http://www.livingtrustplus.com/site/index/ en evanfarr@farrlawfirm.com Copyright 2012 2012-08-17T18:09:02+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/Special-Mobile-Teleseminar/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/Special-Mobile-Teleseminar/#When:18:09:02Z {summary}Mobile Website Teleseminar Mp3 File Click Here to Access the File 2012-08-17T18:09:02+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/why-living-trust-plus/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/why-living-trust-plus/#When:16:12:26Z {summary}Update! Overview of Benefits-Focused Asset Protection™ Prepay and Purchase: Making Countable Assets Exempt Home-Related Strategies: Plus - Stocks Down, Rocket Lawyer Up Disability-Related Strategies: Special Needs TrustsTransfer and Cure Your Client's WorriesProtecting Assets for a Medicaid Spouse Recent Headlines: Pre-Crisis Planning vs. Crisis Planning Learn to Properly Serve Your Older Clients Now that Estate Tax Planning is Dead     A Sample of What You Will Learn in My Free Two-Part Special Report     Continue to do What You Love, Do it Better, and Help More People     Why Trust Me, My Network, and My Documents?Do You Still Recommend Revocable Living Trusts to Your Older Clients?     Do You Deflect and Evade Medicaid Questions?Are You in Compliance with Today's Legal Standard of Care?     Shocking Long-Term Care Statistics A Living Trust is Sometimes Good.  The Living Trust PlusTM is Often Better     History Tells Us Change is on the Way     The Living Trust PlusTM WorksView the Sample Living Trust PlusTM DocumentThe Living Trust Plus™ DiagramDownload the Free Two-Part Special Report Now! Pre-Crisis Planning vs. Crisis Planning If you or the clients you serve are healthy, still living at home, and around the age of 55, "Pre-Crisis Planning" should be on your agenda.  Most Americans don't realize the cost of a nursing home until it is too late and their assets are gone.  If this sounds like your situation  If your loved one is in a nursing home currently receiving long-term care, Benefits-Focused Asset Protection™ and not the Living Trust Plus™ is the right choice.  Click here to see if there is an Elder Planning Plus™ licensed attorney in your state.  If you are an Elder Law or Estate Planning Attorney and would like more information on offering Crisis Planning including Benefits-Focused Asset Protection™ to your clients, click here now.   Learn to Properly Serve Your Older Clients Now that Estate Tax Planning is Dead To celebrate the recent release of my Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection System, Version 2.0, and my upcoming book entitled Asset Protection for the Middle Class:  Using the Living Trust Plus™ for True Asset Protection, I’m offering all U.S. Estate Planning and Elder Law Attorneys a complimentary copy of my updated Two Part Special Report that will teach you: “How to Add the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust to Your Practice and Put an Extra $100,000 per Year in Your Pocket in Spite of the Troubled Economy!” Click Here to Access the Report Discover how to not just keep your Estate Planning practice financially afloat during these troubled times, but how to supercharge your practice by offering your clients the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust in your state – the trademarked and perfected asset protection trust that will protect the assets of your clients from probate PLUS lawsuits PLUS nursing home expenses. In case you don’t know me, my name is Evan Farr.  I’m a  Certified Elder Law Attorney and nationally-known author and CLE instructor.  Over the past ten years, I’ve spent well over twenty thousand hours researching, teaching, and practicing in the fields of Medicaid Asset Protection, Veteran’s Asset Protection, and General Asset Protection, in addition to Estate Planning.  You may have attended one or more of the fifteen national CLE courses that I’ve taught in the past couple of years -- courses that have been sponsored by ALI-ABA as well as the other most prestigious National CLE providers in the field, including: the National Constitution Center (created by Congress), the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys,1the National Business Institute, West Legal Education Center, and Elder Law Answers. There’s a listing of all these CLE courses at:  http://www.farrlawfirm.com/Seminars-for-Professionals.htm.  Your library may even contain one of the two recent ALI-ABA books on which I served as lead author:  Planning and Defending Asset-Protection Trusts, available online at http://www.ali-aba.org/bk64; and Trusts for Senior Citizens, available online at http://www.ali-aba.org/bk65.  In writing my chapter of Planning and Defending Asset-Protection Trusts, I coined the term “Asset Protection For The Middle Class,” as that was the title of my chapter, which chapter is now known as “the definitive treatise on the use of asset protection trusts for middle America”.  Here’s a sample of some of the things you can learn in my complimentary 2-part Special Report: Why nursing homes are far and away the single most likely creditor, and one of the most expensive creditors, that a Middle Class American is likely to face in his or her lifetime, and why most asset protection “gurus” are completely out of touch with 99.8% of the population. Why the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust is the ONLY type of asset protection trust that can protect the assets of your clients from general creditors AND is exempt for Medicaid purposes when your clients wind up needing nursing home care. The secret of how the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust can be used by wealthy clients who want to preserve their wealth AND, even more importantly, by middle class clients who want to preserve their dignity and quality of life when nursing home care becomes an unfortunate reality. The 5 types of assets that should be funded into the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust, and the 2 types of assets that shouldn’t be. I’ve been doing Estate Planning for almost 24 years ago, but in spite of the troubled economy, the last 2 years were my most successful yet.  In the past year we’ve almost doubled our staff, and our revenues last year were just under $1 million.  This year, we’re about to double our office space to accommodate additional needed staff, and we’re on track to smash the $1 million mark in gross revenue.  I don’t share this to brag, but to illustrate a point: I have always loved being a lawyer, and I’ve always had what I considered a successful and emotionally fulfilling practice.  However, until recently, my practice was not truly financially successful. During my first 14 years in practice, as an Estate Planner and General Practitioner, I was quite content with firm revenues in the $300,000 to $500,000 range, with me bringing home around $55,000 to $60,000 a year. Of course I was not happy about the economic ups and downs that played havoc with our bottom line, nor was I happy during the many weeks of the year when I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make payroll.  But overall I was satisfied. I was complacent. But starting several years ago, the amount of income I was able to take home tripled.  Last year, that amount more than quintupled.  Why?  In large part because I created and started offering my clients the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust – a TRUE asset protection trust that provides clients with the most important and complete asset protection they can get – protection from both general creditors and, more importantly, protection from the catastrophic expenses of nursing home long-term care. I stand behind this trust as: The Most Effective Trust for the Majority of Middle Class Americans Age 65 and Up  My Special Report is worth your time, especially if you have ever wondered whether a revocable living trust is appropriate for someone over 65, or if you are searching for ways to keep your practice afloat in light of the recent Estate Tax changes, or if you’re doing well, but want to bring in more money to your practice.  More important than the monetary rewards you can reap with the type of trust, however, is the fact that this is a solution that will allow you to:  Continue to do what you Love, do it Better, and Help More People! Don’t let the fact that “estate planning is dead” cause you to panic.  Estate planning as we’ve known it is dead, but there is strong and ever-growing market eager to engage your services as a trusted Estate Planning AND Elder Law attorney.  You just have to be able to provide the Elder Law and Asset Protection services that your potential clients desperately want and need. Why Trust Me?. . . Because I’ve Walked Many Miles in Your Shoes For my first 14 years in practice, I operated a successful estate planning and general practice firm.  I was even the President of the Board of Governors for the General Practice Section of the Virginia State Bar.  But as I continued down this path, a recurring question kept coming up -- maybe it’s an insecurity you are familiar with to -- I grew increasingly uneasy about my inability to answer clients’ questions regarding future nursing home costs and Medicaid eligibility. As you know, the current estate tax exemption is $5 million for individuals and, with spousal portability, $10 million for many married couples.  The very real fear among Estate Planning attorneys is that the vast majority of the American public will dismiss Estate Planning as an unnecessary expense because for 99.8% of Americans, the Estate Tax doesn’t apply.  If you remain complacent as an attorney and fail to embrace and offer the asset protection services that your middle class client so desperately want and need, your estate planning practice will lose business to a firm that is offering these services.  Not only are these exemptions going to stay in effect for the next two years, but many political analysts and tax experts predict the current exemptions are here to stay.  Do these increased exemptions matter to me?  Not a bit.  I’m thrilled for my clients that the vast majority of them will never need to worry about or pay Estate Taxes.  And I can afford to be happy for them because I completely re-designed my practice about 10 years ago to get rid of my general practice and instead specialize in Elder Law, Medicaid Asset Protection, and Special Needs Planning, in addition to keeping my existing Estate Planning practice.  I redesigned my practice for many personal reasons, but also for a financial and practical reason . . . because I predicted the death of estate tax planning back in 2001 with the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act.  I’m very glad I expanded my horizons when I did, and feel extremely fortunate to have “unlocked the secret” of Medicaid asset protection trusts, not just for my sake, but for the sake of my clients, and for the sake of the dozens of smart attorneys around the country who already use the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust, and their clients. After many years of questions with no good answers, and many hundreds of hours of research later, I found the answers, and then some.  I am absolutely confident that the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust that I developed can, and does, protect assets from both general and nursing home creditors. Quite simply, the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust is the most effective trust for clients who are still relatively healthy and living at home, but who are concerned that they may need long-term care in the next five to twenty-five years.  And their concern is legitimate, because seven out of ten people over the age of 65 will need long term care. Do You Love Practicing Law? When I see the delight and surprise on my clients' faces when I explain to them what this trust actually can accomplish for them and their family, it truly makes all of the hours of research and study worthwhile.  I love my practice and thoroughly enjoy what I do, and if you're an Estate Planning or Elder Law Attorney, you should too.  If you don't love your practice, or if you feel that it’s not financially as successful as you’d like it to be, then I humbly submit that you’re doing something wrong.  