Answer:  If you are a professional who helps families plan for or deal with ANY of their elder care matters, then you owe it to yourself to be listed on America's #1 online source for "Elder Care Experts"….

ElderCareMatters.com

ElderCareMatters.com is where you will find more than 2,000 competent, caring elder care experts located across America, including:

• Elder Law Attorneys
• Estate Planning Advisors
• Financial Planners
• Investment Advisors
• Geriatric Care Managers
• Insurance Professionals
• Life Care Planners
• Professional Organizers
• Reverse Mortgage Lenders
• Senior Move Managers
• Senior Real Estate Professionals
•  Tax Advisors
• Aging in Place Professionals
• Daily Money Managers
• And other elder care experts with long and successful careers working with seniors and their families

This is also where you will find some of America's best:

• Assisted Living Communities
• Alzheimer's / Memory Care Communities
• Continuing Care Retirement Communities
• Home Care Agencies

Together, we provide families across America with:

• Unparalleled professional expertise
• Up-to-date elder care information & answers to your elder care questions
• Competent, caring assistance with a wide range of elder care services

So if you are a competent, caring elder care professional who helps families with ANY of their elder care matters, then request today an Application for Membership in the national ElderCare Matters Alliance and get listed on ElderCareMatters.com - America's #1 source for "Elder Care Experts" plus information and answers about a wide range of elder care matters.

Phillip G. Sanders, MBA, MSHA, CPA
Founder & CEO
ElderCare Matters, LLC
ElderCareMatters.com

 

 

 

Answer:  It is my pleasure to provide you with the following list of the 87 different elder care services that are currently provided by the members of the national ElderCare Matters Alliance on ElderCareMatters.com:

1. Accounting Services
2. Adult Day Care
3. Advance Medical Directives
4. Aging in Place Services
5. Alzheimer's / Memory Care Communities
6. Annuities
7. Arbitration
8. Asset Protection Planning
9. Assisted Living Communities
10. Assisted Living Referral Services
11. Bankruptcy
12. Bill Paying
13. Budgeting
14. Caregiving Education
15. Companion Care
16. Conservatorship
17. Consumer Law
18. Continuing Care Retirement Communities
19. Cremation Services
20. Crisis Intervention
21. Daily Money Management
22. Dementia Care
23. Disability Income Insurance
24. Disability Planning
25. Elder Abuse Litigation Services
26. Elder Law
27. ElderCare Planning
28. Estate Administration
29. Estate Liquidation
30. Estate Planning
31. Family Law
32. Financial Planning
33. Funeral Services
34. Geriatric Care Management
35. Guardianship
36. Health Insurance
37. Hoarding Clean Up and Coaching Services
38. Home Care
39. Home Downsizing Services
40. Home Health Care
41. Home Modifications
42. Hospice Care
43. Independent Living Communities
44. Investment Services
45. Life Care Planning
46. Life Insurance
47. Litigation
48. Long Term Care Insurance
49. Long Term Care Planning
50. Medicaid Planning
51. Medical Services
52. Medical Alert Systems
53. Medical Claims Processing
54. Medical Equipment & Supplies
55. Medical Malpractice Litigation
56. Medicare Consulting
57. Medicare Supplemental Insurance
58. Medication Management Services
59. Moving Services
60. Nursing Homes
61. Personal Finance
62. Powers of Attorney
63. Probate
64. Professional Organizing
65. Public / Non-Profit Resources
66. Real Estate Services
67. Rehabilitation Services
68. Residential Psychiatric Care
69. Respite Care
70. Retirement Planning
71. Reverse Mortgages
72. Securities Arbitration & Litigation Services
73. Senior Housing
74. Senior Move Management
75. Senior Move Planning
76. Senior Relocation Services
77. Social Security Disability Services
78. Special Needs Planning
79. Tax Law
80. Tax Planning
81. Tax Preparation
82. Transportation Services
83. Trustee / Fiduciary Services
84. Trusts
85. VA Benefits
86. Wills
87. Wound Care

The goal of ElderCareMatters.com is to provide families across America with the help they need to plan for and deal with their elder care matters.  Let us know if there are other elder care services that you would like to have us list on ElderCareMatters.com – America's #1 source for Elder Care Experts plus information & answers about a wide range of elder care matters.

