Welcome to the Farr Law Firm, home of Certified Elder Law Attorney and 4-time BestSelling Author Evan H. Farr, creator of the Living Trust Plus® Medicaid Asset Protection Trust, and Veterans Asset Protection Trust and one of the leading Elder Law, Medicaid Planning, Veterans Planning, Estate Planning, and Asset Protection Attorneys in Virginia, DC, and Maryland, and one of the foremost legal authorities in the country in the field of Medicaid Asset Protection, Veterans Asset Protection, and related Trusts. The Farr Law Firm focuses on all aspects of Elder Law, Estate Planning, Disability and Special Needs Planning, Probate, and Trust and Estate Administration.
Please educate yourself by using this thoughtfully prepared publication on matters related to these practice areas. Our firm is dedicated to helping protect seniors and their families by preserving dignity, quality of life, and financial security.
WHAT OUR CLIENTS ARE SAYING
“When we needed to learn how to manage our sister’s anticipated inheritance, it didn’t take long to settle on the Farr Law Firm for advice. Their reputation as the experts in Elder Law and Estate Planning preceded them. After a thorough review of our situation, they revised my mother’s revocable living trust and prepared a Special Needs Trust for my sister. There was some urgency as my mother was nearing 100 years of age. Thanks to their knowledge and depth of experience they were able to complete the work in a matter of days. Trusts are complicated and in the course of administering them, I’ve had numerous questions for Mr. Farr or a member of his staff. Without fail, responses are clear, comprehensive and delivered without delay. Working with Farr, I know I can count on things being done correctly and to our best advantage - and that adds up to great peace of mind.” Sally Haynes
“Evan Farr and his entire team provided excellent, timely and accurate advice and assistance guiding us to successfully apply for Veterans Aid & Attendance benefits for our elderly brother suffering from Alzheimer’s dementia. It’s a very long complex and complicated process. Evan and his paralegals know how the VA system works and were responsive, encouraging and professional all along the year-long process. We highly recommend their services!” Dave Robinson
“I highly recommend the Farr Law Firm. The amount of positive moral and technical support I received during the difficult situation, trying to enroll my husband into the Medicaid, was phenomenal. Not only did the Farr Law Firm successfully enroll him, but also they followed-up on his well-being to the end. Their engagement was always sincere and immediate, providing their valuable information and services expeditiously. They did the impossible and I am forever grateful.”
Renata Wojtasiewicz
“Evan Farr and his entire team are OUTSTANDING! Evan takes the time to fully explain all of the complex details of Estate Planning in a way that is easily understood. He answered all of our questions and his staff was extremely helpful! This is a law firm that has the highest standards of integrity and professionalism.” Jack Weiner
MEET THE TEAM
Our Attorneys
We couldn’t do what we do without our team of dedicated professionals.
SARA BARR ESTATE PLANNING AND ESTATE ADMINISTRATION ATTORNEY
JAMES JAXTHEIMER, CPA OF COUNSEL
Evan H. Farr, Shareholder and Principal Attorney (Licensed in VA, MD, and DC)
In addition to being one of approximately 500 Certified Elder Law Attorneys in the country, Evan is also a Charter Member of the Academy of Special Needs Planners and one of approximately 100 members of the NAELA Council of Advanced Practitioners, selected for this honor by his fellow practitioners who are members of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. A 4-time BestSelling author in the field of Elder Law and Estate Planning, Evan received his bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984 and his law degree from the College of William & Mary in 1987. Evan founded the Farr Law Firm in 1991 and is widely recognized as one of the leading Elder Law, Estate Planning, and Special Needs attorneys in Virginia, DC, and Maryland, and one of the foremost experts in the country in the field of Medicaid Asset Protection and Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts. In addition to being one of approximately 500 Certified Elder Law Attorneys in the country (CELA certification is through the National Elder Law Foundation and approved by the American Bar Association; CELA certification being the legal industry’s gold standard for Elder Law and special needs practitioners), Evan has been selected by his peers as a CAP, which is a member of the Council of Advanced Practitioners of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.