If you do love your practice, and you are happy with your income now, be careful about becoming complacent with the services you offer.  If you don't keep up with the times, including the wants and needs of today's Baby Boomers, someone else in your town will, and you run the risk of your clients going elsewhere. This is THE Trust You Cannot Afford to Ignore if You Want to be Taken Seriously as an Estate Planning Attorney! Since the early 2000’s, the attorneys who have embraced Elder Law and Medicaid Asset Protection have realized how important it is to keep up with the times - changing laws, changing client demands, and ever-present ethical considerations can all be a lot to stay on top of.  What’s worse is that these efforts may be in vain for some attorneys because of the multitudes of myths and misinformation out there about irrevocable trusts and about what type of irrevocable trusts work for Medicaid asset protection, and how they work.  It’s time to stop falling victim to these myths, time to stop repeating them, and it’s time to make sure you aren’t providing incorrect and incomplete information to your clients! It is comforting to know that even if “estate planning is dead,” I have nothing to worry about.  The lawyers who don’t figure out what today’s clients need and want will find out the hard way and may struggle in the coming years. This is why I’m writing you -- to show you how to bring your Estate Planning or Elder Law Practice up-to-speed. Why, you may wonder, do I give away all this valuable information in my Special Report? The answers are simple: First: I’m doing all this for the same reason I teach so many CLE courses – including over a dozen national CLE courses on this exact topic over the past two years – because I truly enjoy teaching and spreading the word so that all of the Estate Planning and Elder Law attorneys out there who understand the benefit of this trust and want to be able to offer this trust to their clients can start doing so.   Second: I truly want to share this vital information with all of my fellow estate planning and elder law attorneys because the tremendous lack of knowledge on this topic hurts all of us. It hurts you because you’re not able to offer your clients what they really need; it hurts your clients because they’re not able to get from you what they need; and it hurts me and the dozens of other Living Trust Plus™  attorneys around the country because our clients sometimes still ask, or at least think to themselves, “If this trust is so great, why haven’t I ever heard about it before?” Or “why didn’t my old attorney tell me about this?”   Third:  Per to the Census Bureau (census.gov/population/socdemo/age/2009_older_table1.xls), as of 2009 there were approximately 11.8 million elders in the U.S. not living in nursing homes. According to a 1999 Wall Street Journal article (http://www.uscare.com/whyltc.html), fewer than 10% of Americans 65 and over carry long-term care insurance.  Many clients of mine drop their long-term care insurance and do the Living Trust Plus™  instead.  However, even if we exclude the 10% of Americans who have long-term care insurance, this leaves more than 10 million potential clients out there who can benefit from the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust. That’s an average of 200,000 potential clients per state who are possible candidates for the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust.  Even if I had 10 attorneys in each state offering the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust, each doing an average of 20 trusts per year,  that would still leave 99.9% of the potential clients in each state unserved.  Fourth:  With the recent release of my Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection System, Version 2.0, I’m obviously trying to expand the reach of my Living Trust Plus™ Attorney Network to many more clients throughout the country.  The Living Trust Plus™ Attorney Network is a national network through which I and my staff provide software, systems, training, marketing, coaching, and ongoing support for Elder Law and Estate Planning Attorneys who wish to enhance their existing practices by adding the ability to offer their clients the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust.   The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose.  – J. Martin Kohe Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. -- Charles R. Swindoll There is great power in being able to make choices in our life.  Every day we have the choice of what kind of life we’ll live, and what type of person we want to be.  Who we are in life, and what we do, is a direct result of the choices we make every day. There are so many choices that we can make – so many competing demands for our time. We make choices everyday regarding the actions we take and the attitudes we embrace. Every choice we make has consequences. Many times, the choice to be made is simply to show up. Don’t miss out on this life-changing and practice-changing opportunity by failing to make a key decision…  Get the Special Report Do You Still Recommend Revocable Trusts to Your Older Clients? I Used to Think That was the Only Option -- Does this Sound Like You? Back in the days when I was an Estate Planner and General Practitioner (before I re-tooled my practice about 10 years ago to specialize in Elder-Focused Asset Protection), one of the most common questions I got from my older estate planning clients was “will this revocable living trust protect my assets if I get sick and have to go into a nursing home?”  Or they would phrase the question as more as of a statement, as in “this revocable living trust WILL protect my assets if I get sick and have to go into a nursing home, RIGHT?”  Worse yet, I have found out over the past 10 years that a huge percentage of my estate planning clients from yesteryear never asked the question about nursing home protection, but rather mistakenly assumed that an RLT would protect their assets in connection with nursing home care. Do You Evade and Deflect Medicaid Questions, As I Used to Do? Back then, when a client did ask the question, my lame answer was always a shoulder shrug, a slightly embarrassed expression, and a non-committal, evasive answer to the effect of “well . . . I’m not really sure because that’s a Medicaid question and I’m not a Medicaid specialist.”  And then, to deflect any further inquiry into a field that I knew nothing about, I would throw in a comment to the effect of “and anyway, you’ll never need to worry about Medicaid . . . that’s only for poor people, and you’ve got plenty of money, which is why you’re here to do your estate planning.” Do these questions and answers sound familiar?  If you’re like most Estate Planners, you get these same questions every day, and you probably give the same type of non-committal evasive answer that I used to give, and you probably also try to deflect further inquiry by telling your clients that they’ll never need to worry about Medicaid.  Well guess what?  Telling clients they’ll never need to worry about Medicaid is just plain wrong.  The reality is that fifty percent of married couples and seventy percent of single person become impoverished within one year of entering a nursing home. I’ve had hundreds of clients in my office who have spent down much or all of their significant life savings before ever coming to see me – some having spent in excess of a million dollars on nursing home care before coming to me to protect what’s left.)  It’s also plain wrong to tell clients that Medicaid is for poor people.  On the contrary, Medicaid benefits are for people who are able to legally qualify for the benefits Is Your Comfort Level Dwindling, as Mine Did about Ten Years Ago? Anyway, about 10 years ago I got to the point where I was no longer comfortable giving my clients this non-committal answer when they asked if their RLT would protect their assets from the nursing home.  I knew my clients deserved a legitimate answer to this very legitimate question.  And so in large part it was my burning desire to determine  the answer to this question that led me into the specialized field of Elder Law, and then into the super-specialized practice of Elder-Focused Asset Protection. And find the answer I did -- the answer is an emphatic NO!  An RLT offers absolutely NO nursing home protection whatsoever.  For your estate planning clients over the age of 65, this is a vital piece of information that you MUST be giving to your clients, because if you don’t tell them this, there’s a very high likelihood that they will incorrectly assume that the revocable living trust you’re doing for them DOES offer nursing home protection.  And it’s you’re neck and your malpractice coverage on the line when these clients come back years later and claim “you never told me that this trust wouldn’t protect my assets from the nursing home.”  Or even worse … “you never told me that there is a living trust that could have protected my assets from the nursing home.”  What type of living trust can do this?  The only type of living trust that allows a Settlor to retain significant use of and control over the assets AND provides nursing home protection is a properly-drafted irrevocable income-only trust (IOT).    Don’t Your Clients Deserve to Be Given the Option? The Living Trust PlusTM is an IOT that works.  It protects the assets of your clients from probate PLUS lawsuits PLUS (and most importantly) nursing home expenses.  The IOT is the type of living trust that most of your older clients need, and it’s the type that most of them would want if they knew it existed. Don’t you owe it to your clients to let them know it does exist?  Even if they decide they don’t want it, don’t you think you should at least explain the option to them and give them the choice of using it or not?  In addition to helping your clients make a better and more informed decision about their futures -- you’ll also be protected against them coming back years from now and claiming you never even told them about this basic planning option, and that you led them to believe that a plain old RLT was all they needed.  Please take a brief moment and sign up now if you’re at all interested. I expect all 200 phone lines to be taken.  Don’t miss your chance to improve the lives of your clients and enhance your practice (and your bottom line) by offering a tested and proven asset protection trust that is capable of protecting the assets of your clients from probate PLUS lawsuits PLUS divorce, PLUS the worst creditor of all – the dreaded Nursing Home. Are You in Compliance with Today’s Legal Standard of Care? When I started doing estate planning back in 1987, I would estimate that 99% of estate planning and general practice attorneys in the U.S. (myself included) knew nothing about the Revocable Living Trust (RLT).  Two years later, Henry Abts published a revolutionary book entitled “The Living Trust,” which became a national best-seller and helped greatly popularize the use of RLTs to avoid probate.  During the ensuing pre-Internet years, despite much initial resistance to change by Estate Planning attorneys around the country, the RLT steadily gained in popularity to the point where today, virtually all Estate Planning attorneys in the country have revamped their practices to create and offer RLTs to their clients. In today’s modern, connected society, the legal standard of care has clearly changed, and it would be inconceivable for a reputable estate planning attorney today to not offer clients the option of using a Revocable Living Trust to avoid probate. But as all good lawyers know, a badly-drafted or improperly-funded RLT may actually leave a client worse off than he would have been without an RLT.  That’s why so many attorneys purchase specialized attorney-only software to help ensure that they are providing well-written RLTs and properly advising clients regarding the funding of those RLTs.  Two years ago, when I first launched the Living Trust PlusTM  Attorney Network, I would estimate that 99% of estate planning and general practice attorneys in the U.S. knew nothing about the irrevocable income-only trust (IOT), and of course did not offer IOTs to their clients.  I think it is also a fair estimate to say that two years ago, only 5 to 10% of elder law attorneys offered IOTs, and those that did used them only for Medicaid asset protection, not realizing that a properly-drafted IOT will also protect a client’s assets from general creditors.  