Phillip G. Sanders, MBA, MSHA, CPA
Founder & CEO, ElderCare Matters, LLC
ElderCareMatters.com
1-877-379-4500

Answer:  ElderCareMatters.com is an elder care resource to help families across America plan for and deal with their elder care matters.  With this goal in mind, we will continue to add more elder care-related services to ElderCareMatters.com in order to make this online elder care resource invaluable for families looking for help in planning for and/or dealing with their elder care matters.

Below are the 72 different elder care services currently listed on ElderCareMatters.com (with more services soon to be added): 

1. Adult Day Care
2. Advance Medical Directives
3. Aging in Place Services
4. Alzheimer's / Memory Care Communities
5. Annuities
6. Arbitration
7. Asset Protection Planning
8. Assisted Living Communities
9. Assisted Living Referral Services
10. Bankruptcy
11. Caregiving Education
12. Consumer Law
13. Continuing Care Retirement Communities
14. Crisis Intervention
15. Daily Money Management / Bill Paying
16. Dementia Care
17. Disability Income Insurance
18. Elder Abuse Litigation Services
19. Elder Law
20. ElderCare Planning / Long-Term Care Planning
21. Estate Administration
22. Estate Liquidation
23. Estate Planning
24. Financial Planning
25. Funeral Services
26. Geriatric Care Management
27. Guardianship / Conservatorship
28. Health Insurance
29. Hoarding Clean Up and Coaching Services
30. Home Care
31. Home Downsizing Services
32. Home Health Care
33. Home Modifications
34. Hospice Care
35. Independent Living Communities
36. Investment Services
37. Life Care Planning
38. Life Insurance
39. Litigation
40. Long-Term Care Insurance
41. Medicaid / Disability Planning
42. Medical / Healthcare
43. Medical Alert Systems
44. Medical Claims Processing
45. Medical Equipment & Supplies
46. Medicare Consulting
47. Medicare Supplemental Insurance
48. Medication Management Services
49. Moving / Relocation Services
50. Personal Finance / Accounting / Tax Preparation
51. Powers of Attorney
52. Probate
53. Professional Organizing
54. Public / Non-Profit Resources
55. Real Estate Services
56. Rehabilitation Services
57. Residential Psychiatric Care
58. Respite Care
59. Retirement Planning
60. Reverse Mortgages
61. Securities Arbitration & Litigation Services
62. Senior Move Management
63. Senior Move Planning
64. Social Security Disability Services
65. Special Needs Planning
66. Tax Law
67. Tax Planning
68. Transportation Services
69. Trustee / Fiduciary Services
70. Trusts
71. VA Benefits
72. Wills

If you need help with your family's elder care matters, you can count on ElderCareMatters.com to provide you with the experts, information & answers you need to plan for and deal with your elder care matters.

Phillip G. Sanders, MBA, MSHA, CPA
Founder & CEO of ElderCareMatters.com
1-877-379-4500

Answer:  Generally, a fiduciary is a person who manages property for the benefit of another, exercises discretionary authority or control over an asset(s), and/or renders comprehensive and continuous investment advice.  When you accept the role to trustee, you are a fiduciary and accordingly you become personally liable to all trust beneficiaries.  Liability is not determined by the performance of investments but by whether you followed “prudent investment practices”.   

The Prudent Investor Act sets forth 7 Uniform Standards of Care to avoid being found liable for investments losing value:

1. Know standards, laws, and trust provisions.
2. Diversify assets to the specific risk/return profile of the trust.  Each trust and beneficiary will have specific cash flow requirements and risk return objectives.  The interests of all need to be weighed.
3. Prepare an Investment Policy Statement (IPS).  The IPS is basically a business plan for the trust’s investments.  It lays out goals and policies regarding trust investments.
4. Use “prudent experts” (lawyers, money managers, CPAs) and document due diligence.  Unless you are an experienced professional this can be a daunting task.  Any slip up and you could be paying out of your pocket.  Hiring an expert, so long as you use due diligence in determining their qualifications, and your liability is eliminated.
5. Control and account for investment expenses.  It is your role to make sure that the trust is paying a fair fee for the professional services.
6. Monitor the activity of “prudent experts”.  Monitoring the investment professional is part of using due diligence.  You, as trustee, want to be sure the money manager is not taking funds and is working toward accomplishing the goals stated in the IPS.
7. Avoid conflicts of interest and prohibited transactions.  Although this seems silly, trustees often violate this principal.  A trustee cannot use entrusted assets for personal or business gain.   