Sara Barr, Shareholder and Senior Attorney (Licensed in VA, MD, and DC)
Like Evan, Sara attended the University of Pennsylvania, where she also earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology in 1992. Sara then received her law degree from American University’s Washington College of Law in 1997. She worked for other law firms in Estate Planning, Probate, and Trust Administration for many years before joining the Farr Law Firm in 2016. Sara leads the Probate and Trust administration team for the firm and is also a senior member of our Estate Planning and Elder Law team.
James Jaxtheimer, Attorney (Licensed in VA, MD, and DC) and CPA
Jim has been a licensed Certified Public Accountant since 1994 and a tax attorney since 2004, and is licensed to practice law in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia.
EVAN H. FARR CERTIFIED ELDER LAW ATTORNEY, NAELA COUNCIL OF ADVANCED PRACTITIONERS
JEANNIE FARR, DIRECTOR OF CLIENT SERVICES, CLIENT CARE COORDINATOR, & PATIENT ADVOCATE
Estate Planning is important for everyone. It involves using proper legal tools such as Wills and Trusts to distribute your assets upon death to the people or charities you want to receive your assets. Estate Planning also includes Incapacity Planning — using Powers of Attorney, Advance Medical Directives, and Trusts to avoid the nightmare of lifetime probate, also known as guardianship and conservatorship.
Estate Planning can be done by Estate Planning attorneys or even general practice attorneys, but most people are best served by using an experienced Elder Law Attorney such as the attorneys at the Farr Law Firm. Elder Law includes Estate Planning but goes much further, addressing vital topics such as long-term care planning, senior housing, Lifecare Planning, and helping elders and their families qualify for important government benefits, such as Medicaid and Veterans Aid and Attendance, without having to spend down your assets and go broke.
Every estate plan is strategically designed to meet your individual planning needs. The professionals at the Farr Law Firm can help you prepare the best legal documents needed to achieve your Estate Planning goals.
Asset protection is related to but distinct from Estate Planning. It can be an important part of the Estate Planning process. There are many legal and ethical strategies available to protect your assets for you and your loved ones. These legal methods will depend on your unique situation, goals, types of assets, and family dynamics.
Here is more information on some of the legal tools used in Estate Planning.
Last Will and Testament
A Last Will and Testament allows you to provide instructions to the probate court for the transfer of your assets upon death. For most people, these instructions duplicate what would happen if you die without a Will. Probate is a timeconsuming, complex, and often very expensive court-supervised process of having an executor or administrator oversee the payment of your final expenses and the distribution of your assets. Probate is a process that most people wish to avoid.
Revocable and Irrevocable Trusts
A Trust is an Estate Planning document that can provide many protections, including privacy, probate avoidance, and asset protection. A Living Trust is a Trust you create while you are living.
A Revocable Living Trust is one that can be revoked during your lifetime, allowing you to use all of the assets in the Trust as you wish; its main purpose is to avoid the nightmare of after-death probate, and it can also provide uninterrupted management of your assets by your successor trustee if you become incapacitated.
An Irrevocable Trust cannot be revoked by the creator of the Trust. Contrary to what many people believe, an Irrevocable Trust is not unchangeable or set in stone. The most common Irrevocable Trust that the Farr Law Firm prepares for clients is the Living Trust Plus®, a special type of Irrevocable Trust that protects assets from probate plus lawsuits plus the potentially catastrophic expenses of long-term care.
A Special Needs Trust is set up by or on behalf of a disabled individual to hold assets that would otherwise disqualify the person from receiving means-based government benefits such as Medicaid and SSI. Whether you are in the beginning stages or have already taken steps to start planning your estate, the Farr Law Firm is here to assist you. Let us help you plan and protect your estate and the people you care about the most.
WHY IS ESTATE PLANNING IMPORTANT?
• It makes sure your estate goes to whom you want, when you want, the way you want. You can leave assets to the next generation in equal shares, or determine some other way for your estate to be ultimately distributed.
• For parents of a minor child, it is critical that you decide whom to name as guardian(s) in the event of your untimely death. In other words, who would you want to raise your child(ren) if something happened to both of you?
• It saves your heirs legal fees, taxes, and time in settling your affairs. By planning ahead with a properly-funded living trust instead of a will or instead of dying intestate, you will avoid the expensive, complicated, and time-consuming probate process, thus aiding the grieving process and allowing families to get on with their lives.