Today, I think these statistics are drastically different, in large part because of my efforts (with the assistance of numerous national CLE providers) to educate my fellow estate planning and elder law attorneys, and even general practice attorneys, about all the tremendous benefits of a properly-drafted IOT.  I’ve taught 500 to 600 attorneys about IOTs in the past two years through fifteen different CLE courses I’ve taught (http://www.farrlawfirm.com/Seminars-for-Professionals.htm) for at least six different national CLE providers; I’ve taught hundreds more through the two ALI-ABA books I co-authored in 2009 covering IOTs (http://www.ali-aba.org/bk64 and http://www.ali-aba.org/bk65).  Untold thousands of additional attorneys have been enlightened about IOTs in today’s Internet-connected world by virtue of receiving advertisements about my seminars from all the various national CLE providers, and advertisements from ALI-ABA about the books.  It’s worth asking yourself: “As a result of the prevalence of all this IOT education, has the legal standard of care changed in the past two years for attorneys practicing Estate Planning and Elder Law?   “Does the current standard of care require that I explain to my older clients the limitations of the RLT and the benefits of the IOT?” Regardless of the answers you give yourself about the current legal standard of care, there are times when we legal professionals owe it to ourselves and to our clients to become more educated on a certain topic.  This is one of those times, and the topic is the Income-Only Trust. Even if you’ve already heard one of the many CLE courses I’ve taught or read one of the ALI-ABA books I co-authored, I strongly encourage you to read my free, two-part Special Report.  CLE courses and educational treatises are great, but there’s one thing I’m never allowed to teach in a CLE or in an educational treatise . . .  I can’t teach you how to actually implement the IOT right away and start making tons of money from the proper use and implementation of this new type of asset protection trust.  That’s what this report, and this network is all about.  The bottom line is that I want to increase YOUR bottom line.  My Special Report will go above and beyond the information contained in my CLE course and my ALI-ABA books, and will explain how attorneys can capitalize on history’s two fastest growing demographics; the middle class and senior citizens.  With the techniques I will reveal to you, you’ll be prepared to better serve these two massive demographics, and to do well by doing good.  A Living Trust is Sometimes Good.  But the Living Trust PlusTM is Often Better. As an attorney who does estate planning, every day you help your clients understand their assets and the risks their assets face – risks such as probate and lawsuits.  You presumably have an excellent understanding – even a “knack,” if you will – for whom or what the most likely creditors your clients face will be.  This should be the case even if THEY don’t know who those creditors will be. By now, you shouldn’t need to be convinced that nursing homes are the most likely creditor your clients will face in their lifetimes.  Nor should you need convincing that for most of your clients, nursing home care will be the most expensive creditor they ever face.  Further, you should know by now that you can’t use a Revocable Living Trust as a means of protecting your client’s assets from lifetime creditors, because the RLT simply does not do that.  A properly funded RLT will protect the assets of your clients from probate, and may offer some protection against estate creditors, but no RLT will ever protect the assets of your clients from their own lifetime creditors, including the nursing home.   If this is news to you, don’t panic.  I’m here to help. If you’ve been avoiding your client’s questions on Medicaid or nursing homes, you’re walking a thin line.  You can’t lose sight of these important facts: ·         Out of every 10 of your individual clients over the age of 65, ·         7 will need long-term care, and ·         7 will run out of money less than a year after entering a nursing home. For your married clients, the numbers aren’t much better -- half of all married couples will become impoverished less than a year after one of the spouses enters a nursing home.  Given these staggering statistics, can you really continue to hide your head in the sand and ignore the fact that a majority of your clients are going to wind up going broke because of nursing home care?  Estate planning is all about helping your clients transfer their assets at death.  But most estate planning simply ignores lifetime asset protection.  And since without lifetime asset protection the majority of your clients are going to wind up in a nursing home, broke, what good is your estate planning going to have done them?  You’re an attorney who is supposed to be well-versed in the law. Clients rightfully expect and assume that you’re up-to-date on the latest legal developments.   Clients rightfully expect and assume that you’re going to provide them excellent guidance and counsel as to what their legal options are.  Clients rightfully expect and assume that you’re going to offer them all relevant estate planning options, and not just blindly give them what they think they want.  After all, you’re the estate planning professional – not them. It is important not to lose sight of who your clients are.  If your estate planning clients look anything like mine, then the vast majority of them are middle class citizens age 65 and up.  The reality is that most Americans simply don’t think much about estate planning until after age 65, as this is the age when most Americans are able to retire, and retirement seems to be the most common trigger for people to do estate planning.  If this does not accurately describe the majority of your clients right now, then just wait a few years , as this demographic is the largest and fastest growing segment of the U.S. population.  We are fast approaching the day – if it has not arrived already – where failing to mention, explain, or offer an Income Only Trust is just as inconceivable as failing to mention, explain, or offer a basic revocable living trust.  Resisting Change is Natural.  But History Tells Us That Change Will Happen Regardless of Resistance. Change is inevitable.  When I graduated from law school in May of 1987, using a living trust as a method of estate planning was almost unheard of.  The field of Elder Law didn’t yet exist.  Six months later, in October of 1987, the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys was founded.  In 1989, Henry Abts published his book that coined the term “Living Trust” (which had previously been known by the Latin name – the inter vivos trust) and revolutionized the Estate Planning industry, changing the legal standard of care and within a few short years making the “Living Trust” a household name and a standard tool used by estate planning attorneys across the United States.  Keep in mind that this was years before the Internet and email and the Web existed.  And keep in mind that Henry Abts was not even an attorney!  Starting two years ago, I  (one of fewer than 500 Certified Elder Law Attorneys in the country), set out on a mission to end the mass confusion in the estate planning and elder law fields regarding the use of self-settled income-only asset protection trusts.  As part of this mission, I created and coined the term “Living Trust PlusTM ” and am in the process of making  the Living Trust PlusTM a household name and a standard tool used by estate planning attorneys across the United States.  I draw this parallel to illustrate a point:  history proves that legal standards of care change, and that one person can serve as the catalyst for that change.  Imagine if you were a consumer looking for estate planning advice and services back during the mid 90’s . . . like most people, you grew up learning that “everyone should have a Will,” but you had also heard about revocable living trusts, and you had several friends and relatives with living trusts.  Would you have hired an estate planning attorney who didn’t even offer living trusts?  Would you have even gone to such an attorney in the first place?  A few years from now, attorneys will be looking back to this current period in history as another time of legal change . . . a time when attorneys, being the professionals that they are, were expected to adapt to a change in the legal standard of care and adjust the services they offered accordingly.   A few years from now, will potential clients over age 65 even bother to go to attorneys who don’t offer the Living Trust PlusTM?  Pardon Me for Being Blunt, but this Must be Stated: If you serve middle class American clients who are age 65 and up, and you are not explaining or offering them the Living Trust PlusTM or even a generic IOT, you are behind the curve, and your clients will be best served by going somewhere else. I invite you to come along with me, as thousands of attorneys throughout the country have already done, and learn the ins and outs of the IOT and the Living Trust PlusTM  Asset Protection System. Most IOTs are Done Wrong.   The Living Trust PlusTM is Done Right. If you read one of my books or my Special Report, you’ll learn that most IOTs are done wrong – they’re drafted in a way that they don’t work for their intended purpose.  The Living Trust PlusTM works.  I stand behind it.  I stake my reputation on it.  I guarantee it.  Once you decide to start offering an IOT to your clients (and I guarantee you that that day will come sooner rather than later), you’ll have 3 choices: You can copy someone’s lousy form and do it wrong, causing your clients to be denied Medicaid eligibility when the time comes, as happened with so many of the IOTs cited in my book and Special Report; You can spend hundreds of hours of research and development yourself, as I did, and come up with a good (hopefully) IOT form that will work (hopefully); or You can save yourself a lot of time and aggravation and use the Living Trust PlusTM  which I’ve already spent countless hours researching and developing to ensure it’s done right. It’s Time to Stop Making Excuses If you’re one of those attorneys who tells yourself (as I used to) that “your clients won’t do an irrevocable trust,” then you’re not explaining them properly to your clients.  And most likely that’s because you don’t understand irrevocable trusts yourself.  The number of myths out there about irrevocable trusts are mind-boggling.  If you explain irrevocable trusts correctly, and explain all the benefits of the Living Trust PlusTM in particular, your clients ARE going to be willing to do it.   Sure, it may take you a while to learn how to explain the trust to clients, as well as how to market it.  But that’s why I give all the attorneys in my network the exact marketing materials which have been so successful for me!  When I do CLEs, I’m not allowed to teach attorneys how to market and how to actually make money.   Living Trust PlusTM Sample Document - For Attorneys Only! Click Here to View Living Trust PlusTM Diagram Free Two-Part Special Report Part 1Part 2 Comprehensive Benefits-Focused Asset Protection™ The Living Trust Plus™ is meant to protect assets before crisis strikes. It typically best suits healthy adults, still living at home, aged 55 and up.  Whether you are a senior citizen or an Elder Law Attorney reading this, "Crisis Planning" encompasses something entirely different.  The Living Trust Plus™ is an income-only trust, whereas Benefits-Focused Asset Protection™ is a solution based service that guides the client through the eligibility, qualification, and filing process to obtain public benefits like Medicaid and Veterans Aid and Attendance. Overview of Benefits-Focused Asset Protection™ If you are confused or mistaken about the rules of gifting in the context of Medicaid qualification, you likely won't ever venture into the practice of Medicaid Asset Protection.  If you do practice Medicaid Asset Protection, but your potential clients are confused or mistaken about the rules of gifting in the context of Medicaid qualification, they likely won't ever show up at your door.  