Following a recent Estate Planning event in Covington, an attendee in her early 50’s asked me, “when is the right age to set up a Living Trust in Louisiana?” Well . . .There is more than one right answer to this question, but generally, the older you are, the more attractive a living trust will be for you and your family. A Living Trust is used to avoid the court supervised probate succession procedure that usually must take place after your death. In order to avoid probate, your trust must be funded with all of your property that would otherwise [...]

Last Week, I met with a mother and her daughter in Metairie to discuss the best way to protect Mom’s assets from a nursing home. Dad died 2 years earlier after a battle with cancer and Mom inherited a stock account worth about $150,000 and all the rights to the family home from Dad. Mom had recently been diagnosed with the early stages of Parkinson’s disease. The family was worried that as mom’s condition worsened, she would be forced into a nursing home, and the family wanted to do whatever they could to avoid spending all of the money mom [...]