• It allows you to protect the inheritance from children’s divorces or lawsuits.
NOTES
By leaving assets to your children in an inheritance trust you will not only protect it from a divorce but also from creditors in the event your son or daughter ever gets sued.
• It gives you peace of mind so that you can get on with your life. When you have a wellthought-out plan in place, you feel better. You feel safe and secure knowing that no matter what happens, you have a plan to deal with it, and you have the right team in place to carry out your wishes.
At the Farr Law Firm, we will help you identify the trust and Estate Planning options that are right for your unique situation, create comprehensive estate plans that address an array of future scenarios, and update your documents regularly to ensure they continue to match your current situation and goals.
THE ETHICS AND COMPLEXITIES OF MEDICAID PLANNING
Done with adherence to the law and compassion for the elders who we protect, Medicaid planning is not only ethically justified — it is often imperative to your quality of life.
If you or a loved one become a client of the Farr Law Firm, you may rest assured that everything we do is absolutely, unquestionably, 100 percent legal and ethical. The reason there are only about 525 Certified Elder Law Attorneys in the United States is that Medicaid is the most complex area of law in this country. The United States Supreme Court has called the Medicaid laws “an aggravated assault on the English language, resistant to attempts to understand it.” Schweiker v. Gray Panthers, 453 U.S. 34, 43 (1981).
The United States Court of Appeals for our own Fourth Circuit (just below the U.S. Supreme Court), in a case arising out of Virginia, has called the Medicaid Act one of the “most completely impenetrable texts within human experience” and “dense reading of the most tortuous kind.” Rehab. Association of Virginia v. Kozlowski, 42 F.3d 1444, 1450 (4th Cir. 1994).
Medicaid Planning Is Required to Overcome Our Discriminatory Health Insurance System
One of the inherent tragedies of our American health insurance system is that it discriminates against people suffering from certain types of chronic illnesses, i.e., those that routinely result in the need for long-term care, such as Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementias; Parkinson’s disease and other types of degenerative disorders of the central nervous system; Huntington’s disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), and other progressive neurodegenerative disorders; and many genetic disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis and Muscular Dystrophy. Those suffering the tragedy of one of these diseases must also suffer the tragedy of having the “wrong” disease according to our American health insurance system. Why should someone with brain cancer — “tumorous tissue in the brain that’s not supposed to be there” — have all of their treatment (chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery) covered by health insurance even if it only provides a few extra months of life, yet someone with Alzheimer’s — “plaque and tangle tissues in the brain that’s not supposed to be there” — must pay for care out of pocket until the person and their family go broke? In both cases, we are dealing with the direct care that someone needs because of the disease that person has, in this example a very similar disease of “tissue in the brain that’s not supposed to be there.” This differing result is clearly not fair and vividly demonstrates the discrimination in our country toward people who develop the wrong chronic condition. It should not be any surprise that people suffering from the “wrong type of chronic condition” seek out legal and ethical ways to level the playing field by preserving the assets it has taken them a lifetime to accumulate in order to protect themselves and their families from this unfair and somewhat arbitrary social policy.
Exceptional Care for Seniors & Individuals with Disabilities
Since 2013, Paladin Life Care has provided an unmatched, compassionate level of care and strong advocacy for our senior clients and those with disabilities in Virginia, DC, and Maryland. As a family owned and operated business—Paladin Life Care treats our clients like family.
Our services include:
f Life Care Management
Whether you need a little support or a lot of care and assistance—Paladin Life Care can help you live the life you want. Our personalized services, implemented through a customized Plan of Care by our highly qualified team, meet your specific needs and priorities.
f Health & Emotional Wellness
f Medical Advocacy
f Disability Advocacy
f Financial Advocacy
f Daily Money Management
f Digital Technology Training
f Downsizing & Relocation Services
f Concierge Companion Services
Dedicated to making sure every Paladin Life Care client has the services you need to live your best life now, we:
f Hold our team members to the highest standards.
f Strive to ensure that you receive the highest level of care from the right providers at the right time.
f Dedicate highly qualified Nurse and Client Care Managers who take the lead in your care.
f Remain on the pulse of your evolving needs and priorities—we’re proactive rather than reactive.
f Are available when you need us. Our assigned staff members and Nurse and Client Care Managers are on call to provide support during unexpected emergency situations.
f Communicate with you and your family in a timely manner through in-person contact, text, email, and phone.
f Pair every invoice with detailed notes that specify the care and services provided so you know exactly what you are paying for.
