A special needs planning attorney is familiar with the most common choices faced by parents of children with disabilities and can offer advice and suggestions on how to plan for that child’s care.  They also understand the ramifications of inheritance when it comes to eligibility for government assistance.  Here in Charlotte, as in other places across the country, planning tools such as a “special needs” or supplemental needs trusts must be set up a very particular way in order to meet government standards and allow for the continuation of other benefits.

However, special needs planning is not just about maintaining government support.  It also protects the disabled individual from lawsuits and other debts, as the trust cannot be seized in order to pay these.  This protects the trust and the individual who relies upon it for his or her ongoing care.

A Charlotte special needs planning attorney will be familiar with how local, state, and federal laws interact in order for parents to put together a plan that best protects their child.  It is highly recommended that you seek out a lawyer who specializes in special needs trust planning.  He or she will help set up your child’s trust, as well as explain all the details such as how a trustee will manage the assets for the beneficiary.

I am not certain through whose eyes they determined this. I look around and still see far too many families struggling to recover to consider it over.   And while I acknowledge things may be improving on some level, I still find it hard to objectively look at a parent who cannot find work or lost a huge chunk of a 401(k) plan to say our Country is officially in the clear.

The number of bankruptcies taking place right now equally saddens me.  For many families, bankruptcy may be the only way to break free from the mountain of debt that constantly rests on their shoulders.  Of course that’s not to say this decision is ever taken lightly by those who file, as the consequences of bankruptcy are long-lasting and sometimes severe—especially if you stand to inherit money.

Example: a family member passes away who left you a cash gift in a will or trust.  On the surface it seems like this would be a much needed and timely relief for a family going through bankruptcy.  However, Federal bankruptcy rules declare that if you inherit money from a person who dies within 180 days of the date you filed for bankruptcy, you must tell the courts.   In simple terms, that means the inheritance now becomes a part of your bankruptcy estate and will be distributed to your creditors as the courts see fit.

This also applies to items that you may inherit such as cars, jewelry or furniture.  All of these items are subject to the administration of the bankruptcy estate.  However, this doesn’t mean that items like this are certain to go up on the auction block.  You can claim exclusion on certain things and the bankruptcy trustee has a certain amount of discretion in choosing what to liquidate. However, it can be extremely stressful to think about a family heirloom that has been in your family for years going to auction.

Hopefully your loved one had a Charlotte wills and estates attorney who knew a thing or two about protecting their inheritance from things like bankruptcy, creditors, divorce and the like. Ideally, your loved one would have been advised to set up a trust so any inheritance passed down to their family members would be out of reach from creditors and the courts.  If they did not, and you have not filed bankruptcy yet, this may still be an option if your loved one is willing to have their plan looked at by a qualified Charlotte wills and estates attorney.

Planning to avoid giving your hard-earned wealth to creditors is not illegal or immoral either.  You should think of it the same way you would when considering tax planning.  Tax planning is legal, but tax evasion is not.  The difference is whether you play by the rules and are honest.  For example, not telling the courts you received an inheritance is illegal and you could face serious consequences.  However, you are not skirting the rules if you are the recipient of a spendthrift trust; that was not your choice.

If you or your loved one needs help facilitating such a trust to protect your inheritance from the claims of creditors, simply call our Charlotte wills and estates office at (704) 843-1446 to schedule a “Peace of Mind Planning Session” at no charge ($750 value).  We will walk you through the necessary steps that must be taken to protect your inheritance from a bankruptcy filing or any other creditor’s claim. However, these appointments are limited to 5 per month so call today!

Through the Probate process, beneficiary names, accounts, account numbers and values are required to be disclosed.  We can all agree, I am sure, that this seems like a huge violation of our privacy.  What goes hand in hand with this required disclosure are the potential safety issue this poses to those inheriting your estate.  There are a lot of unscrupulous people who prey on widows and beneficiaries to try to separate them from their inheritance.

So why then is this information made available to the public?

It may be easier to pallet the lack of privacy if you can better understand the true purpose of probate.  One of the primary purposes of probate is to make sure the creditors of the deceased person have an easy way to collect any debts they are owed from their estate. For that reason alone, the probate process must be open and public.  Notice to creditors is required to be given in North Carolina with a mandatory waiting period of 3 months to allow the creditors sufficient time to file their claims.

This information is also available to the creditors of your beneficiaries so that they have notice that they are inheriting an estate. Under this scenario, the creditors could bring an immediate claim against your beneficiary, which may ultimately result in your beneficiary never receiving the inheritance you wanted to leave them.

However, to be clear, I am in no way advocating that debts go unpaid.  In fact, you should instruct your executor to pay your debts.  But, wouldn’t you rather direct how this process goes rather than leaving it to the courts?

One way to do that while simultaneously stopping the violation of privacy and loss of control over the distribution of your estate is to create a revocable living trust.