This is one of the most common areas of litigation we see today.  Especially with the market falling and stocks losing value, people are afraid to make changes and are standing still, thinking that if they do nothing they will not be liable for losses.  NOT TRUE.  Trustees do not need to personally guarantee every investment decision is successful.  What a trustee should do is follow a system that ensures you are following the Prudent Investor Act standards.  There is a 5 Step Investment Management Process you can use to be sure you are within the prudent investor standard:

1. Analyze Current Position.  This is where you review current investment activates, disbursements, investing strategies and policies, and legal constraints.  You examine what the trust’s investment picture currently looks like.
2. Design the Optimal Portfolio.  This is where you propose optimal asset allocation strategies and suggest any changes, keeping in mind the current market.
3. Formalize Investment Policy.  The policy should include investment objectives, guidelines, as well as guidelines for selecting and monitoring money managers, if you have them.
4. Implement Policy.  Here you would propose a number of alternative money manager structures, negotiate favorable fees and coordinate brokerage services.
5. Monitor & Supervise.  In monitoring the investments you would prepare detailed monthly appraisal and transaction report as well as quarterly reports that compare performance of the trust’s investments against the performance of the market and the state objectives.  

To answer your question, as long as you followed the 7 Uniform Standards of Care and the 5 step process for managing investments you will not be found liable for any investment losses. 

To find  competent, caring elder care professionals across America who are located near You and can help you with your elder care matters, go to: www.ElderCareMatters.com - A FREE online resource to find elder care experts plus elder care information & answers to your elder care questions.

Dennis B. Sullivan, Esq., LLM, CPA
Estate Planning & Asset Protection Law Center of Dennis Sullivan & Assoc.
Wellesley, Massachusetts  02482
781-237-2815
Member of the national ElderCare Matters Alliance, Massachusetts chapter 

This week's Featured Elder Care Expert is Angela N. Manz, Attorney at Law, Member of the ElderCare Matters Alliance (a network of 1,450+ elder care experts) and Founder of the Law Office of Angela N. Manz, a law firm in Virginia Beach, Virginia, that specializes in Elder Law, Estate Planning, and closely related practice areas. 

Every day this week (M-F), Ms. Manz will answer one of your questions about her areas of expertise (Elder Law & Estate Planning), and this selected question along with Ms. Manz 's answer will be posted on the Featured Elder Care Question of the Day section of ElderCareMatters.com.

So if you would like to ask Ms. Manz a question about your elder care matter, just send a short email (a few sentences only please) to: questions@ElderCareMatters. com.

And remember to bookmark ElderCareMatters.com and check back often to see if your question is our Featured Elder Care Question of the Day.

Get FREE advice every day about elder care matters from one of our 1,375+ elder care experts (and our team of experts is growing daily).

Families now have FREE access every day to the advice of one of our 1,375+ ElderCare Matters Alliance experts, offering YOU not only answers to your elder care questions but also providing you with up-to-date, useful articles about a wide range of elder care matters. This is information that will help YOU plan for and deal with your family's issues of aging.

This week's Featured Elder Care Expert is Dennis Duncan, Attorney at Law, from Macon, Georgia.  Mr. Duncan provides legal assistance in the areas of Elder Law, Elder Care Planning, Asset Protection Planning, Social Security, Medicaid/Disability Planning, Wills and Trusts, Advance Directives, Probate Law, Guardianship/Conservatorship, and Annuities.  Mr. Duncan will answer a different question each day about his areas of expertise, and a selected question along with Mr. Duncan's answer will be posted on the Featured Elder Care Question of the Day section of www.ElderCareMatters.com.

So if you would like to ask Mr. Duncan a question about an elder care matter, just send a short email (a few sentences only please along with your first name and City & State) to: questions@ElderCareMatters.com. 

