Special Needs Trusts are a great tool for protecting your disabled relatives and ensuring their eligibility for valuable Federal Medicaid programs. This article is designed to inform you as to how these trust are created and administered, and most importantly, to inform you of the benefits these Special Needs Trusts. Individuals with certain disabilities can receive federal benefits including money for their support and medical expenses from various Medicaid programs. Medicaid is a system set up by the US government specifically designed to assist low income individuals (this is not to be confused with Medicare, federal health insurance for the [...]

In the past few months our firm has been preparing an abundance of Revocable Living Trusts for Louisiana residents seeking to avoid probate or succession as it is called in Louisiana. One of the essential parts of a Louisiana Revocable Living trusts is what's known as a pour-over will. Often clients are confused by this term, because their thinking is; "If I have a revocable living trust, I shouldn't need a will". Well, I'm here to explain exactly what the pour-over will is used for. When you have a revocable living trust, your Louisiana pour-over will is a essentially the [...]

Most Louisiana residents think that their last will and testament is the most necessary of all the estate planning legal documents that a person can have in place; however, the terms of your will are essentially without effect until after you are already dead and gone. Your Louisiana Will is primarily geared toward distributing your assets and caring for your heirs as opposed to protecting those assets and caring for yourself. Protecting your assets and looking after your own well-being should be your primary considerations while you are still alive. For the above reasons, your Louisiana Powers of Attorney are [...]

Many times people leave specific items or cash amounts to their heirs when drawing up their will or trust. In Louisiana, our law calls for these inheritances or bequests (as they are technically termed) to be dispensed with before any other bequests. These other bequests could include collections of things or percentages of the entire estate. This law could in some cases lead to undesired results, especially in cases where a person’s estate is not large enough to cover all of their bequests.For example, Grandma’s will leave a diamond ring to granddaughter Susie and $10,000 to grandson Jay, with the [...]

In about 20% of all estate plans that I prepare, there is also some business planning that needs to take place. This business planning typically takes the form of Louisiana LLC formation. LLC’s, or limited liability companies, are most often formed by clients who hold investment properties or rentals as a way to protect their other assets.The idea of the LLC is to shield yourself and you personal asset from any lawsuit arising from property owned by you. Let's say you own a rental house and your tenant slips and falls on the property and decides to sue you. Without [...]

During a recent seminar, someone asked me how lawyers determine the fees they charge their clients for a succession. This is a great question and one that does not have one right answer. There are a number of ways in which Louisiana succession fees are structured, and a number of factors go into determining the amount your family will be charged. The 3 basic fee structures are the hourly rate based system, the fixed fee system, or the percentage fee system. With hourly rates an attorney will charge you by the hour for work performed to complete the succession. Larger [...]

I talk a lot about avoiding Louisiana probate (or succession as we call it) with a Revocable Living Trust. Typically the primary reasons stated for avoiding succession are avoiding high costs and time delays, but there is one major reason to avoid a Louisiana succession that seems to be lost amongst the others. That reason is PRIVACY.Louisiana Successions are court proceedings, and like all other court proceedings they are a matter of public record. This means that the information contained in a succession proceeding is available to anyone who seeks it. With the internet age, public records are available worldwide [...]

In the past few months our firm has been preparing an abundance of Revocable Living Trusts for Louisiana residents seeking to avoid probate or succession as it is called in Louisiana. One of the essential parts of a Louisiana Revocable Living trusts is what’s known as a pour-over will. Often clients are confused by this term, because their thinking is; “If I have a revocable living trust, I shouldn’t need a will”.Well, I’m here to explain exactly what the pour-over will is used for. When you have a revocable living trust, your Louisiana pour-over will is a essentially the back-up [...]