The Rabalais Law Firm's La. Estates Blog

Come See Us At The Louisiana Book Festival

Come visit me, Stephanie, and Laura at the Louisiana Book Festival on Saturday, November 3, 2007, in downtown Baton Rouge. I plan to autograph and sell boxloads of my new book: Estate Planning in Louisiana, A Layman's Guide To Understanding Wills, Trusts, Probate, Power of Attorney, Medicaid, Living Wills & Taxes. I've been assigned Table 12. It starts at 10:00am and ends at 7:00pm (but I'll be leaving a little early to watch the LSU-Alabama football game). For more info on the Festival, click www.louisianabookfestival.org

Busy Day for Estate Planning Attorney

Today was busy. At 9:30 I met with a gentleman who lost his wife a couple weeks ago. They had assets in excess of the $2m estate tax exemption. He said he was grateful that his wife found me about ten years ago because there is no estate tax due now, and since she left him the lifetime usufruct of her entire estate, none of her assets will be included in his estate when he dies. We gathered all the info to prepare the succession documents.

At 10:30 I met with a couple to sign the necessary documents to protect their assets from being consumed by future long term care expenses.

At 11:30 I met with a nice couple. When I did their Wills years ago, their children were younger. Because we had kept in touch with them  through our e-newsletter, they came back in to update their estate plan. They changed their Powers of Attorney and Wills to give their children more authority to handle matters, and we made all-important changes to make the children's inheritance divorce-proof.

At 12:30 I met with a nice couple. They were concerned about the wife's illness and wanted to do some estate planning to protect what they have for themselves and their nine year old son.

At 1:30, I met with a couple. Both of their parents had been in the nursing home. They owned some property in Florida and a large CD. If they continued owning these assets, they will have to be consumed before the couple qualifies for Medicaid. I told them what they needed to do to protect the assets for themselves and their five children. They were very thankful.

At 2:30 I met with a nice woman. I had prepared numerous Wills for she and her husband over the years. Her husband died recently. I'm looking forward to helping her.

Special thanks to my hard-working employees, Stephanie and Laura, who did so much to make these meetings easy for me. Our clients are fortunate that they have Stephanie and Laura working for them. I couldn't do all this without them.

In Case You Missed It

Two outstanding, well-attended seminars yesterday. Thanks to all who attended. It seems that most of the questions from the audience centered around how to protect the home, other real estate, and financial assets from having to be consumed by nursing home costs. Several in the audience had parents who were paying in excess of $4,000 monthly for nursing home costs. My answer: Plan ahead -utilizing our Medicaid Planning strategies which were expained at the seminar.

Some of the written comments from yesterday's seminars include:

"Informative. The knowledge imparted was precise and precious."

"A lot of information clearly presented."

"Very thorough for the short time allowed."

"Lots of information. Especially on Taxes and Medicaid."

New Report on Revocable Living Trusts Gives Answers

If I had a nickel for everytime someone asked me whether they should have a Will or a Revocable Living Trust, I'd have a lot of nickels. About 30 minutes ago, I finished drafting my Special Report titled, Revocable Living Trusts in Louisiana: Choosing Between a Will and a Trust as Your Primary Estate Planning Tool." I've been working on it for about a week and I'm excited because you will now be able to get most - if not all - of your questions answered about revocable living trusts which are highly promoted in many national estate planning consumer publications.

If you want to be one of the first to review this 14-page Special Report, simply comment to this post and I'll personally e-mail it to you at no charge.

Vehicles Can Avoid Probate

Sometimes an heir or a family wants to transfer a car titled in the name of a deceased family member, but they don't want to wait until the succession is complete to finalize the sale or donation. The Louisiana Office of Motor Vehicles allows the surviving spouse and/or heirs to execute an Affidavit of Heirship which the Office of Motor Vehicles will rely upon to transfer title to a vehicle prior to completion of the succession. Example: Joe Smith wrote a Will and left his truck to his son, Fred Smith. After Joe dies, Fred completes the affidavit and brings it to the Office of Motor Vehicles, along with a copy of Joe's Will, and a death certificate or published obituary. Fred will be able to have a new title to the truck issued in his name. For a copy of the Affidavit, click http://www.dps.state.la.us/omv/forms/1696.pdf Once complete, Fred can choose to keep, donate, or sell the truck. Using this Affidavit can be easier that waiting until the succession is complete.