What Does “Medicaid Asset Protection” Mean?
When many people hear the term “asset protection,” they immediately jump to the conclusion that it’s about protecting an inheritance. This is sometimes desired but very often not even a partial reason for asset protection. Here are the main reasons for doing Medicaid Asset Protection:
Protecting the Spouse
With proper Medicaid Asset Protection Planning, a spouse who is able to stay at home can keep all of the couple’s assets and much of the couple’s income, while Medicaid pays for the bulk of the nursing home bill. The most important goal for a married couple is typically to ensure that the spouse remaining at home is able to live their remaining years with utmost dignity and not have to suffer a drastic reduction in their standard of living.
Protecting Quality of Life
If you are a single or widowed client, the most important reason for you to engage in Medicaid Asset Protection Planning is for you to be able to enjoy the highest quality of life possible in the event you are forced to enter a nursing home. For instance, money that we protect for you in the process of getting you qualified for longterm care Medicaid can be used, once you are receiving Medicaid, to provide you with
an enhanced level of care and a better quality of life — either at home or in a nursing home. For example, families of our clients can use the protected assets to pay to replace lost or broken hearing aids, dentures, eyeglasses, and electronic equipment; pay for technology services such as cell phone service, music streaming services, TV and movie streaming services, and audiobook services; hire a private “sitter” or “helper” — someone to keep you company, help you with meals, etc., somewhat like a devoted child might do.
Money that we protect for you in the process of getting you qualified for Medicaid can also be used to purchase services or items for you that are not covered by Medicaid, such as some dental work, incontinence supplies, personal clothing, toiletries, nail trims, and haircuts.
Protecting Children
Some parents have saved and sacrificed their entire lives and have a strong desire to leave a financial legacy for their children. With proper planning, this goal can be achieved while still qualifying for Medicaid.
Protecting Disabled Persons
There are asset protection strategies that will allow you to protect certain assets for the benefit of a disabled child and sometimes for other disabled family members.
MEDICAID ASSET PROTECTION
The Medicaid long-term care program is not a welfare program; it is an entitlement program. Medicaid was created under Title 19 of the Social Security Act and is intended to pay for your nursing home level care (whether in a nursing home or at home or, sometimes, in an assisted living facility). In every state, Medicaid is a means-tested program, which means that there is an asset limit you have to meet in order to qualify. However, there are dozens of legal and ethical strategies that we can use to rearrange your assets in order to protect them while still meeting the strict guidelines to qualify for Medicaid benefits.
Lifecare Planning and Medicaid Asset Protection is the process of rearranging and/ or restructuring assets from having to be simply “spent down” in connection with nursing home care or in-home care, while also helping ensure that you or your loved one gets the best possible care and maintains the highest possible quality of life, whether at home, in an assisted living facility, or in a nursing home.
This process is called Lifecare Planning because it is often an ongoing, lifelong process. Although the initial Asset Protection Planning may take as little as a few weeks or a few months, the services that we provide are often provided until death.
When Should You Start Medicaid Planning?
Lifecare Planning and Medicaid Asset Protection can be started anytime after a person enters the “long-term care continuum,” meaning that a person is starting to need assistance with Activities of Daily Living (eating, dressing, bathing, toileting, transferring, and walking) or Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (such as cooking, cleaning, caring for pets, paying bills, and managing finances).
This type of planning can be started while you are still able to make legal and financial decisions or can be initiated by an adult child or other trusted family member acting as agent under a properlydrafted Power of Attorney that allows Medicaid Asset Protection powers, even if you are already in a nursing home or receiving other long-term care assistance. If you are still healthy and not yet on the “long-term care continuum,” then instead of Lifecare Planning and Medicaid Asset Protection Planning, you should consider our Living Trust Plus® Medicaid Asset Protection Trust, which is a simpler and less expensive method of asset protection for clients who will most likely not need any long-term care for at least five years.