The most common gifting misconceptions I encounter in my daily practice are: Those who are completely unaware of any gifting rules: - Can’t I just give all of my assets away to my children? - How can the government tell me what I can do with my own money? Those who are vaguely aware of the tax rules and assume they apply to Medicaid: - If I give any gifts to my children, won't they have to pay a lot of taxes? - Isn’t it true I can only give away $13,000 per year? - Isn't it illegal if I give away more than $13,000 per year? Those who are aware of Medicaid, but misinformed and confused: - If I've made any gifts in the past 5 years, doesn't that mean I can't qualify for Medicaid? - Once my spouse qualifies for Medicaid, doesn't that mean I can’t ever make any more gifts? - If I make any gifts to my family, doesn't that mean I won’t ever qualify for Medicaid? Most potential clients, and many attorneys who don't practice regularly in the field of Medicaid Asset Protection, harbor some or all of these misconceptions.  Understanding the realities of gifting in the context of Medicaid Asset Protection is extremely important, because any one of these misconceptions can influence your decision as to whether to practice in this area, and can influence the decision of a potential client as to whether to hire you and engage in Medicaid Asset Protection. Although it is true that some gifts will disqualify a person from receiving Medicaid for a specific period of time, there are extremely important exceptions and extremely complex Medicaid rules that apply.  The misunderstanding that gifting is capped at $13,000 per year is of course a complete fallacy.  As most attorneys understand, the annual gift tax exclusion only applies for tax purposes, and has nothing whatsoever to do with Medicaid. Depending on the donee and the type of property, gifts of any amount may be just fine under your state’s Medicaid rules.  For example, the following types of gifts are generally not penalized at all:  gifting assets to a spouse; gifting assets to a disabled child or a trust for a disabled child; making regular gifts in certain small amounts; gifting a residence to a caregiver child; gifting a residence to a sibling on title; and numerous other exceptions.  There are also many asset protection strategies that involve making intentional gifts that are penalized, but doing so in a controlled fashion under the guidance and supervision of a knowledgeable Elder Law attorney. There are complex Medicaid considerations underlying all of these gifting strategies, and understanding these considerations, along with all of the complex and myriad Medicaid rules and requirements, is a daunting task for any Elder Law attorney.  If you are serious about helping older clients in the midst of a long-term care crisis, you may be interested to know that in the near future, I will be offering a comprehensive, benefits-focused asset protection training program for attorneys. Prepayment for Services and Purchase of Exempt Items Last week I explained that there are there are dozens of asset protection strategies in the world of Benefits-Focused Asset Protection™ -- some strategies are relatively straightforward to implement and some are incredibly complex.  Today, as Part 2 of a 6-part series, I’m going to explain some of the easier strategies – prepaying for certain needed services and using “countable” assets to purchase “exempt” assets.  First of all, it is important to explain that the “benefits” we are focused on are both Medicaid (which in most states helps pay for nursing home care and home care) and Veterans Aid and Attendance (which primarily helps qualified veterans pay for home care and assisted living).  Although the general rule is that all assets with cash value are “countable,” both Medicaid and Aid and Attendance applicants can prepay for certain services and can own certain assets are that are considered “exempt.” So long as these prepayments and purchases are done according to the strict rules for both Medicaid and Aid and Attendance, these prepaid services and assets won’t be taken into account.  Prepay legal or other professional services:    This strategy is one of the most beneficial for the client and the attorney.  What allows good Elder Law attorneys to do very well financially by doing tremendous good for clients is the fact that  prepaid legal services are considered an exempt asset, so long as the fee is properly structured under state ethics rules as a true retainer fee, and not as an advance deposit against future fees.  Other professional services that can sometimes be prepaid include medical and dental services not covered by insurance, accounting services, and financial planning services. Prepay taxes: Depending on the rules of the taxing authority, certain taxes can be paid in advance.  The most common are real property taxes, personal property taxes, and estimated income taxes Pre-pay funeral arrangements:  Certain prepaid funeral arrangements are exempt, if the arrangements are properly set up and properly funded, which typically involves use of an irrevocably-assigned life insurance policy and/or use of a special type of irrevocable trust.  Unfortunately, I have found as a general rule that most funeral homes do not have the forms and/or procedures in place to properly structure prepaid funeral arrangements in such a way as to be exempt from Medicaid.  I typically spend several hours every month reviewing defective prepaid funeral arrangements before my clients make the purchase, and then dealing with funeral directors who typically just don’t get it because they don’t have a clue how Medicaid works. Pay off outstanding debt:  Both the VA and Medicaid do not look at outstanding debt, so if your client wants credit for the debt it must be paid off prior to applying for benefits Purchase a new car: One vehicle, regardless of value, is an exempt asset for both programs. However, there are complex rules in many states for how the vehicle must be titled, how the vehicle must be insured, and who can use the vehicle. Purchase household goods or medical and personal items:  Purchase of these items, if needed by the applicant, can render a relatively small amount of assets exempt. Purchase caregiver services:   If your client is getting free home care services from a child or another adult family member, then a Caregiver Contract can be entered into between the parties whereby funds that would otherwise be countable can be passed to the caregiver as a purchase for value, and not as a penalized transfer.  This strategy unfortunately involves complex tax issues, and tax payments, for both the client and the caregiver, but is nevertheless very effective in certain situations. Home-Related Strategies If you take into consideration the unpredictability we are seeing on the stock market plus the earthquake-inducing news of Google’s multimillion dollar investment into providing online legal services via Rocket Lawyer, it’s no wonder why so  many Estate Planning lawyers are having serious conniption fits, and many are starting to fold up their chairs and go home. Both of these recent developments underscore the importance of what I call Benefits-Focused Asset Protection™. The economic turmoil we are seeing reminds the average American how he or she can’t simply rely on retiring at age 65.  Elder Law attorneys are reminded how Medicaid and Veterans Benefits are such important tools within our asset protection toolbox.  Hopefully, the Estate Planning lawyers and other solo practitioners in dying fields who have considered Elder Law in the past will read the writing on the wall, and will see that the writing spells "E-L-D-E-R  L-A-W."   Last week, I discussed some of the strategies that I use every day to protect the assets of our clients in connection with Medicaid and Veterans Aid and Attendance.  Today, in part 3 of my 6 part series, I will discuss several “Home-Related” Asset Protection Strategies.    Transfer residence to caregiver child:   Under the right set of facts, the so-called "caregiver transfer" strategy allows a parent to protect his or her residence -- generally the largest asset in an estate -- by transferring it without penalty to a child who has been the client’s primary caregiver for at least two years. A lot of planning and a lot of proof is required to make this strategy work, but when it works, it works wonderfully, and is one of the most effective asset protection strategies available.  We have three cases in our office right now where we are using this strategy. Payment for home repairs or improvements if home is exempt:   If the primary residence is an exempt asset -- usually because the Medicaid applicant or his or her spouse or disabled child is living in the home -- then paying for improvements to the home repairs or improvements is a way to shelter some assets. Pay-off mortgage if home is exempt:  A simple but often overlooked strategy is to have your client pay off or pay down their mortgage on a home that is exempt.  This is often the case with younger families.  We have 4 younger clients right now -- with husbands in his 50s who are in a nursing home -- and we use this strategy for 3 out of the 4. Purchase of a more expensive home if the home is exempt:   Likewise, if the primary residence is an exempt asset, than a more expensive residence, if otherwise desirable, can be a good way to shelter assets. Transfer residence to sibling on title for more than a year:   A little known transfer exception allows a Medicaid applicant to give away his or her home to a sibling, provided that the sibling has been on title for at least 1 year.  Like this caregiver transfer exception, this is a great strategy when you have the right facts.  And even if you don't start with the right facts, if you have a situation with an involved sibling who is willing to make an investment, this can be a tremendously valuable strategy that will protect a major asset in just one year. Purchase life estate and reside for one year:  If your client is living in, or is going to be moving in to, the residence belonging to an adult child, having your client purchase a life estate in the child's residence can be a tremendously powerful asset protection strategy provided that there is a good chance that your client will live in the child's home for at least 1 year.  There are complex calculations that must be made, based on actuarial life expectancy and based on the appropriate market value of the child's home, and also taking into account any outstanding mortgage on the child's home, but again if you have the right set of facts, this strategy can protect a lot of money.  If the child's home does have a mortgage on it, and if the parent has money to protect in addition to the amount needed to buy the life estate, perhaps the parent can first gift money to the child so that the child can pay off or pay down the child's mortgage, thereby increasing the equity value of the home and consequently increasing the purchase price of the life estate, resulting in an even larger amount of money being protected. These are just a few of the asset protection strategies that can be used to help protect the family home.  There are many other more complicated strategies, often very fact-specific, which can also be used under appropriate circumstances. Unlike traditional estate planning, Benefits-Focused Asset Protection™ is a service that can’t compete as a cookie-cutter copy-and-paste type service.  Although Rocket Lawyer and Legal Zoom may compete with Estate Planning lawyers and other document-driven fields of law, Benefits-Focused Asset Protection™ -- the core of my Elder Law practice -- is not subject to the same threat.  The reason it is not subject to the same threat as other fields of law is that Benefits-Focused Asset Protection™ is not a document-driven area of law.  Benefits-Focused Asset Protection™ is a process, not a set of standardized documents that can be spit out by a cloud-based computer system. Don’t Forget to Save the Date!   If you’re interested in taking your practice to the next level by actually offering  Benefits-Focused Asset Protection™ and making a better living than you ever dreamed possible, please mark your calendar for a no-cost teleseminar on Thursday, September 29th, from 3 - 4:30 pm Eastern.  