We do special needs planning here at Morton Law, but I haven’t touched on it much recently. I’d like to do so here. Special needs refers to people with a mental or physical handicap that renders them unable to provide for themselves. Disabled individuals qualify for some kind of public assistance, usually Supplemental Security Income (SSI) […]

There are big changes afoot for inherited IRAs. Justices have made a unanimous decision in the landmark United States Supreme Court Case Clark v. Rameker, which was centered around the question of whether IRAs that a beneficiary inherits are considered “retirement funds” anymore. And it’s a valid question. IRAs are designed as retirement vehicles for […]

In last week’s blog post, we discussed how Robin Williams engaged in solid estate planning by establishing a trust. That affords his family the dignity of privacy and saves them a lot of time, money, and headaches going through the court system. Case Study of a Fighting Family This week, I thought it would be […]

Robin Williams’ death was a tragedy, no question about it. He was a brilliant and generous man who touched millions of lives with his sense of humor, and he’ll be sorely missed. However, in the midst of this tragedy, there is a silver lining for his family, and that’s the fact that he had established […]

Have you been tuned in to the recent Veterans Affairs benefits controversy? The reality of it is something we experience on our end every day, as we help elders submit claims for veterans benefits. We’ve seen claims that take a tremendous amount of time to process—sometimes from nine months to a year or more. This […]

Based just outside of Canton, Mississippi, SON Valley is a Christian care facility for mentally retarded and developmentally disabled adults. Baptist Homes, Inc., the organization that founded SON Valley, did so out of recognition for a need that was going desperately unserved. Why SON Valley Was Founded The issue the founders of SON Valley saw […]

There’s a lot to understand about long-term care insurance, but the biggest question to answer is this: Is long-term care insurance worth it? Before we answer that, we have to define long-term care and why insurance for long-term care could be useful. Put simply, some people have chronic, lifetime disabilities or diseases that require ongoing […]

As you probably already know, estate planning is a very important process for everyone. Whether people have substantial assets or not, they still have wishes that should be recorded and documented. Unfortunately, many forget or delay this crucial activity until it’s too late! The final opportunity for many people to get estate planning handled is […]

A new law went into effect July 1, called the Domestic Asset Protection Trust Statute (referred to here in Mississippi as the Qualified Disposition in Trust Act). Mississippi joins fourteen other states in allowing you to move assets into an irrevocable trust and make them unavailable to third-party creditors. That gives you protection for those […]

For those who don’t know, Mississippi recently modernized its archaic trust code by adopting the Mississippi Uniform Trust Code. The Uniform Trust Code is a national codification of the law of trusts, and its adoption in Mississippi is welcome. Why is this a step forward? It’s because there were several items in our old trust […]