The House and Senate have approved a $2.9 trillion budget resolution that would keep the estate tax at where it will be in 2009 under the current law. This means that the per-person estate tax exemption would be $3.5 million ($7 million for a married couple) and the top tax rate would be 45 percent.

A Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) official says that the agency believes states now have the option of imposing a transfer penalty on an institutionalized spouse if the community spouse transfers protected resources after the institutionalized spouse’s eligibility has been determined.

This article explores many of the common misperceptions about trust owned life insurance – plus a process for you to add significant value for your clients by incorporating policy reviews of trust owned life insurance. Although trust owned life insurance (TOLI) is a common planning vehicle for high net worth individuals and families, relatively few […]

A Guardianship is controlled by the Chancery Court. The Court determines whether an individual is competent to handle their own affairs, or needs a guardian. The Court determines who will be the guardian to look after the affairs of the ward. Usually, detiled information about how the ward’s money is spent is periodically provided to the […]

A new Government Accountability Office (GAO) study concludes that few of the elderly are transferring assets in order to become financially eligible for Medicaid coverage of long-term care, and that of the transfers that are made, the amounts are modest. The study also finds that the impact of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA), […]

A U.S. District Court in Ohio finds that an assisted living facility is a long-term care facility under the terms of a long-term care insurance policy, even though the facility did not have a nurse on site 24 hours a day. Hoekenga v. Continental Casualty Company (U.S. Dist. Ct., S.D. Ohio, No. 1:06-cv-458, April 18, […]

One Medicaid planning strategy available for crisis planning is to purchase an endowment contract.  The purchase should not result in a penalty, since the commercially available contract was purchased for fair market value, and should not be counted as a resource since it has no cash value, and pays a death benefit until endowed.  That […]

Planning for tax-qualified plans, which includes IRAs, 401(k)s and qualified retirement plans, requires a careful examination of the potential taxes that impact these assets. Unlike most other assets that receive a "basis step-up" to current fair market value upon the owner’s death, IRAs, 401(k)s and other qualified retirement plans do not step-up to the date-of-death […]

Public Citizen has recently ranked Mississippi’s Medicaid program among the 10 worst in the nation.  For more information see www.citizen.org/medicaid. 

As we age, serious disability is an increasing likelihood. That’s why you should probably plan in advance to have your personal care and financial affairs managed, as you would want should you become disabled. If not, you could find yourself the focus of a Guardianship proceeding ¾ known sometimes as a Conservatorship. In a humiliating […]