Land Trust

mathjak107 said:
I found something on it. it looks like the house has to be out of the RLT when you apply for Medicaid . that can be a bit hard to do in advancwe when someone has a stroke and you first have to have things re-titled
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Not really hard at all... When a person has a debilitating illness and needs Nursing Home care, this is called a "Skilled Need".. MEDICARE picks up the first 100 days at 100%. The time to remove your property from the RLT would be then. You have 100 days before you become what is known as self pay... This is assuming you have no other assets. Those have to go first.. so PLENTY of time to get the house out of the RLT before even thinking of applying for Medicaid.
 

. most folks and general practitioners have little clue about this when they put homes in a trust . i wouldn't trust our state to do anything in 100 days . it took 4 months to get a will probated and a new deed titled .

but be aware :


Medicare will only pay for skilled nursing care after a patient has been hospitalized for at least three days. And, at least for now, a patient who is in a hospital for observation but has not been formally admitted does not qualify. Medicare will pay for no more than 100 days of skilled care after a hospitalization. And Medicare will not pay for skilled care if needed services can be provided by the patient herself, her family, or by home health aides.

personally i would not bet my long term care plan on the fact i will have time or the ability to retitle . in fact if all we had left were those assets that qualified and a house the life one of us would lead here is a life of impoverishment .

i wouldn't ever call that my long term care plan . except for avoiding probate which is no big deal the advantages of a revocable trust are pretty limited .

basically if you have instructions you want carried out on what you leave or minor children use it , but i would not use them for much else
 
mathjak107 said:
. most folks and general practitioners have little clue about this when they put homes in a trust . i wouldn't trust our state to do anything in 100 days . it took 4 months to get a will probated and a new deed titled .

but be aware :


Medicare will only pay for skilled nursing care after a patient has been hospitalized for at least three days. And, at least for now, a patient who is in a hospital for observation but has not been formally admitted does not qualify. Medicare will pay for no more than 100 days of skilled care after a hospitalization. And Medicare will not pay for skilled care if needed services can be provided by the patient herself, her family, or by home health aides.

personally i would not bet my long term care plan on the fact i will have time or the ability to retitle . in fact if all we had left were those assets that qualified and a house the life one of us would lead here is a life of impoverishment .

i wouldn't ever call that my long term care plan . except for avoiding probate which is no big deal the advantages of a revocable trust are pretty limited .

basically if you have instructions you want carried out on what you leave or minor children use it , but i would not use them for much else
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I'm really glad we had this thread... I was not aware of the RLT and Medicaid situation. And I also now see why my attorney felt it a very good option for us.. We have substantial assets... It would be a blue moon anyway before either of us would be able to even think about applying for Medicaid..

In the meantime.. an RLT does exactly want I wanted it to do.. Since my children are from a previous marriage it protects my husband from my children in the event die before him..they can't take the house from him... and it protects my children by having them as beneficiaries when he dies as they are not his heirs. It also avoids Probate.

Should either one of us languish in a nursing home for years... when our assets get close to depleted.. the house will be taken out of the trust long before applying for Medicaid. It really is a moot point
 

as our attorney told us anything revocable is no legal protection , it can be changed by the surviving spouse . it is worth as much as a handshake is legally . amything you do that is revocable is more a moral agreement than a legal one .
 
mathjak107 said:
as our attorney told us anything revocable is no legal protection , it can be changed by the surviving spouse . it is worth as much as a handshake is legally . amything you do that is revocable is more a moral agreement than a legal one .
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I think I understand that MathJak... I trust my husband... however this is one thing he doesn't have to do.. If I die before him, he doesn't have to do anything.... If he wants to rob my kids of my house, he would have to go to the attorney and remove them from the trust. In any case... what could I do about that anyway. There is no way to stop it.
 
both my wife and i have kids from a first marriage .

both of us were screwed over by our parents remarrying and ultimately the will being changed ruling us out . so having both got burned it was on our minds when we did all our paper work .

the only way to protect assets for your kids is to use irrevocable trusts . we did not want to start with that crap .