Perhaps if you have a Probate Avoidance Revocable Living Trust, you don't have to re-title your vehicles into your trust. You can bequeath your vehicles in your Will and the vehicles will not have to go through probate when you die.

Speaking To Church Group

I received an e-mail last night from a gentleman. I had prepared his family's estate planning documents a few years ago. He asked me if I'd be interested in speaking to his church's 55 and older group on important estate planning issues. He said they have about 40 seniors at each meeting. I e-mailed him back and said I'd be happy to and I'd make it informative, educational, and easy-to-understand. He e-mailed me again and said he'd look into putting me on the February, 2008 agenda. I'm looking forward to it.

If you are in charge of a group that would benefit from my free speaking services, feel free to let me know and we'll see if we can make it work.

Revocable Living Trust for Family That Wants To Avoid Probate

I spoke on the phone today with a gentleman. I had prepared Wills for he and his wife ten years ago - a very nice couple. Since then, he's been handling his elderly mother's affairs. She lives in another state and she has a Revocable Living Trust. He stated that he wanted a Revocable Living Trust for his family because: (1) he saw how easy it was for his mother to establish her trust; (2) he wants to avoid the probate expense; and (3) he has real estate in another state and he wants to avoid the ancillary probate in that state.  We'll be preparing his family's trust and we'll put it into effect when he gets back from a week long trip to visit his mother.

While I'm officially neither pro-trust nor pro-will (it depends on the circumstances), I do benefit from hearing your stories about probates you've been involved in - whether good or bad, easy or difficult. Please feel free to comment.

Mother Concerned About Leaving Home To Her Son

A gentleman contacted my office yesterday. Laura arranged a time for me to have a telephone conference with him. When we talked, he explained that his elderly mother was in the hospital with cancer, and that she wanted him to own or inherit her home. He further explained that his mother didn't want her other son to inherit any part of the home because that other son was estranged, and he also stated that his mother didn't want to lose the home to Medicaid Estate Recovery if she had to reside in a nursing home.

The dilemma? If Mother leaves the house to her son in her Will, the son may never get it because the State of Louisiana may force the home's sale in Estate Recovery if Mother was in the nursing home and receiving Medicaid benefits before she died. If Mother donates the home to her son now, it will render Mother ineligible for Medicaid for many months because she made an uncompensated transfer. I have a feeling I know what the family is going to do, but the key is to plan ahead to avoid these types of difficult decisions.

The tough thing about long term care is that you are encouraged your whole lifetime to save, and then when you get older and can't take care of yourself, you are forced to spend all of your savings on your care while the people who didn't save will qualify for Medicaid benefits immediately. What do you think about this? Please post your comments.

Interesting E-mail

I received an interesting e-mail this morning. A woman e-mailed me and said she purchased my book and liked it. She said she went to an attorney and requested that her executor be named an "independent executor."  I had recommended this in the book because it makes the probate much easier. The attorney told her there was no such thing in Louisiana and he refused to follow her instructions. I e-mailed her the reference to the 2001 law change and suggested that if this attorney had not heard of an "independent executor," then he should not be preparing a last will and testament in Louisiana. Moral: work with a specialist.

Revocable Living Trust When Property in Multiple States

I met with a nice couple today. After "googling" me, they drove a couple of hours to get to my office. Their initial concern was that they had done no prior planning and they wanted to know if a Will or a Revocable Living Trust was right for them. After discussing their concerns, we decided that the Trust was the way to go because they owned real estate in multiple states and they can avoid the ancillary probate in other states if their assets are owned by their Revocable Living Trust.

I'm currently writing a Special Report analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of Wills and Revocable Living Trusts in Louisiana. I'm excited about releasing this Report. If you'd like a copy when it's complete, simply Comment to this Post or send me an e-mail at paul@rabalaislaw.com