Category Archives: Sustainable Estate Planning Walnut Creek CA

When Can The State Recover Medi-Cal Payments?

If you die after having been on Medi-Cal, the state will want to recover from your estate. They will want to recover what they paid for your nursing home care while you were on Medi-Cal. If there is nothing in your estate when you die, there will have nothing in your estate for them to […]

Medi-Cal and Life Insurance Recovery

If you die after having been on Medi-Cal, the state can only recover what is left in your estate at the time of your death. Whatever is in your revocable living trust when you die, is recoverable by Medi-Cal because that is part of your estate. That is why we reserve powers in the revocable […]

Do-It-Yourself Estate Plans

If you do an on-line search, you will immediately find websites that will help you create estate planning documents like revocable living trusts and wills. The selling point of these websites is that you will save on legal fees. Accordingly, you do not receive legal representation from these web sites. But, are you being “penny […]

Changes Are Coming For VA A&A Qualification

New changes are in the works which may make it more difficult to qualify for the VA Aid & Attendance Pension Benefit. This benefit, for older war time veterans or their surviving spouses, has been very helpful for some of our clients, to help them pay for their long term care costs. A single veteran […]

Watch Out For This Scam Regarding Recorded Deeds

As part of our estate and long-term care planning practice, we regularly prepare deeds for our clients. These deeds can for instance transfer real property into or out of trusts, or between individuals. We send the executed and acknowledged deeds to the recorder’s office along with the required preliminary change of ownership reports. Thereafter, within […]

Don’t Be A Victim Of Fraud and Financial Abuse

A 2013 study published by the MetLife Mature Market Institute estimated that elders are defrauded of approximately $2.9 billion dollars annually. The reason for this seems to be that older people are too trusting of strangers. My own father, who was in sales his entire life, was too easily talked into buying things he did […]

Will Medi-Cal Take My Home?

We often receive calls in our office from people asking, “Is Medi-Cal going to take my home?” The answer to this question should be NO through proper long term care planning with your elder law attorney. To understand the issues involved, we must first look at the Medi-Cal regulations. In addition we must confirm that […]

What assets can you keep when qualifying for Medi-Cal?

What assets can you keep when qualifying for Medi-Cal? Your Home: Your home is generally exempt, or not counted, in determining eligibility for Medi-Cal. The Medi-Cal applicant, or their representative, must express an intent to return home. This is confirmed on the Medi-Cal application. It is also confirmed when you execute your estate planning documents […]

Estate Plans For The Older Client Are Different

The plain vanilla estate plan, which most people have, is designed for the younger client. The main purposes of this estate plan are to avoid probate court and to provide for the distribution of assets to heirs upon death. It will also minimize estate taxes. Estate plans for the older client include all of the […]

My Dad Has Already Done Some Gifting! Can He Still Qualify For Medi-Cal?

California does have gifting penalty rules. If the rules are not followed, you could create periods of ineligibility for Medi-Cal. If you follow the rules, Medi-Cal can pay for your stay in a skilled nursing facility, minus a share of the cost that you would pay. We have seen monthly bills of $10,000 and more […]