And remember to bookmark www.ElderCareMatters.com and check back every day to see if your question is our Featured Elder Care Question of the Day. 

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Special Offer for ALL Elder Care Professionals:  The next 125 elder care professionals who apply for Lifetime Membership in the national ElderCare Matters Alliance will receive a 25% discount off the regular price of $450 for lifetime membership.  (Just $337.50 for a "lifetime membership")  This is a very cost effective way to "get the word out" to literally hundreds of thousands of families across America about how you and your company can help families with their elder care matters. 

So if you are a competent, caring elder care professional – take advantage of this special 25% discount offer for a "lifetime membership" (and there are no annual membership dues, ever!) in the national ElderCare Matters Alliance.

At last, families across America have one resource they can tap into daily to relieve the stress of aging… ElderCareMatters.com

ElderCareMatters.com, along with the 1,350+ members of the national ElderCare Matters Alliance, provides families with the elder care resources they need to plan for and deal with their issues of aging.  In fact, here is where you will locate, by state, some of America's top elder care professionals who provide a total of 68 different elder care services that will help you plan for and deal with your family's issues of aging, including: Advance Medical Directives Aging In Place Services Alzheimer's / Memory Care Communities Annuities  Arbitration  Asset Protection Planning Assisted Living Communities  Assisted Living Referral Services Bankruptcy Caregiving Education  Consumer Law Continuing Care Retirement Communiities Crisis Intervention Daily Money Management / Bill Paying Disability Income Insurance Elder Abuse Litigation Services Elder Law ElderCare Planning / Long-Term Care Planning Estate Administration Estate Liquidation Estate Planning Financial Planning Geriatric Care Management Guardianship / Conservatorship Health Insurance Hoarding Clean Up and Coaching Services Home Care Home Downsizing Services Home Health Care Home Modifications Hospice Care Independent Living Communities Investment Services Life Care Planning Life Insurance Litigation Long-Term Care Insurance Medicaid / Disability Planning Medical / Healthcare Medical Alert Systems Medical Claims Processing Medical Equipment & Supplies Medicare Consulting Medicare Supplemental Insurance Medication Therapy Management Moving / Relocation Services Personal Finance / Accounting / Tax Preparation Powers of Attorney Probate Public / Non-Profit Resources Real Estate Services Rehabilitation Services Residential Psychiatric Care Respite Care Retirement Planning Reverse Mortgages Securities Arbitration & Litigation Services Senior Move Management Senior Move Planning Social Security Disability Services Special Needs Planning Tax Law Tax Planning Transportation Services Trustee / Fiduciary Services Trusts VA Benefits Wills

If you and your family need help with your elder care matters, this is where you will find competent, caring elder care experts located near you who provide a total of 68 different services that will help you plan for and deal with your family's issues of aging.  Whether you are looking for: an elder law attorney in Philadelphia a geriatric care manager in South Florida a long-term care insurance professional in Fort Worth, a home care provider in Southern California, or an assisted living community in Phoenix (as shown in the photo above)… you can count on www.ElderCareMatters.com to help you find the Elder Care Experts and services that you will need in ALL 50 states (plus the District of Columbia).

Special Offer for ALL Elder Care Professionals:  The next 125 elder care professionals who apply for Lifetime Membership in the national ElderCare Matters Alliance will receive a 25% discount off the regular price of lifetime membership. So if you are a competent, caring elder care professional – take advantage of this special 25% discount offer and pay only $337.50 for a "lifetime membership" (and there are no annual membership dues, ever!) in the national ElderCare Matters Alliance.    To request a Membership Application, send an email to: info@ElderCareMatters.com.

Answer:  No!  All wills are probated and testamentary trusts are created within wills; thus assets devised in a will to a testamentary trust would have to be probated.  The fact that a testamentary trust has been created has not accomplished any avoidance of probate.

Testamentary trusts serve a useful purpose in that they can be used as a tax-saving tool to divide large estates, and they can be a useful tool to keep persons from receiving an estate in one lump sum.  Testamentary trusts are also useful when beneficiaries are to receive “income only” monies.

If one has an interest in setting up a trust that has all of the advantages of a testamentary trust plus avoid probate, then an exploration of the “living trust” should take place.  Living trusts are also known as revocable trusts, family trusts, and a grantor’s trust.

