http://www.livingtrustplus.com/site/index/ en kenrick@thebusypixel.com Copyright 2009 2009-07-06T16:03:19+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/site/contact-us/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/site/contact-us/#When:16:03:19Z {summary}Please use the contact form on the right to ask Evan Farr a question about Living Trust Plus ™ 2009-07-06T16:03:19+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/site/thank-you/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/site/thank-you/#When:19:18:04Z {summary}Thank you for contacting Evan Farr, the creator of the Living Trust Plus™. Someone will get back with you soon. 2009-06-19T19:18:04+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/site/privacy-policy/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/site/privacy-policy/#When:03:34:51Z {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. 2009-06-18T03:34:51+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/site/disclaimer/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/site/disclaimer/#When:03:33:18Z {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. Virginia does not certify specialists in the law, and we do not claim certification in any listed areas. Nothing transmitted from this web site constitutes the establishment of an attorney-client relationship between you and The Law Firm of Evan H. Farr, P.C. or any other law firm or attorney. The Law Firm of Evan H. Farr, P.C. can not and does not guarantee the accuracy of any information available through the links you may find at this Web site. Nothing contained at this Web site should be construed to constitute a recommendation or endorsement of any product, service, site or other professional entity. Any links on this site are provided as a matter of convenience to the public. Please remember that transmissions on the Internet are not always confidential. Any information you transmit to The Law Firm of Evan H. Farr, P.C. via this Web site is transmitted at your own risk. Please also remember that no attorney-client relationship is established (i.e. we will not be your attorneys) unless until we have reviewed the case, decided to accept the case and entered into a written legal services agreement with you. Please do not submit any legal questions via regular e-mail. All legal questions must be submitted via our contact form. 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 The Law Firm of Evan H. Farr, P.C. advise you about your particular situation. 2009-06-18T03:33:18+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/site/about-living-trust-plus/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/site/about-living-trust-plus/#When:03:29:57Z {summary}Whether you're rich, poor, or somewhere in between, you cannot afford to ignore the potentially devastating costs of nursing home care and other types of long-term care. Nursing homes are the most likely and one of the most expensive creditors that most Americans are likely to face in their lifetimes. Consider the following statistics: About 70% of Americans who live to age 65 will need long-term care at some time in their lives, over 40 percent in a nursing home. As of 2008, the national average cost of a private room in a nursing home was $212 per day or $77,380 per year, and the national average cost of a semi-private room was $191 per day or $69,715 per year. On average, someone age 65 today will need nursing home care for approximately three years. Twenty percent of individuals will need nursing home care for more than five years. Fifty percent of all couples and 70 percent of single persons become impoverished within one year after entering a nursing home. Long-term care is not just needed by the elderly. A study by a large insurance company found that 46 percent of its group long-term care claimants were under the age of 65 at the time of disability. Contrast the above long-term care statistics with statistics for automobile accident claims and homeowner's insurance claims: Between 2005 and 2007, an average of only 7.2% of people per year filed an automobile insurance claim. Between 2002 and 2006, an average of only 6.15% of people per year filed a claim on their homeowner's insurance. Almost everyone who drives has auto insurance, and almost everyone who owns a home has homeowners insurance, yet only about 10% of the population have Long-Term Care Insurance. The other 90% are totally at risk for winding up financially destitute because of the need for nursing home care. The best time for you to address this problem is when you do your Estate Planning. It is estimated that only 30% of Americans do estate planning – an absurdly low percentage, but still this is three times greater than the percentage of people who purchase long-term care insurance. The reason you should address the problem of long-term care while doing estate planning is that the best estate plan in the world won’t matter a bit if all of your money is used up in connection with long-term care. Most people doing estate planning use a revocable living trust to avoid the hassles and expenses of probate. There are hundreds of books and thousands of Web sites devoted to the revocable living trust, and it is widely recognized by attorneys and consumers that a revocable living trust is tremendously superior to a Last Will and Testament as an estate planning tool. This web site does not attempt to explore in depth all of the benefits of a revocable living trust, but will highlight some. Readers not familiar with all of the benefits of a revocable living trust should obtain one of the many other excellent books on this topic. One of the best is the seminal book on the topic -- The Living Trust : The Failproof Way to Pass Along Your Estate to Your Heirs, by Henry Abst.Mr. Abst essentially created the revocable living trust industry when he published his book back in 1989, which quickly became and still is the “bible” on how to avoid probate.  