More details will be provided closer to the event, but that’s when I’ll be launching my new all-inclusive, Benefits-Focused Asset Protection™ Training Program for attorneys.  This revolutionary program is designed with you and today's economic climate in mind, and will provide everything you need to eliminate your confusion and to provide you with the solutions you need to start helping elderly clients and to start making a phenomenal amount of money at the same time. Disability-Related Strategies: Finding the Right Solutions I hope you enjoyed a refreshing and relaxing Labor Day weekend. Last week, most of Northern Virginia escaped Hurricane Irene relatively unscathed, even retaining power in the face of 50mph wind gusts. Ironically, yesterday we lost power for no apparent reason, resulting in a delay of today's Tuesday Tip. Last week, I pointed out how Google's investment in the online legal service Rocket Lawyer, along with Legal Zoom and other online legal service providers, pose a serious threat to many Estate Planning and General Practice brick-and-mortar law firms.  I went on to explain why strategically positioned Elder Law Attorneys have nothing to worry about, and how even if Estate Planning and General Practice Lawyers do, it isn’t too late to expand horizons into the growing field of Benefits-Focused Asset Protection™.  If you have missed any parts of my series up to this point, read the past articles here.  Today, in part 4 of 6, I discuss several important “Disability-Related” strategies.  One of the main reasons why Elder Law Attorneys must master such a large repertoire of asset protection strategies is due to the potential ramifications of slight factual subtleties.  For families with a disabled child or children, various “Disability-Related” strategies can be extremely valuable. In general, asset transfers made within the 5-yr Medicaid lookback period are subject to transfer penalties pursuant to Medicaid rules.  But certain transfers are exempted. Here's a short explanation of a few of these strategies: Transfers to a Blind or Disabled Child:  Any transfers directly to a blind or disabled child are exempt. Transfers to a Sole Benefit Trust:  Transfers to a special type of trust for the sole benefit of the disabled child are exempt.  Transfers to a Special Needs Trust:  Also known as "a Supplemental Needs Trust," this type of trust preserves eligibility for federal and state benefits by keeping assets out of the disabled person's name.  Special Needs Trusts (SNTs) fall generally into two main categories: Third-Party SNTs and First-Party SNTs. Third-Party SNTs:  A client may create and fund a Third-Party SNT for the benefit of someone else, and since the trust will own the assets, the beneficiary will not become ineligible for government benefits by virtue of assets in the Third-Party SNT.  First-Party SNTs: Disabled individuals under age 65 may transfer their own assets into an SNT and have those assets immediately exempted from SSI and Medicaid.  This may be needed, for example, when a person under a disability receives inheritance money, life insurance proceeds, or a personal injury settlement.Pooled Special Needs Trust: A pooled SNT is special type of SNT that is created by a nonprofit organization. Your individual clients may keep separate accounts in the pooled trust, but all of the money is pooled and invested by a single trustee.& 2011-04-15T16:12:26+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/RegisterNow/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/RegisterNow/#When:05:18:28Z {summary}Living Trust Plus Seminar for Attorneys Only    Living Trust Plus Teleseminar, March 31st, 2011   To celebrate the recent release of my Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection System, Version 2.0, and my upcoming book entitled Asset Protection for the Middle Class:  Using the Living Trust Plus™ for True Asset Protection, I’m holding a complimentary 90-minute teleseminar for attorneys only, on Thursday, March 31 at 3pm Eastern Time, and you’re invited! The topic is:     “How to Add the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust to Your Practice and Put an Extra $100,000 per Year in Your Pocket in Spite of the Troubled Economy!” Register for this no-cost teleseminar now and you’ll discover how to not just keep your Estate Planning practice financially afloat during these troubled times, but how to supercharge your practice by offering your clients the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust in your state – the trademarked and perfected asset protection trust that will protect the assets of your clients from probate PLUS lawsuits PLUS nursing home expenses. In case you don’t know me, my name is Evan Farr.  I’m a  Certified Elder Law Attorney and nationally-known author and CLE instructor.  Over the past ten years, I’ve spent well over twenty thousand hours researching, teaching, and practicing in the fields of Medicaid Asset Protection, Veteran’s Asset Protection, and General Asset Protection, in addition to Estate Planning.  You may have attended one or more of the fifteen national CLE courses that I’ve taught in the past couple of years -- courses that have been sponsored by ALI-ABA as well as the other most prestigious National CLE providers in the field, including: the National Constitution Center (created by Congress), the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, the National Business Institute, West Legal Education Center, and Elder Law Answers. There’s a listing of all these CLE courses at:  http://www.farrlawfirm.com/Seminars-for-Professionals.htm.  Your library may even contain one of the two recent ALI-ABA books on which I served as lead author:  Planning and Defending Asset-Protection Trusts, available online at http://www.ali-aba.org/bk64; and Trusts for Senior Citizens, available online at http://www.ali-aba.org/bk65.  In writing my chapter of Planning and Defending Asset-Protection Trusts, I coined the term “Asset Protection For The Middle Class,” as that was the title of my chapter, which chapter is now known as “the definitive treatise on the use of asset protection trusts for middle America”.  But I’m not writing today to try to sell you one of my books or get you to sign up for a costly CLE.  In fact, I’m not trying to sell you anything. On the contrary, I've actually taken most of the information in my above-mentioned treatise and turned into my: Here’s a sample of some of the things we’ll cover in my teleseminar: Why nursing homes are far and away the single most likely creditor, and one of the most expensive creditors, that a Middle Class American is likely to face in his or her lifetime, and why most asset protection “gurus” are completely out of touch with 99.8% of the population. My step-by-step system for creating and funding the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust – the trust that will protect the assets of your clients from probate PLUS lifetime creditors PLUS nursing home expenses! Why the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust is the ONLY type of asset protection trust that can protect the assets of your clients from general creditors AND is exempt for Medicaid purposes when your clients wind up needing nursing home care. The secret of how the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust can be used by wealthy clients who want to preserve their wealth AND, even more importantly, by middle class clients who want to preserve their dignity and quality of life when nursing home care becomes an unfortunate reality. Plus, the surprising answers to the following questions: Can the Settlor act as trustee of the trust, even though the trust is irrevocable? Can the Settlor be given the power to remove a trustee? Can the Settlor be given the power to change the beneficiaries of the trust?   Free Attorneys Only Registration Enter your email address: Enter the 5-digit code displayed: // Free email subscription widget   I’ve been doing Estate Planning for almost 24 years ago, but in spite of the troubled economy, the last 2 years were my most successful yet.  In the past year we’ve almost doubled our staff, and our revenues last year were just under $1 million .  This year, we’re about to double our office space to accommodate additional needed staff, and we’re on track to smash the $1 million mark in gross revenue.  I don’t share this to brag, but to illustrate a point: I have always loved being a lawyer, and I’ve always had what I considered a successful and emotionally fulfilling practice.  However, until recently, my practice was not truly financially successful. During my first 14 years in practice, as an Estate Planner and General Practitioner, I was quite content with firm revenues in the $300,000 to $500,000 range, with me bringing home around $55,000 to $60,000 a year. Of course I was not happy about the economic ups and downs that played havoc with our bottom line, nor was I happy during the many weeks of the year when I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make payroll.  But overall I was satisfied. I was complacent. But starting several years ago, the amount of income I was able to take home tripled.  Last year, that amount more than quintupled.  Why?  In large part because I created and started offering my clients the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust – a TRUE asset protection trust that provides clients with the most important and complete asset protection they can get – protection from both general creditors and, more importantly, protection from the catastrophic expenses of nursing home long-term care.  And now I want to teach as many other lawyers as possible this revolutionary information that will quite possibly change your life and change the way you practice law. The Most Effective Trust for the Majority of Middle Class Americans Age 65 and Up This is an ideal way to spend your Thursday afternoon, especially if you have ever wondered whether a revocable living trust is appropriate for someone over 65, or if you are searching for ways to keep your practice afloat in light of the recent Estate Tax changes, or if you’re doing well, but want to bring in more money to your practice.  More important than the monetary rewards you can reap with the type of trust I will discuss, however, is the fact that this is a solution that will allow you to:  Continue To Do What You Love, Do It better, And Help More People! Don’t let the fact that “estate planning is dead” cause you to panic.  Estate planning as we’ve known it is dead, but there is strong and ever-growing market eager to engage your services as a trusted Estate Planning AND Elder Law attorney.  You just have to be able to provide the Elder Law and Asset Protection services that your potential client desperately want and need!  What are these services?  Why Trust Me? . . . Because I've Walked Many Miles in Your Shoes For my first 14 years in practice, I operated a successful estate planning and general practice firm.  I was even the President of the Board of Governors for the General Practice Section of the Virginia State Bar.  But as I continued down this path, a recurring question kept coming up -- maybe it’s an insecurity you are familiar with to -- I grew increasingly uneasy about my inability to answer clients’ questions regarding future nursing home costs and Medicaid eligibility. As you know, the current estate tax exemption is $5 million for individuals and, with spousal portability, $10 million for many married couples.  The very real fear among Estate Planning attorneys is that the vast majority of the American public will dismiss Estate Planning as an unnecessary expense because for 99.8% of Americans, the Estate Tax doesn’t apply.  If you remain complacent as an attorney and fail to embrace and offer the asset protection services that your middle class client so desperately want and need, your estate planning practice will lose business to a firm that is offering these services.  Not only are these exemptions going to stay in effect for the next two years, but many political analysts and tax experts predict the current exemptions are here to stay.  Do these increased exemptions matter to me?  Not a bit.  I’m thrilled for my clients that the vast majority of them will never need to worry about or pay Estate Taxes.  