Living trusts differ from testamentary trusts in that living trusts are established now while you are living, and you go through a personal (probate) proving process of your estate yourself without using the court process.  This process is accomplished by keeping a Schedule “A” or inventory list of the items you have registered to the trust.  You never lose any power or control over any assets that you own in the trust and you, yourself, serve as “trustee” of the trust.

 A common myth about living trusts is that you lose control of your own property or that the trust needs a tax number.  Neither is true, as no tax number is required and you don’t lose any control of the assets.

The decision concerning whether one would want a living trust versus a testamentary trust will probably center around whether one would want his estate to be probated through the court system or whether one would rather bypass the probate system.

This discussion often centers around who the beneficiaries and successor trustees are.  For example, if the successor trustees and beneficiaries are children, then many people desire to avoid probate and leave their entire estate probate-free.

For those persons who had testamentary trusts drawn into their wills before December of 2009, a thorough review of their documents should be analyzed by an attorney, as the many tax changes that have taken place may have necessitated revisions to their documents.

For a thorough discussion of your estate planning needs, you should ask your attorney about trusts for your estate.

To locate experts in your state who can help you with this elder care matter, go to: www.ElderCareMatters.com/statechapters.htm

Joseph F. Pippen, Jr., Attorney at Law
Law Office of Joseph F. Pippen, Jr. & Associates
Largo, Florida  33771
727-586-3306

Member of the national ElderCare Matters Alliance, Florida chapter

Answer:  If the trust is a revocable (or living) trust, then the income that is generated is simply reported on the Settlor's individual income tax return during his life.  Upon the Settlor's death, the revocable trust becomes irrevocable and becomes a separate entity for tax purposes.  Once a trust is irrevocable, any income that is trapped in the trust (not distributed to a beneficiary) is generally reported on a fiduciary income tax return (Form 1041).  Generally, to the extent income is passed out to a beneficiary, that income is reported on the beneficiary's individual income tax return.  However, if the trust is a simple trust (meaning a beneficiary is required to receive all of the income of the trust under the terms of the document), then the income is reported on the beneficiary's income tax return.  There are other types of trusts (irrevocable trusts established during the life of a grantor/settlor, grantor trusts, etc.) which have various tax treatments.  In order to determine the proper tax treatment, the trust agreement must be reviewed.

NOTE:  The information provided above is not intended to be nor should be relied upon as legal advice.  Peck Bloom, LLC is located in the State of Illinois and the attorneys are only licensed to practice law in Illinois and Florida.  You should consult a qualified attorney licensed in your state regarding these matters.

To locate experts in your state who can help you with this elder care matter, go to: www.ElderCareMatters.com/statechapters.htm

Kerry R. Peck, Managing Partner
Peck Bloom, LLC
Chicago, Illinois  60603
1-877-845-1743

Member of the national ElderCare Matters Alliance, Illinois chapter

Answer:  You should keep the most recent version of your legal documents (wills, trusts, powers of attorney) forever (or until any administration on your estate after you die is complete). If you get a new document done, you can destroy the old one.  You can definitely keep the documents in your safety deposit box; however, make sure someone other than yourself has access to the box. That way, if something happens to you, someone can get into the box to obtain your documents.

Ben A. Neiburger, JD, CPA
Neiburger Law, Ltd.
Elmhurst, Illinois  60126
630-782-1766
Member of the national ElderCare Matters Alliance, Illinois chapter

Answer: It appears that with the facts given you could put the money into a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust and he should qualify for Medicaid now.  If carefully drafted, you could be the trustee and even provide for certain bills that could be paid from these funds for his care.

David F. Anderson, Esq.
David F. Anderson, P.A.
Miami Lakes, Florida  33016
305-825-4052
Member of the national ElderCare Matters Alliance, Florida chapter

Answer:  Legal problems that affect the elderly are growing in number.  Our laws and regulations are becoming more complex.  Actions taken by older people with regard to a single matter may have unintended legal effects.  It is important for attorneys dealing with the elderly to have a broad understanding of the laws that may have an impact on a given situation, to avoid future problems. 

