Estate Planning and Elder Care
Effective Massachusetts Estate Planning & Elder Law Lawyers/Rhode Island Estate Planning & Elder Law Attorneys
Boston - Brockton - Attleboro - Taunton - Fall River - New Bedford - Plymouth - MetroSouth - Eastern Mass - South Coast - Southeastern Mass - All of Rhode Island
Serving the Elderly and Their Families throughout
Massachusetts & Rhode Island
The estate planning and elder law attorneys at Percy, Tedeschi & Associates, P.C., provide outstanding representation in Bristol County, Norfolk County, Plymouth County, Middlesex County and Suffolk County in Massachusetts, and all of Rhode Island. We work with individuals, families and family-business owners with their estate planning and elder law needs, including those relating to ensuring an orderly transfer of ownership of a family owned business. Estate planning and elder law clients have a variety of goals that they seek to achieve with the assistance of an estate planning and elder law attorney. They hope to:
- Provide for the ongoing care and support of children or elders
- Distribute an estate to heirs with minimal loss to estate taxes
- Retain control over assets or access to assets that are being set aside for future generations
- Ensure that preferences are followed regarding medical treatment should he or she become incapacitated
- Provide for creation of Powers of Attorney for orderly handling of affairs predeath
- Plan for the orderly succession of leadership in a family-owned business
- Bestow assets to a favorite charity
- Establishing Guardianships and Conservatorships
- Secure Medicaid qualification via application or proper Medicaid planning
Our experienced estate planning and elder care lawyers present clients with information about the full range of tools available to meet their goals and provide accurate and thorough document preparation to ensure that the client's intentions are followed and will contests avoided. Our Massachusetts and Rhode Island estate planning and elder care attorneys assist with:
- Wills and living wills
- Health Care Proxies
- Durable Powers of Attorney
- Homesteads
- Trusts, revocable trusts, and living trusts
- Irrevocable life insurance trusts (to defer taxes)
- Medicaid qualification
- Medicaid planning
Medicaid Services for the Elderly and Their Families throughout Massachusetts & Rhode Island
In the unfortunate event that an individual needs to be admitted to a nursing home or related care facility, you may wish to apply to the state for Medicaid benefits. To be eligible the applicant must be both categorically and financially eligible. Categorical eligibility for Medicaid requires the individual to require assistance with at least two of the six daily activities of family living: (a) dressing, (b) bathing, (c) toileting, (d) transferring, i.e. moving to and from a chair or bed, (e) eating, and (f) dealing with incontinence. Financial eligibility requires, among other things, a single individual to not have so-called "countable" assets in excess of $2,000.00, and married couples cannot have family assets in excess of $101,640.
Our estate planning and elder law lawyers can help you prepare Medicaid applications and can represent you in fair hearings to determine Medicaid benefits eligibility. We can also help you with asset protection through Medicaid trusts or other techniques.
Medicaid trusts are designed to protect the trust principal from the cost of long-term care. Typical Medicaid trusts allow income earned from the principal to be paid to the grantor, however the grantor is not permitted to have access to the principal. Principal may be distributed to the certain people, essentially the grantor's children and the grantor may reserve a limited power of appointment to designate which of his or her children will receive the assets upon death. At death the Medicaid trust assets will be divided equally between the children. In establishing a Medicaid trust, assets usually will be includible in the Grantor's estate for estate tax purposes since income is payable to the grantor in the trustee's discretion. And in some states, the grantor may serve as a trustee. The family usually will receive a step-up in basis in assets upon death, thereby minimizing capital gain taxes if the property is sold after death. No probate is required since the trust serves as a "will substitute". The trust also is flexible enough for the grantor to designate the final beneficiaries, even though the trust is for "irrevocable Medicaid eligibility purposes." Remember, there is a five-year look-back so that assets transferred into the trust are not fully protected until five years after the assets are transferred. The sooner you act to set up an irrevocable Medicaid trust, the better. Contact us today for a complete analysis of your situation and the current law applicable to it.
Contact the estate planning team at Percy, Tedeschi & Associates, P.C., for sound advice on planning for your estate. We can provide a comprehensive review of your options, advise you on the best course of action, and create the documentation so that you can rest assured that your wishes will be carried out.
Providing legal services throughout Massachusetts (MA, Mass) such as in Boston, Abington, Acushnet, Attleboro, Avon, Berkely, Braintree, Bridgewater, Brockton, Canton, Carver, Dartmouth, Dedham, Dighton, Dover, East Bridgewater, Easton, Fairhaven, Fall River, Foxboro, Franklin, Freetown, Hanson, Holbrook, Lakeville, Mansfield, Marion, Mattapoisett, Medfield, Middleborough, Milton, Needham, New Bedford, Norfolk, North Attleboro, Norton, Norwood, Pembroke, Randolph, Raynham, Plymouth, Quincy, Rehoboth, Rochester, Seekonk, Somerset, Stoughton, Swansea, Taunton, Walpole, Wareham, Wellesley, West Bridgewater, Westport, Westwood, Weymouth, Whitman, and Bristol County, Middlesex County, Norfolk County, Plymouth County, Suffolk County, South Coast, Boston Metro, Boston Metro South, Southeastern Mass, South Shore, and in Providence and all of Rhode Island (RI).