And I can afford to be happy for them because I completely re-designed my practice about 10 years ago to get rid of my general practice and instead specialize in Elder Law, Medicaid Asset Protection, and Special Needs Planning, in addition to keeping my existing Estate Planning practice.  I redesigned my practice for many personal reasons, but also for a financial and practical reason . . . because I predicted the death of estate tax planning back in 2001 with the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act.  I’m very glad I expanded my horizons when I did, and feel extremely fortunate to have “unlocked the secret” of Medicaid asset protection trusts, not just for my sake, but for the sake of my clients, and for the sake of the dozens of smart attorneys around the country who already use the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust, and their clients. After many years of questions with no good answers, and many hundreds of hours of research later, I found the answers, and then some.  I am absolutely confident that the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust that I developed can, and does, protect assets from both general and nursing home creditors. Quite simply, the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust is the most effective trust for clients who are still relatively healthy and living at home, but who are concerned that they may need long-term care in the next five to twenty-five years.  And their concern is legitimate, because seven out of ten people over the age of 65 will need long term care. Do You Love Practicing Law? When I see the delight and surprise on my clients' faces when I explain to them what this trust actually can accomplish for them and their family, it truly makes all of the hours of research and study worthwhile.  I love my practice and thoroughly enjoy what I do, and if you're an Estate Planning or Elder Law Attorney, you should too.  If you don't love your practice, or if you feel that it’s not financially as successful as you’d like it to be, then I humbly submit that you’re doing something wrong.  If you do love your practice, and you are happy with your income now, be careful about becoming complacent with the services you offer.  If you don't keep up with the times, including the wants and needs of today's Baby Boomers, someone else in your town will, and you run the risk of your clients going elsewhere.            This is The Trust You Cannot Afford to Ignore if You Want to be Taken Seriously as an Estate Planning Attorney! Since the early 2000’s, the attorneys who have embraced Elder Law and Medicaid Asset Protection have realized how important it is to keep up with the times - changing laws, changing client demands, and ever-present ethical considerations can all be a lot to stay on top of.  What’s worse is that these efforts may be in vain for some attorneys because of the multitudes of myths and misinformation out there about irrevocable trusts and about what type of irrevocable trusts work for Medicaid asset protection, and how they work.  A big part of my teleseminar will focus on these damaging Medicaid myths.  It’s time to stop falling victim to these myths, time to stop repeating them, and it’s time to make sure you aren’t providing incorrect and incomplete information to your clients!   I know what this teleseminar will do for you and for your practice – the information and principles I will be sharing have drastically enhanced my law practice, quality of life, and the quality of my clients’ lives. I truly believe that the client-demand for these trusts grossly exceeds the current level of lawyer-supply. I KNOW YOU’RE SKEPTICAL – WE ATTORNEYS ALWAYS ARE Why, you may wonder, am I hosting this no-cost, no-obligation teleseminar and giving away all this valuable information and my Special Report? The answers are simple: First: I’m doing all this for the same reason I teach so many CLE courses – including over a dozen national CLE courses on this exact topic over the past two years – because I truly enjoy teaching and spreading the word so that all of the Estate Planning and Elder Law attorneys out there who understand the benefit of this trust and want to be able to offer this trust to their clients can start doing so.   Second: I truly want to share this vital information with all of my fellow estate planning and elder law attorneys because the tremendous lack of knowledge on this topic hurts all of us. It hurts you because you’re not able to offer your clients what they really need; it hurts your clients because they’re not able to get from you what they need; and it hurts me and the dozens of other Living Trust Plus™  attorneys around the country because our clients sometimes still ask, or at least think to themselves, “If this trust is so great, why haven’t I ever heard about it before?” Or “why didn’t my old attorney tell me about this?”   Third:  Per to the Census Bureau (census.gov/population/socdemo/age/2009_older_table1.xls), as of 2009 there were approximately 11.8 million elders in the U.S. not living in nursing homes. According to a 1999 Wall Street Journal article (http://www.uscare.com/whyltc.html), fewer than 10% of Americans 65 and over carry long-term care insurance.  Many clients of mine drop their long-term care insurance and do the Living Trust Plus™  instead.  However, even if we exclude the 10% of Americans who have long-term care insurance, this leaves more than 10 million potential clients out there who can benefit from the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust. That’s an average of 200,000 potential clients per state who are possible candidates for the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust.  Even if I had 10 attorneys in each state offering the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust, each doing an average of 20 trusts per year,  that would still leave 99.9% of the potential clients in each state unserved.  Fourth:  With the recent release of my Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection System,Version 2.0, I’m obviously trying to expand the reach of my Living Trust Plus™ Attorney Network to many more clients throughout the country.  The Living Trust Plus™ Attorney Network is a national network through which I and my staff provide software, systems, training, marketing, coaching, and ongoing support for Elder Law and Estate Planning Attorneys who wish to enhance their existing practices by adding the ability to offer their clients the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust.  If you’re interested in the possibility of joining this network and significantly enhancing your law practice, your life, and the lives of your clients, towards the end of the teleseminar I’ll provide all the information you need, and after the teleseminar you’ll have a chance to sign up at a special discount that I will offer only to attorneys who have listed to the teleseminar.  If you’re not interested in joining, that’s fine – you will still come away from the teleseminar with a ton of valuable information that will help you in your own practice.  Through a responsible use of our freedom to choose our path in life and by making the right choices (instead of sometimes the easy or convenient choice), we will help ourselves to succeed.  Make a bad choice, you’ll get a negative consequence.  Make the right decisions and in the long run you’ll prosper. The Power Of Choice The greatest power that a person possesses is the power to choose.  – J. Martin Kohe Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it. -- Charles R. Swindoll There is great power in being able to make choices in our life.  Every day we have the choice of what kind of life we’ll live, and what type of person we want to be.  Who we are in life, and what we do, is a direct result of the choices we make every day. There are so many choices that we can make – so many competing demands for our time. We make choices everyday regarding the actions we take and the attitudes we embrace. Every choice we make has consequences. Many times, the choice to be made is simply to show up. Don’t miss out on this life-changing and practice-changing opportunity . . .   . . .by failing to show up. Free Attorneys Only Registration Enter your email address: Enter the 5-digit code displayed: // Free email subscription widget   Below is a copy of the second email I sent you, on March 28, 2011: Do You Still Recommend Revocable Trusts to Your Older Clients? I Used to Think That was the Only Option -- Does this Sound Like You? Back in the days when I was an Estate Planner and General Practitioner (before I re-tooled my practice about 10 years ago to specialize in Elder-Focused Asset Protection), one of the most common questions I got from my older estate planning clients was “will this revocable living trust protect my assets if I get sick and have to go into a nursing home?”  Or they would phrase the question as more as of a statement, as in “this revocable living trust WILL protect my assets if I get sick and have to go into a nursing home, RIGHT?”  Worse yet, I have found out over the past 10 years that a huge percentage of my estate planning clients from yesteryear never asked the question about nursing home protection, but rather mistakenly assumed that an RLT would protect their assets in connection with nursing home care. Do You Evade and Deflect Medicaid Questions, As I Used to Do? Back then, when a client did ask the question, my lame answer was always a shoulder shrug, a slightly embarrassed expression, and a non-committal, evasive answer to the effect of “well . . . I’m not really sure because that’s a Medicaid question and I’m not a Medicaid specialist.”  And then, to deflect any further inquiry into a field that I knew nothing about, I would throw in a comment to the effect of “and anyway, you’ll never need to worry about Medicaid . . . that’s only for poor people, and you’ve got plenty of money, which is why you’re here to do your estate planning.” Do these questions and answers sound familiar?  If you’re like most Estate Planners, you get these same questions every day, and you probably give the same type of non-committal evasive answer that I used to give, and you probably also try to deflect further inquiry by telling your clients that they’ll never need to worry about Medicaid.  Well guess what?  Telling clients they’ll never need to worry about Medicaid is just plain wrong.  The reality is that fifty percent of married couples and seventy percent of single person become impoverished within one year of entering a nursing home. I’ve had hundreds of clients in my office who have spent down much or all of their significant life savings before ever coming to see me – some having spentin excess of a million dollars on nursing home care before coming to me to protect what’s left.)  It’s also plain wrong to tell clients that Medicaid is for poor people.  On the contrary, Medicaid benefits are for people who are able to legally qualify for the benefits   Free Attorneys Only Registration Enter your email address: Enter the 5-digit code displayed: // Free email subscription widget Is Your Comfort Level Dwindling, as Mine Did about Ten Years Ago? Anyway, about 10 years ago I got to the point where I was no longer comfortable giving my clients this non-committal answer when they asked if their RLT would protect their assets from the nursing home.  I knew my clients deserved a legitimate answer to this very legitimate question.  And so in large part it was my burning desire to determine  the answer to this question that led me into the specialized field of Elder Law, and then into the super-specialized practice of Elder-Focused Asset Protection. And find the answer I did -- the answer is an emphatic NO!  An RLT offers absolutely NO nursing home protection whatsoever.  For your estate planning clients over the age of 65, this is a vital piece of information that you MUST be giving to your clients, because if you don’t tell them this, there’s a very high likelihood that they will incorrectly assume that the revocable living trust you’re doing for them DOES offer nursing home protection.  And it’s you’re neck and your malpractice coverage on the line when these clients come back years later and claim “you never told me that this trust wouldn’t protect my assets from the nursing home.”  