Your Estate Planning Legal Companion
by Admin
Posted on 07-06-2024 03:21 PM
A health care disclosure or hipaa release document should be executed by you to authorize your health care providers to disclose your medical information to those family members or other individuals that you designate. Without this authorization, your health care providers may be prohibited from sharing such information as a result of the implementation of certain privacy requirements under the health insurance portability and accountability act of 1996 (hipaa). This summary is for your general information.
The discussion of any estate planning alternatives and other observations herein are not intended as legal or tax advice and do not take into account the particular estate planning objectives, financial situation, or needs of individual clients.
A trust is a legal document that holds assets. A trustee oversees the trust. Beneficiaries are the people who will receive the assets in the trust. Distribution of trust assets to beneficiaries happens according to the terms of the trust—without going through the probate process. In addition to the primary beneficiaries, trusts commonly have contingent beneficiaries who will receive the trust assets if the primary beneficiary cannot receive them. Probate avoidance is a major reason for setting up a trust, but trusts can also help with long-term care planning or provide for children or other family members who need help managing an inheritance. https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=13626348911409096211&q=last+will+and+testament&hl=en&as_sdt=2006
1. A First Look at Estate Planning
Estate planning is the process of mapping out how your property and assets will be distributed in the event of your death. An effective estate plan typically addresses who will inherit your assets and often includes a detailed plan for end-of-life health care decisions, should you become incapable of making these decisions yourself. It also seeks to minimize the tax burden for those who inherit your assets. Benefits of estate planning
a thoughtful estate plan goes beyond deciding who gets what. Here are some of the most important estate planning benefits:
clarity: an estate plan creates clear directions for distributing your property and assets upon your death — exactly as you wish — and allows you to name people to oversee that process, such as an executor or trustee.
Protecting assets against potential loss is one of the key parts of estate planning. You’ll want to be sure that your money and property are safe both during your lifetime and after you pass. One of the most important ways you can do this is to create a medicaid plan. Nursing home care is very costly and it’s not covered by medicare or other medical insurance except in very limited situations. Medicaid does cover custodial care in a nursing home, which is the routine care most people need—but you must have limited assets to qualify. Making a medicaid plan to avoid spending down your wealth while ensuring you can get access to nursing home coverage can be very important.
Absolutely. Estate planning deals with more than just what happens when someone dies. It involves planning for our lifetime as well. During estate planning, most people should plan for possible mental or physical incapacity during their lifetimes. This planning is especially important for a single person who may wait to designate someone other than a relative to manage his or her property and affairs in the event of incapacity. A living will or a durable heathcare power of attorney can enable you to pick someone to make decisions for you about medical treatment, including decisions about using or terminating life support systems.