
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Long term care in a nursing home facility is ridiculously expensive. All but the wealthiest families would see their assets and income wiped out if they had to pay for it themselves. So how do normal families afford the care their loved ones need? They don’t. Most families rely on government assistance, specifically Medicaid, to pay for long term care.

Medicaid is the single largest payer of nursing home bills in America.

In our previous post we mentioned life insurance is a must have for new or soon-to-be parents, but it is such an important and versatile estate planning tool, that it deserves a full post of its own.

The Basics

There are two different types of life insurance, term and permanent.

Term life insurance only covers you for a specific amount of time, often 10, 20, or 30 years.

Keeping a tiny human alive and making sure they feel just how much they are loved is one of the most stressful yet most rewarding things you will ever do. Period. End of story. It is heart-wrenching to think about what would happen to them if you weren’t there to care for them, but preparing for the worst is something all new parents should do.

Life Insurance

One of the best steps you can take to prepare for the unthinkable is to buy a life insurance policy that covers the child’s primary caretakers.

It’s been said that the Vietnam War is the reason that Americans started losing faith in government, and it’s not hard to see why. The public was lied to repeatedly, and thousands of lives were lost as a result. Not surprisingly, the impacts of this controversial and costly war are still being felt. A recent story by the investigative news organization ProPublica shed light on an important, yet often overlooked impact of the war, the rise and struggle of the modern-day Vietnam widow.

The article tells the stories of women who have been widowed recently, but who argue the Vietnam War was the cause.