so we gave each other our word never to disinherit the others children and that is about as good as we can get things ,.
 
we both have disclaimer trusts in place . but that is for state estate tax purposes . in case we are over the asset limit in ny and would have estate taxes the surviving spouse has 9 months to throw a switch ,split the assets in two and create an irrevocable trust on 1/2 the assets .

we can pass 2x the amount with the trusts tax free to the kids. if we are not over the limit than it is business as usual and the trust is not activated .
 
mathjak107 said:
both my wife and i have kids from a first marriage .

both of us were screwed over by our parents remarrying and ultimately the will being changed ruling us out . so having both got burned it was on our minds when we did all our paper work .

the only way to protect assets for your kids is to use irrevocable trusts . we did not want to start with that crap .

so we gave each other our word never to disinherit the others children and that is about as good as we can get things ,.
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Yep... we sat with our lawyer for 90 minutes talking about all options... and the RLT seemed best. the house was in my name only. After 15 years of marriage I decided I needed to protect him from my kids in the event of my death... I didn't want them throwing him out to sell the house.. I also wanted the house to go to MY kids when he dies.. he has given his word he will not remove them from the trust.. and that is about as good as we can get things.
 
we tried to put as comprehensive plan together as we could including putting long term care insurance in place . the more we mitigate and rule out the better my wife likes it . she was a widow once already and had a pile of investments she knew nothing about dumped on her . the guy she trusted at the bank lost half of it in the dot com bust .

so all my planning takes her needs and wants in to consideration too .
 
because when kids are not your own and drift out of the picture after their parent passes ,many times the documents get changed by the other spouse . especially if they remarry and the new spouse pressures them .

not all kids remain close with their parents spouse after they pass . out of site out of mind .
 
Ina said:
Then why is there so much distrust in making wills?
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Because you cannot will property to someone and tell them what they have to do with it when they die. Once you will something to someone and you die.. it's their property and they are free to do what they please.. including cutting their deceased spouses kids out of all assets. Step children are not your legal heirs... and they have no claim on your assets.. You can change wills, and beneficiaries as you please.
 
wills work . but they can be anything but simple . we already ran in to defects in a will and a trust that were done by different people . one word missing can cause lots of grief . never do this stuff with canned documents . see an actual estate attorney .

as we learned there are no do overs when things are not perfect
 
Ina said:
Thank you Mathjak107 for the information. My assets are simple so maybe a will is the best way for me to go.
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It's simple when there are no remarriages and no children from previous marriages.. When there are...simplicity goes out the window.. it gets really complicated... and most times it boils down to trust... which is pretty scary.
 
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My lawyer told us that the only thing that should be willed are fine artwork and jewelry.. In other words things that have no co-owner or beneficiary.. My house fell into that category until I decided it was time to protect my husband. All my other assets have assigned beneficiaries which trump everything.
 
a simple will can still cause grief . we inherited a house and the will was done by a general practitioner . well we refinanced and the title company asked to see the will .

they stopped the closing .

the will read to my child beth i leave my house and possessions . the will was missing the word "only" as in only child .

we had to pay all the lawyers , lost our rate and had to get affidavits from relatives there were no other children .

what could be simpler than that will .
 
Only thing in my will is personal property..which all goes to my husband.. except for my jewelry which goes to my granddaughter
 
since we are basically leaving everything to each other we each got a life insurance policy to leave our kids something up front . that way they do not have to wait until the other spouse dies to get something .

it helps keep the peace
 
I had substantial assets before my remarriage... Most of that has my kids as beneficiaries.. so they won't have to wait before getting something. It was the house causing me concern. As I said.. I had it willed to them.. BUT after 15 years of marriage I needed to put my husband on the deed to protect him. Then the concern was how to make sure my kids get the house after he dies. No way to do that without an irrevocable trust.. or putting it in their names.. with lifetime tenancy to my husband.. BUT then my kids would be responsible for the taxes.. and they wouldn't get the homeowners exemption on it either.. Hubby couldn't claim the senior discount if he didn't actually own the property. So we went round and round and came up with the land trust. The best we could do it seems.
 
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