Evan Farr remembers it, because he started practice back in 1987, two years before his book came out, and at that time no one was doing living trusts; they were essentially unheard of.  Even though Living Trusts had been used as far back as 16th century England, Mr. Abst came along just 20 years ago, put together all the puzzle pieces, wrote a book explaining it, and completely revolutionized the estate planning industry.  Evan H. Farr, a Certified Elder Law Attorney and Certified Estate Advisor, is now doing the same thing for the Living Trust PlusTM that Henry Abst did for the revocable living trust.  The Living Trust PlusTM is quickly revolutionizing the Estate Planning industry by offering an estate planning alternative that provides consumers with all the best features of a regular living trust PLUS the extra and vital benefit of asset protection that consumers are so hungry for, especially in this terrible economy where most people have already seen their life savings gutted by more than half.  Won't a Revocable Living Trust Protect My Assets from Nursing Home Care and Other Creditors? No. 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. So What's 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 PlusTM 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. 2009-06-18T03:29:57+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/site/For-Attorneys-Only/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/site/For-Attorneys-Only/#When:03:12:22Z {summary}Estate Planning and Elder Law Attorneys Click HereFor Information on How to Purchase the Living Trust PlusTM Asset Protection System soYou Can Start Offering the Living Trust PlusTM to Your Clients! Articles For Estate Planning and Elder Law Attorneysby Evan H. Farr, CELA, CEACreator of the Living Trust PlusTM  Special Report on Tax Changes for 2010Free Special Report on Asset Protection Trusts - Part 1Free Special Report on Asset Protection Trusts - Part 2 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 2009-06-18T03:12:22+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:02:01:36Z {summary}Q: I’m still healthy. Why should I care about avoid 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 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: A married couple will typically create two separate trusts, and typically nothing changes on the death of one spouse, as both trusts were already irrevocable prior to death. For married couples with estates larger than the Estate Tax exemption equivalent amount ($1 million in 2011), the Living Trust Plus™ is designed to utilize 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: Is there a diagram showing how the Living Trust Plus™ works? A: Here it is: 2009-06-18T02:01:36+00:00 http://www.livingtrustplus.com/site/living_trust_plus/ http://www.livingtrustplus.com/site/living_trust_plus/#When:01:17:01Z {summary}The revocable living trust is a very useful and popular estate planning tool, recommended by tens of thousands of attorneys across the U.S. and used as the central estate planning document by millions of Americans.  The primary benefit of the revocable living trust is that assets properly funded into such a trust are protected from the expenses and complexities of probate.  However, what most Americans don't realize is that assets in a revocable living trust are NOT protected from lawsuits or from the catastrophic expenses associated with nursing home long-term care. Certified Elder Law Attorney and Certified Estate Advisor Evan H. Farr, one of the nation's leading estate planning, elder law, and asset protection attorneys, has developed a unique asset protection trust called the Living Trust Plus™ -- a trust that functions very similarly to a revocable living trust and maintains much of the flexibility of a revocable living trust, but is designed to protect your assets from the expenses and complexities of probate PLUS lawsuits PLUS nursing home expenses. 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 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. Living Trust Plus ™ FAQs I’m still healthy. Why should I care about avoid nursing home expenses? What exactly is the Living Trust Plus™ and how does it work? You say I can't have direct access to my principal. Does this mean I can have indirect access to the trust principal? I thought we were talking about an irrevocable trust? How can an irrevocable trust be revoked? What kind of people use the Living Trust Plus™ ? What about Long-Term Care Insurance? What assets can go into the Living Trust Plus™ ? Are there any assets that can’t go in to the Living Trust Plus™? Is there a diagram showing how the Living Trust Plus™ works? Blogging 2009-06-16T01:17:01+00:00