Unfortunately, this job is not made easy by the fact that Elder Law encompasses many different fields of law.  Some of these include:

• Preservation/transfer of assets seeking to avoid spousal impoverishment when a spouse enters a nursing home
• Medicaid
• Medicare claims and appeals
• Social security and disability claims and appeals
• Supplemental and long term health insurance issues.
• Disability planning, including use of durable powers of attorney, living trusts, “living wills,” for financial management and health care decisions, and other means of delegating management and decision-making to another in case of incompetence or incapacity.
• Conservatorships and guardianships
• Estate planning, including planning for the management of one's estate during life and its disposition on death through the use of trusts, wills and other planning documents
• Probate
• Administration and management of trusts and estates
• Long-term care placements in nursing home and life care communities
• Nursing home issues including questions of patients’ rights and nursing home quality
• Elder abuse and fraud recovery cases
• Housing issues, including discrimination and home equity conversions
• Age discrimination in employment
• Retirement, including public and private retirement benefits, survivor benefits and pension benefits
• Health law
• Mental health law

Most Elder Law Attorneys do not specialize in every one of these areas.  So when an attorney says he/she practices Elder Law, find out which of these matters he/she handles.  You will want to hire the attorney who regularly handles matters in the area of concern in your particular case and who will know enough about the other fields to question whether the action being taken might be affected by laws in any of the other areas of law on the list.  For example, if you are going to prepare a new will and your spouse is ill, the estate planner needs to know enough about Medicaid to know whether it is an issue with regard to your spouse’s medical care planning.

David F. Anderson, Esq.
David F. Anderson, P.A.
Miami Lakes, Florida  33016
305-825-4052
Member of the national ElderCare Matters Alliance, Florida chapter

Steven H. Peck, Attorney at Law
Law Offices of Steven H. Peck, Ltd.
300 Saunders Road
Suite 100
Riverwoods, Illinois  60015

Member of the national ElderCare Matters Alliance, Illinois chapter

Steven H. Peck is a native of Boston, Massachusetts and is married with three daughters. Mr. Peck graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Harvard College. He received his Juris Doctor degree from Boston College Law School.

Mr. Peck is licensed to practice law in Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Florida and six federal jurisdictions, including the United States Supreme Court and the United States Tax Court.

Mr. Peck has been involved in the estate and tax planning field for over 19 years and is devoted full time to the practice of estate planning. He is a member of the Illinois Forum of Estate Planning Attorneys as well as Wealth Counsel, a nationwide group of attorneys committed to bringing their clients the finest estate planning advice and documentation possible. Additionally, he is a member of Elder Counsel, which is devoted to the practice of elder law and special needs planning. Mr. Peck is also listed in Nationwide Register’s, Who’s Who in Executives and Businesses.

Mr. Peck has presented several hundred seminars on the topic of estate planning for the public and various private organizations across the country. He was also a faculty member for National Business Institute’s professional education seminar “Handling the Generation-Skipping Transfer Tax”.

Prior to estate planning law Mr. Peck practiced real estate development law and spent four years active duty as a captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Additionally, he has a substantial knowledge of the insurance field having spent several years as an insurance broker prior to practicing law.

Answer:  If you are an elder care professional and you would like to "get the word out to thousands of families across America in a cost effective way about how you can help them plan for and deal with their issues of aging", then you should join our 1,250 elder care experts as a lifetime member of the national ElderCare Matters Alliance.  And, now, if you are one of the next 250 members, you will receive a 25% discount off the regular lifetime membership price.

This 25% discount is available only to the next 250 elder care professionals who join the national ElderCare Matters Alliance.

So if you are a competent, caring elder care professional – take advantage of this special 25% discount offer and pay only $337.50 for a "lifetime membership" (and there are no annual membership dues, ever!) to the national ElderCare Matters Alliance.

To request an Application for Lifetime Membership, send an email directly to: psanders@eldercarematters.com

Phillip G. Sanders, MBA, MSHA, CPA
Founder & CEO
ElderCare Matters, LLC
1-877-379-4500
www.ElderCareMatters.com

If you are an elder care professional and you would like to "get the word out to thousands of families across America in a cost effective way about how you can help them plan for and deal with their issues of aging", then you should join our 1,250 elder care experts as a lifetime member of the national ElderCare Matters Alliance.  And, now, if you are one of the next 250 members, you will receive a 25% discount off the regular lifetime membership price.