Unlike a will, a living trust is a private document that will not become a matter of public record because it does not have to be filed with the probate court.  There is no statutory requirement in North Carolina for the Court to over see the management of a living trust.  Therefore, you can name beneficiaries and provide gifts while still attaining privacy since only the trustees and those involved in trust administration will know the contents of a living trust.  This means that no creditor of yours or your beneficiaries, no disgruntled relative, no scam artist, and no nosey neighbor will ever have access to the details of your financial history.

Remember, there are people out there who make a living preying on young or vulnerable people that have just inherited something from an estate. They troll these public records daily looking for victims of their next heist or scam.  Fortunately, with a bit of planning, you can protect your family from such privacy violations that accompany the probate process.  I recommend talking to your Charlotte trusts lawyer about living trusts and how they can help your family if something unexpectedly happens to you.

Fortunately, we’ve made that process easier than ever by making five (5) free “Peace of Mind” planning sessions available to readers of our blog.  Simply call (704) 843-1446 and mention this article to reserve your spot.  Your family will thank you for it.

The reason they had come to me was because they wanted to see if their Will had included the new child they had a few months before.  They already had two children when they made their on-line will and had not anticipated having any additional children.

What I found after reviewing their self drafted Wills was that they were missing language that allowed for any future children to be included in their estate.  The end result would have been that their current two children would inherit but their new baby would not!!!  This would be ok,  if that was what they wanted, but it wasn’t.

Our Firm corrected this and added many additional provisions.  Now they have an Estate Plan that will not only work when the time comes, but will grow with them over the next few years.

Financial and estate planning for a special-needs child can be tricky, but if you start with a good road map, you’ll avoid costly financial mistakes and have peace of mind that your child will be taken care when you and your spouse are gone.

Washington-based special needs planner, Mark Albertson, provides 7 steps to a special needs plan.

If you are the caregiver for a special needs child, it is important to learn how to plan for the care of the special needs child in the event of your absence.  I provide an initial free phone consultation to help you understand your options.  Submit your request to schedule a free consultation by phone.

The fall is a busy time for planning and preparation. It’s also an important time to safeguard your children in the event of an emergency. As both a mom, and an estate planning attorney, I have seen the importance of having a plan in place for emergency situations.

Parents are used to filling out emergency contact forms for their children at school. While these are a good start, they only go so far. Very often schools don’t know until the information is needed that the card is outdated.

It is essential that emergency medical information is available for your child wherever and whenever an emergency occurs. It must also contain enough information to be useful to emergency responders and other health care providers. One of the services I provide is preparing emergency action plans to be executed in the event of an emergency.

To ensure that a child’s important information is known in a medical emergency, I register many of my clients in a service that provides instant electronic access to a child’s emergency information and documents. This program provides access to information a non-parent caregiver might need in an emergency situation.

Minors Matter, provides a card that parents can give to the child’s caregivers — babysitters, grandparents, neighbors, even older siblings. The card contains important health information regarding your child’s allergies, medical conditions and pediatrician, and allows hospitals and doctors to immediately get additional, detailed emergency information about the child from the Minors Matter website or via fax. This is just one of the many components of an emergency plan which I can help you design for your family.

Parents of kids away at college also face many challenges when confronting a medical emergency. When it comes to health care, college students over 18 are legal adults, even if parents are paying their tuition and otherwise still responsible for them.

Because of the federal health care privacy law called HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), hospitals have been known to refuse to give parents any information about their child who was admitted for a medical emergency, even if the parents are out-of-state. This, naturally, leaves parents frantic.

College students can avoid this hurdle by completing a legal form called a “HIPAA release.” This allow hospitals and medical professionals to talk with parents. A HIPAA release (or healthcare power of attorney) can mean the difference between knowing what is happening with your college student in a medical emergency and being completely shut out. Helping families with Health care powers of attorney is one of my main focuses.

As with information of younger children, the HIPAA release needs to be available at the hospital to be useful. I also register many of my college student clients in a companion service called DocuBank I.C.E. (In Case of Emergency), which also includes a wallet card for the student to carry.

With both of these services, when the card is used at the hospital, parents receive an immediate alert, as well as the phone number at the hospital to call for more information.

The key to being prepared for an emergency situation is having a plan in place prior to the situation arising. I am happy to discuss with you the various options available to put an emergency plan in place for your family.

A big part of my practice is structured to plan today to protect children tomorrow after the caregiver (parents) have passed away. Although my firm does not deal with criminal matters, I felt it important to pass along some very important information on how to protect your child in school, on the internet and in the community in general.

The North Carolina Department of Justice provides some important links and information on what we can do to protect our children from the “unseen” dangers.  Click the link below for some invaluable information.

http://www.ncdoj.com/Protect-Yourself/Protect-Children.aspx