Or even worse  … “you never told me that there is a living trust that could have protected my assets from the nursing home.”  What type of living trust can do this?  The only type of living trust that allows a Settlor to retain significant use of and control over the assets AND provides nursing home protection is a properly-drafted irrevocable income-only trust (IOT).  This is why you owe it to yourself, and to your clients, to listen to this Thursday’s Attorney-Only Teleseminar, wherein I will explain how you can start offering the Living Trust PlusTM Asset Protection Trust (my thoroughly-researched and bullet-proofed version of the IOT) to your clients right away.  Don’t Your Clients Deserve to Be Given the Option? The LivingTrust PlusTM is an IOT that works.  It protects the assets of your clients from probate PLUS lawsuits PLUS (and most importantly) nursing home expenses.  The IOTis the type of living trust that most of your older clients need, and it’s the type that most of them would want if they knew it existed. Don’t you owe it to your clients to let them know it does exist?  Even if they decide they don’t want it, don’t you think you should at least explain the option to them and give them the choice of using it or not?  In addition to helping your clients make a better and more informed decision about their futures -- you’ll also be protected against them coming back years from now and claiming you never even told them about this basic planning option, and that you led them to believe that a plain old RLT was all they needed.  If You Want to Start Giving Your Clients this Vital Option,  Register for the Teleseminar and Get My Complimentary Special Report Please take a brief moment and sign up now if you’re at all interested. I expect all 200 phone lines to be taken.  Don’t miss your chance to improve the lives of your clients and enhance your practice (and your bottom line) by offering a tested and proven asset protection trust that is capable of protecting the assets of your clients from probate PLUS lawsuits PLUSdivorce, PLUS the worst creditor of all – the dreaded Nursing Home.                 2011-03-29T05:18:28+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/contact-us/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/contact-us/#When:19:03:19Z {summary}Please use the contact form on the right to ask Evan Farr a question about Living Trust Plus ™ 2009-07-06T19:03:19+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/thank-you/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/thank-you/#When:22:18:04Z {summary}Thank you for contacting Evan Farr, the creator of the Living Trust Plus™. Someone will get back with you soon. 2009-06-19T22:18:04+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/privacy-policy/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/privacy-policy/#When:06:34:51Z {summary}Web Site Privacy Policy LivingTrustPlus.com is committed to protecting the privacy of Internet users.  We do not collect any information about you, unless you intentionally provide us the information.  If you provide us your email address, we will never reveal, sell, or distribute your email address for any reason. Client privacy is crucial to lawyers, as lawyers are bound by strict ethical and professional standards of privacy and confidentiality. Therefore, we have always guarded the right to privacy and confidentiality of our clients. We will never disclose any information about you to anyone, except as authorized by you to enable us to effectuate our representation of you or as required by law or ethical regulations. And of course we never sell information to anyone or disclose information to marketing companies. We retain records relating to professional services that we provide so that we are better able to assist you with your professional needs and to comply with professional guidelines or requirements of law. In order to guard your personal information, we maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with both federal law and our more stringent professional standards. All attorneys and employees of the Farr Law Firm are required to maintain the confidentiality of all information about you. We maintain physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards that comply with both federal law and our more stringent professional standards as attorneys to protect the information that you have provided to us. With your consent, we may disclose information to various third parties who are assisting us in providing services to you, such as appraisers, accountants, real estate agents, and registry services. With your consent, we may disclose personal information to various third parties who are assisting you with your financial or insurance needs, such as your insurance agent or financial service provider. Without your consent, we will never release information about you unless required by law or ethical regulations.This Web site provides general information only. Laws develop over time and differ from state to state. This Web site does not provide legal advice about specific legal problems. Let a licensed Living Trust Plus™ lawyer advise you about your particular situation. 2009-06-18T06:34:51+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/disclaimer/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/disclaimer/#When:06:33:37Z {summary}By using this Web site you agree to the following disclaimers and terms of use governing this Web site:This Web site provides general information only and cannot be relied upon as legal advice. The information you find here should just be a starting point in finding information that may assist you. Laws change over time and differ from State to State. Applicability of the legal principles discussed may differ substantially in individual situations. You should consult an attorney about your particular situation. 2009-06-18T06:33:37+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/about-living-trust-plus/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/about-living-trust-plus/#When:06:28:40Z {summary}  About the Living Trust Plus™ and the Elder Law Institute for Training and Education Who is Evan Farr? The Living Trust Plus™ Diagram: How it Works The Problem: A Revocable Living Trust Won't Protect Assets from Nursing Home Care or Other Creditors The Solution: The Living Trust Plus™ About the Living Trust Plus™ and the Elder Law Institute for Training and Education The Living Trust Plus™ is a proprietary asset protection trust for Middle Class Americans, and was created by asset protection expert and Certified Elder Law Attorney, Evan Farr.  The Living Trust Plus™ is offered by Living Trust Plus™ licensed attorneys in nearly two dozen states (and counting).  Licensed Living Trust Plus™ attorneys belong to the National Attorney Network called the Elder Law Institute for Training and Education (ELITE).  ELITE educates, trains, and licenses attorneys across the United States so they may offer this revolutionary form of asset protection to their clients.  ELITE strives to promote and maintain a strong national presence in order to connect potential clients with our licensed attorneys in their respective states.   Who is Evan Farr? In private practice since 1987, Evan Farr is widely recognized as one of the foremost authorities in the Country in the field of Medicaid Asset Protection and Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts. Evan has been named by SuperLawyers.com as one of the top 5% of Elder Law and Estate Planning attorneys in Virginia every year since 2007, and in the Washington, DC Metro Area every year since 2008.   Evan is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell, is named in the Best Lawyers in America, and has a 10 out 10 rating on Avvo.com.  In 2011, Evan was named by Washingtonian Magazine as one of the top attorneys in the DC Metropolitan area, by Northern Virginia Magazine as one of the top attorneys in the Northern Virginia area, and by Newsweek Magazine as one of the top attorneys in the country. Evan is a nationally renowned Best-Selling author and frequent educator of attorneys across the U.S. As an expert to the experts, Evan has educated tens of thousands of attorneys across the country through speaking and writing for organizations such as the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA), the American Law Institute-American Bar Association (ALI-ABA), the National Business Institu te (NBI), the Virginia Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (VAELA), the Virginia Bar Association (VBA), Virginia Continuing Legal Education (Virginia CLE) , and the District of Columbia Bar Association. His publications include his Best-Selling Book, Protect and Defend, his latest book, the Nursing Home Survival Guide, dozens of articles that have appeared in the popular press, and numerous scholarly publications for the legal profession, including two legal treatises published by and available through the American Law Institute (formerly ALI-ABA): Planning and Defending Asset Protection Trusts and Trusts for Senior Citizens. Professional Credentials:  ♦ Certified Elder Law Attorney,  National Elder Law Foundation ♦ Member of National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) ♦ Chair, Virginia Bar Association (VBA) Elder Law Section  ♦ Vice Chair, Virginia Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (VALEA) ♦ Co-Chair, Fairfax Bar Association (FBA) Elder Law Section ♦ Past Co-Chair, FBA Wills, Trusts & Estates Section♦ Charter Member of Academy of Special Needs Planners♦ Member of AARP Legal Services Network.♦ Member of National Care Planning Council  Writing Credentials: Published books and treatises in the field of Elder Law that Evan Farr has authored or co-authored: ♦ Protect and Defend►available through Amazon (Amazon Best Seller) ♦ Nursing Home Survival Guide,►available through Amazon   ♦ Planning and Defending Asset Protection Trusts,     ►published by and available through ALI-ABA ♦ Trusts for Senior Citizens,     ►published by and available through ALI-ABA ♦ CPA's Guide to Long-Term Care Planning,     ►published by and available through The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants For more about Evan Farr, elder law, or estate planning, visit his Firm's website here.  The Living Trust Plus™ Diagram: How it Works Rich, poor, or somewhere in between, Americans cannot afford to ignore the potentially devastating costs of nursing home care and other types of long-term care. Nursing homes are the most expensive and most likely creditor that most Americans will face in their lifetimes.  See our FAQ page for some eye-opening statistics. A Revocable Living Trust Won't Protect Assets from Nursing Home Care and Other Creditors A revocable living trust protects your assets from the expenses of probate, but does not protect your assets from the expenses of long-term care while you're alive. A revocable living trust can be designed to protect assets from the creditors of your beneficiaries after you die, but this does not help you while you're alive. A revocable living trust provides NO asset protection at all for you while you're alive. Since you have total access to the assets inside your revocable living trust, so do your creditors, including the most likely and most expensive creditor of all – nursing homes. The Solution In response to this problem, Certified Elder Law Attorney and Estate Advisor Evan Farr developed a unique solution – a special type of asset protection trust called the Living Trust Plus™ that functions very similarly to a revocable living trust and maintains much of the flexibility of a revocable living trust, but protects your assets from the expenses and difficulties of probate PLUS the expenses of long-term care while you're alive, PLUS lawsuits and a multitude of other financial risks during your lifetime. The Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust protects your assets from lawsuits, auto accidents, creditor attacks, medical expenses, and -- most importantly for the 99% of Americans who are not among the ultra-wealthy -- from the catastrophic expenses often incurred in connection with nursing home care. For most Americans, the The Living Trust Plus™ is the preferable form of asset protection trust because, for purposes of Medicaid eligibility, this type of trust is the only type of self-settled asset protection trust that allows a settlor to retain an interest in the trust while also protecting the assets from being counted by state Medicaid agencies. Even though the Living Trust Plus™ is "irrevocable," it can still be revoked so long as the trustee and all of your beneficiaries agree to revoke it. Additionally, you retain a very high degree of control over your trust assets because: you can be the trustee if desired; you retain the right to receive all of the trust income; you retain the right to live in and use your real estate; you retain the right to change trustees; and you retain the right to change beneficiaries. If you are between 55 and 65 and still healthy and living at home, you owe it to yourself and your family to contact a licensed Living Trust Plus™ attorney in your state.  