This 25% discount is available only to the next 250 elder care professionals who join the national ElderCare Matters Alliance.

So if you are a competent, caring elder care professional – take advantage of this special 25% discount offer and pay only $337.50 for a "lifetime membership" (and there are no annual membership dues, ever!) to the national ElderCare Matters Alliance.

To request an Application for Lifetime Membership, send an email directly to: psanders@eldercarematters.com

Phillip G. Sanders, MBA, MSHA, CPA
Founder & CEO
ElderCare Matters, LLC
1-877-379-4500
www.ElderCareMatters.com

Answer:  The trustee would deposit to the court receipts for all monies and property with statements of what has been accomplished to find the beneficiary, including publication.  For protection, the trustee should also obtain a court order regarding the final distribution, which will be accomplished as if the missing beneficiary is not alive. 

To find an elder care expert near you who can help you with your elder care matters, go to www.eldercarematters.com/statechapters.htm

Shelley A. Elder, Esq.
Elder Law Firm, PLLC
Kennesaw, Georgia  30152
404-783-2244
Member of the national ElderCare Matters Alliance, Georgia chapter

Answer:  The experts of the national ElderCare Matters Alliance.

ElderCareMatters.com is now offering a NEW Ask an Elder Care Expert service.

Each week one of our 1,200 experts will answer your family's important questions about elder care matters – from legal, financial, housing, health care, etc.

If you would like to ask one of our Elder Care Experts a question about his/her areas of expertise, just send a short email (a few sentences only please) to:  Questions@ElderCareMatters.com

Every day we will post one of your questions along with an answer provided by our Featured Elder Care Expert of the Week to the homepage of www.ElderCareMatters.com (which is currently visited by thousands of families each week).  Yours may be one of the questions posted.

So bookmark www.ElderCareMatters.com and visit us daily as questions about a wide range of elder care matters are answered by some of America's top elder care professionals with years of experience helping families plan for and deal with their issues of aging.

Phillip G. Sanders, MBA, MSHA, CPA
Founder & CEO
ElderCare Matters
1-877-379-4500
www.ElderCareMatters.com

Answer:  A revocable trust is one type of trust.  In general, trusts present many planning opportunities.  The hallmark of a revocable trust is that it may be revoked or amended at any time.  Other trusts cannot be revoked.  These are called “irrevocable”.  In some jurisdictions the revocable trust is called a “living trust.”   Some of the purposes of a revocable trust are:  To avoid probate at death, including more than one probate if you have properties in more than one state and prevent court oversight and control of the disposition of your assets if you become incapacitated.  If your assets are held in a revocable trust, they may be more rapidly distributed to your beneficiaries than through the probate process.  A properly drafted revocable trust may reduce or eliminate estate taxes.  A revocable trust is difficult to contest and can prevent court oversight of minors’ inheritances.  In that instance, you choose who oversees the minor’s monies.  It can prevent problems that occur with joint ownership of property, and unintended results upon death.  A revocable trust is not expensive to set up.

A trust like this works when you transfer your assets from your name to the trust over which you maintain control during your lifetime.  Technically the trust owns everything you transfer into it, but YOU maintain control and can do anything you want to do with those assets during your lifetime.  If you become incapacitated, the trust and not the court will control you assets. You do not have to have a separate tax ID for a revocable trust.  There are times when a revocable trust may not  be a good idea is when you need to protect assets for long-term care needs.  This is because the assets in this type of trust are fully countable, and will have to be spent down before you may seek Medicaid benefits.  Sometimes people place their primary residence into a revocable trust.  The difficulty here is that for Medicaid purposes you have transferred an asset that is not countable when you seek Medicaid, and made it entirely countable by the transfer into the trust. 

These trusts should be drafted for you by a qualified estate  planning and elder law  attorney IN YOUR STATE who specializes in Elder Law and Estate Planning, following a full intake to ensure that this move is right for you.  Please note:  I am a Massachusetts elder law attorney, and the law may be different elsewhere.

To locate attorneys in your state who can help you with this elder care matter, I would recommend that you search the ElderCare Matters listing of experts at www.ElderCareMatters.com/statechapters.htm.

Susana Lannik, Attorney at Law
Newton, MA  02458
617-658-2980
Member of the national ElderCare Matters Alliance, Massachusetts chapter

The ElderCare Matters Alliance is a national organization of 1,200 elder care experts who help families across America plan for and deal with their issues of aging, including providing families with a host of elder care resources that can be found on www.ElderCareMatters.com

If you are a competent, caring elder care professional – you need to belong to the national ElderCare Matters Alliance.

To request a Lifetime Membership Application to the national ElderCare Matters Alliance, send an email to psanders@ElderCareMatters.com

www.ElderCareMatters.com – America's online source for elder care experts who help families plan for and deal with their issues of aging.

Phillip G. Sanders, MBA, MSHA, CPA
Founder & CEO
ElderCare Matters
www.ElderCareMatters.com

Answer:  Your best move is to contact a Georgia attorney ASAP.  For a listing of Georgia Elder Care attorneys, you can take a look at http://www.eldercarematters.com/georgia/. 

Generally, documents that are valid in the State where they are signed will be deemed valid in other States, even if the other States impose different or additional signing requirements (such as whether they must be notarized or whether they need to be witnessed, and if so, by how many witnesses). 
Thus, the Missouri documents may be just fine for Georgia purposes, but only a Georgia-licensed attorney can answer that question with authority.

The fact that your father has Alzheimer's may or may not impact his ability to sign documents.  Obviously, mild Alzheimer's would not be an insurmountable problem, and even more advanced stages of the disease may not preclude a person's ability to sign documents that set out his or her simple choice of who will be the person's surrogate decision-maker.  What level of capacity is required to be able to sign different kinds of documents is a question of State law, so again, you are best advised to talk with a Georgia attorney at first opportunity.

If your father's Missouri documents turn out to be invalid or unhelpful in Georgia, there may be a variety of things that can be done under Georgia law to protect his choices as previously set out in his Missouri documents.  For example, if your Georgia counsel reaches the conclusion that the Missouri documents don't work in Georgia, you may be able to go before a Georgia court to have a guardian appointed for your father.  Your father's expression of his choice as to who would make decisions on his behalf if he became unable to make them himself would, at the very least, be grounds for the Georgia court to appoint the very people your father had hand-picked while he was competent.

Scott A. Makuakane, Esq., CFP
Est8Planning Counsel LLLC
Honolulu, Hawaii  96813
808-587-8227
Member of the national ElderCare Matters Alliance, Hawaii chapter

Answer:  With very few exceptions, a Will or a trust that is valid in the State in which it is created will be valid in another State.  Thus, Wills and trusts are generally "portable" from one State to another.  It is still a good idea to have your Will and trust reviewed by an attorney licensed to practice in your new State of residence, because there might be some peculiarity of local law that should be addressed in your estate plan.

The rules regarding advance health-care directives and powers of attorney, on the other hand, vary enough from State to State that you should certainly have these documents reviewed–and probably updated–when you move to another State.  Another document that should be reviewed and probably updated when you move goes hand in hand with your advance directive.  It goes by various names (one of them is "HIPAA Authorization"), but its purpose is to give your medical providers permission to communicate with your chosen decision-makers.  There are both Federal and State privacy laws that dictate how this authorization is given, and if your document does not satisfy local law, your advance directive may be unusable.

All of this underlines the importance of reviewing and updating your estate plan on a regular basis–we suggest once a year–because there are a great many factors that can affect how well your estate plan works.  The law changes from time to time, your health changes over time, your preferences regarding who will make decisions on your behalf if you are unable will probably change, and your dispositive wishes (who gets what) will probably change as well.  The only way to make sure that your estate plan keeps up with these changes is to review it with your trusted advisors and make any necessary "course adjustments" as the changes become apparent.

A tremendous help in finding advisors to assist you is http://www.eldercarematters.com/statechapters.htm.

Scott A. Makuakane, Esq., CFP
Est8Planning Counsel LLLC
Honolulu, Hawaii  96813
808-587-8227
Member of the national ElderCare Matters Alliance, Hawaii chapter