If you do not see an attorney listed for your state, don't worry.  We are constantly expanding our network and recruiting the most qualified attorneys.  If you are interested in the asset protection provided by the Living Trust Plus™ but do not see an attorney near your city or town, please let us know (by filling out the form on the right side of this page) and we may be able to reach out to an attorney near you.  2009-06-18T06:28:40+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/For-Attorneys-Only/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/For-Attorneys-Only/#When:06:11:29Z {summary}Get Started! Freebies for Attorneys Evan Farr's Living Trust Plus™ Attorneys-Only Teleseminar (Mp3 Format - listen-in or download and listen later) Living Trust Plus™ Sample Document Articles, Treatises, and Publications by Evan Farr Special Teleseminar: Mobile Site Discount for Living Trust Plus™ Members For the Attorneys Who Want to Get Started Right Away Click Here for program details, pricing information, options and features   Freebies for Attorneys from Evan Farr The Living Trust Plus™ Teleseminar (Mp3) Attorneys-Only Teleseminar on the Living Trust Plus™ (free .mp3 download) - Evan explains what "true asset protection" is, as well as what it is not. Evan discusses the often-overlooked benefits of the income-only asset protection trust, why the time is now to offer it to clients, and how to do so most effectively. The Living Trust Plus™ Sample View Our Sample Document Articles For Estate Planning and Elder Law Attorneys by Evan H. Farr, CELA Free Special Report on Asset Protection Trusts - Part 1 Free Special Report on Asset Protection Trusts - Part 2 Special Report on Tax Changes for 2010 Planning and Defending Asset-Protection Trusts by Evan H. Farr, Richard Nenno, Gideon Rothschild, John E. Sullivan III, John A. Terrill IIPublished by ALI-ABA Trusts for Senior Citizens by Evan H. Farr, Bradley J. Frigon, Lawrence A. Frolik, Patricia F. Stichler, and Shirley B. WhitenackPublished by ALI-ABA Special Teleseminar: Mobile Site Discount for Living Trust Plus™ Members Click here to access the mp3 file!   2009-06-18T06:11:29+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/living-trust-plus-frequently-asked-questions/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/?/site/living-trust-plus-frequently-asked-questions/#When:05:01:38Z {summary}Q: I’m still healthy. Why should I care about avoiding nursing home expenses? A: Because 70% of Americans who live to age 65 will need long-term care at some time in their lives, and because 50 percent of all couples and 70 percent of single persons become impoverished within one year after entering a nursing home. You can't just hide your head in the sand and hope that you are never going to need nursing home care. The best estate plan in the world is useless if you wind up in a nursing home and spend all of your money on long-term care. Q: What is the Living Trust Plus™ and how does it work? A: The Living Trust Plus™ is an irrevocable asset protection trust that you create while you are living, that protects your assets from probate PLUS creditors PLUS Medicaid.  You receive all ordinary income (interest, dividends, rent, and royalties) from the trust assets (at least annually, but as often as desired), including the right to live in any trust-owned real estate, but you can not have direct access to principal. If either you or your spouse has direct access to principal, the assets in the trust would be deemed "countable" for Medicaid eligibility purposes and would be completely available to almost all other creditors. Prohibiting direct access to principal is the key to why the Living Trust Plus™ works -- for general creditor protection and for Medicaid asset protection. Q: Does the Living Trust Plus™ completely avoid probate, just like a regular revocable living trust? A: Yes, if properly funded.  So long as all assets are either titled in the Living Trust Plus™ or name the Living Trust Plus™ as the beneficiary on death, probate will be avoided. Q: You say I can't have direct access to my principal. Does this mean I may have indirect access to the trust principal? A: Possibly. There are two ways that you can have possible indirect access to the trust principal. The first way is that the trust is written so that the Trustee has the ability to make distributions of principal to the trust beneficiaries, who are typically your adult children. If the Trustee distributes principal to a trust beneficiary, that beneficiary can then voluntarily return some of that principal to you or use it for your benefit.  There must not be any prior agreement that a trust beneficiary will return some of that principal to you or use it for your benefit.  The second way for the Settlor to get at the trust principal is for the trust to be terminated, as explained below. Q: I thought we were talking about an irrevocable trust? How can an irrevocable trust be terminated? A: The Living Trust Plus™ is an irrevocable trust, and many people, including lots of good estate planning attorneys, think that means the trust can never be revoked. But the fact is that the term "irrevocable" means only one thing - that the trust can not be unilaterally revoked by the creator of the trust. Although the Living Trust Plus™ is irrevocable and can't be revoked unilaterally by the settlor, under common law and under the Uniform Trust Code, a non-charitable irrevocable trust can be modified, terminated, or partially terminated upon the consent of the trustee and all trust beneficiaries. Q: What kind of people use the Living Trust Plus™ ? A: Typically clients who are in their mid-60s to mid-80s, already retired, and worried about the potential catastrophic cost of long-term care, and they want to protect the nest egg that they've been saving for a rainy day. The rainiest possible day for most people is the day they start needing nursing home care, and if they want to truly protect their nest egg and have it actually benefit them when the time comes, they know they need to do something to shelter that money. The Living Trust Plus™, for many people, is the best way to do that. Q: What about Long-Term Care Insurance? A: Most Living Trust Plus™ clients don't have long-term care insurance because they're too old to afford it or to qualify for it, or they have a medical condition that prohibits them from getting it. For many clients, the Living Trust Plus™ is the best possible alternative to purchasing long-term care insurance. Q: What assets can go into the Living Trust Plus™ ? A: The main types of assets that should be funded into the Living Trust Plus™ are the primary residence, any secondary residence, any non-mortgaged investment real estate, any non-qualified financial investments, ordinary bank accounts, and life insurance. Q: Are their any capital gains tax implications for selling my home if I have titled my home into my Living Trust Plus™? A: No. The capital gains tax implications of selling a home from the trust are no different than if you sold it yourself as an individual.  The Living Trust Plus™ does not affect the $250k capital gains exclusion available to each owner on the sale of a primary residence. Q: Are their any other tax implications in connection with the Living Trust Plus™? A: No.  The Living Trust Plus™ is completely tax neutral - i.e., it will have no effect on your income tax, capital gains tax, or estate tax. Q: Does a married couple create one joint Living Trust Plus™ or two separate trusts?  And what happens on the death of the first spouse? A: Some married couples create one joint Living Trust Plus™ and some create two separate trusts. Which way depends on multiple considerations, including whether or not the trustees and beneficiaries are identical for both spouses.  On the death of one spouse, typically nothing changes, as both trusts were already irrevocable prior to death. For married couples with estates larger than the Estate Tax exemption equivalent amount ($5 million in 2011), the Living Trust Plus™ is designed to take advantage of both exemptions. Q: Are there any assets that can’t go in to the Living Trust Plus™? A: The assets that shouldn't be transferred into the Living Trust Plus™ are your qualified retirement plans (e.g., IRAs and 401(k) plans) and your primary checking account. Most states treat qualified retirement plans as countable resources for Medicaid, so if you want to protect the assets in your qualified retirement plan from Medicaid by using the Living Trust Plus™ you will need to cash out your retirement plan first, and pay any income taxes that are due as a result of terminating the plan.  We usually do not put annuities into the trust either, but it depends on the type of annuity. Q: What if a big percentage of my assets are tied up in a qualified retirement plan (e.g., IRAs and 401(k) plans)?   Can I still do the Living Trust Plus™? A: Although qualfied assets can't be transferred into the Living Trust Plus™ because if IRS regulations, it often makes very good sense to liquidate your qualfied plans and transfer the after-tax balance into the Living Trust Plus™ Asset Protection Trust.  Although "conventional wisdom" typically recommends postponing paying taxes as long as possible, every rule has its exception.  For example, converting funds from a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA has three significant benefits: (1) You can avoid future mandatory disbursements from your IRA; (2) Avoiding future mandatory distributions means your money can grow for a longer time, and will grow tax fee in a Roth IRA. (3) By converting funds now, you owe tax at today’s ordinary income rates, and will never again have to pay income tax on these funds, or the growth in these funds. No one know if or when the federal government is going to raise tax rates, or whether your beneficiaries will be in a higher tax bracket.  Assuming that either or both of these scenarios could become true, then converting now makes good sense. That is because paying the tax bill at your lower rate will ultimately produce more cash for your heirs than if you left the money in a traditional IRA and they paid the tax.  See also:  http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2011-05-05-tax-cut-record-low_n.htm wherein USA Today states that “Americans are paying the smallest share of their income for taxes since 1958,” meaning that there is a significant change of taxes increasing over the years.  These same 3 exceptions, and a fourth and much greater exception, applies to converting funds from a traditional IRA into the Living Trust Plus™: (1) You avoid future mandatory disbursements from your IRA; (2) Avoiding future mandatory distributions of principal means your money can grow for a longer time and, if put into tax-free investments, will grow tax fee inside the Living Trust Plus™. (3) By converting funds now, you owe tax at today’s ordinary income rates, and will never again have to pay income tax on these funds.(4) Lastly, and most importantly, transferring assets from a traditional IRA into the Living Trust Plus™ protects those assets, after 5 years, from ever having  to be paid to the nursing home for long-term care.  Given that 70% of adults over the age of 65 will need long-term care, this asset protection feature of the Living Trust Plus™ is overwhelmingly more significant than the tax savings that might occur by leaving money in a traditional IRA which is completely exposed to nursing home expenses.  Q: Is there a diagram showing how the Living Trust Plus™ works? A: Here it is: 2009-06-18T05:01:38+00:00