GUARDIANSHIP & CONSERVATORSHIP
Incapacitated Persons
An incapacitated person is an adult who has been found by a court to be incapable of receiving and evaluating information effectively or responding to people, events, or environments to such an extent that the individual lacks the capacity to (i) meet the essential requirements for the individual’s health, care, safety, or therapeutic needs without the assistance or protection of a guardian or (ii) manage property or financial affairs or provide for the individual’s support or for the support of the individual’s legal dependents without the assistance or protection of a conservator.
A finding that the individual displays poor judgment, alone, is not sufficient evidence that the individual is an incapacitated person.
Guardian of the Person
This is a person appointed by the court who is responsible for the personal and medical affairs of an incapacitated person, including responsibility for making decisions regarding the person’s support, care, health, safety, education, therapeutic treatment, and residence.
A guardianship may be a total guardianship, a limited guardianship (when decisions are needed only for specific matters), or a temporary guardianship.
Conservator (also known as Guardian of the Property)
This refers to a person appointed to manage the estate and financial affairs of an incapacitated person. A conservatorship may be total or temporary. Only a judge can decide if a person is incapacitated and appoint a guardian and/or conservator for that person.
There are two primary types of guardians in Virginia, Maryland, and DC — guardians for children and guardians for incapacitated adults. This section deals with incapacitated adults.
When You Might Need A Guardian & Conservator
Guardianship and conservatorship is an extreme form of intervention in another person’s life because control over personal and/or financial decisions is transferred to someone else for an indefinite, often permanent, period of time. Once established, it can be difficult to revoke. Therefore, guardianship and conservatorship should only be used as a last resort.
The most important reason to have a guardianship in place is to expedite medical treatment needed by a person with a disability. Doctors and hospitals may refuse to perform necessary but nonemergency procedures on disabled patients without legally authorized consent. A guardian can provide such consent in the most efficient manner. Having a legal guardian appointed is also useful and sometimes necessary in order to provide consent or acknowledgment on behalf of the ward in situations regarding the ward’s care and well-being, such as consenting to behavior modification plans or other treatment plans, consenting to use of medications, acknowledging receipt of rules, regulations, and rights, and signing various forms on behalf of the ward regarding benefits, procedures, etc.
The next section explains the alternatives to guardianship and conservatorship.
ALTERNATIVES TO GUARDIANSHIP & CONSERVATORSHIP
• A Durable General Financial Power of Attorney authorizes your agent, sometimes called your “Attorney-in-Fact,” to act on your behalf and sign your name to financial and/ or legal documents. The Financial Power of Attorney is an essential tool in the event that,
due to age, illness, or injury, you are unable to carry on your legal and financial affairs. Having a Financial Power of Attorney will generally avoid the need for conservatorship.
• An Advance Medical Directive (which includes a Medical Power of Attorney) authorizes another person (called your “Agent” or “Medical Surrogate” or “Health Care Surrogate”) to make decisions with respect to your medical care in the event that you are physically or mentally unable to do so, typically as certified by two physicians. This document includes the type of provisions that used to be (and in some states still are) called a “Living Will,” allowing you to indicate your wishes concerning the use of artificial or extraordinary measures to prolong your life artificially in the event of a terminal illness or injury.
You can also use this document to indicate your wishes with regard to organ donation, disposition of bodily remains, and funeral arrangements.
Our proprietary 4 Needs Advance Medical Directive® also includes a detailed section to help you get the best long-term care if and when that is needed.
• A Living Trust is a legal entity that is capable of owning financial assets, real estate, and/ or other property. A living trust is a trust that you create during your lifetime. The main feature of a living trust is that the trustee is not accountable to the court and therefore not subject to probate.
NOTES
A conservator, on the other hand, is accountable to the court and subject to ongoing probate for the life of the Ward. Most people, therefore, use a living trust as their primary Estate Planning tool in order to make things easier for their trusted loved ones by avoiding the time and complications of probate.
What is Supported Decision-Making?
Supported Decision-Making is a person-centered alternative to guardianship and conservatorship, promoting autonomy and self-determination. It allows individuals who have difficulty making decisions to actively participate in decisionmaking processes with the assistance of trusted supporters.
Supported Decision-Making (SDM) in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, covering Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia, is a relatively new and innovative approach designed to empower individuals who have difficulty making decisions, often young adults with developmental or intellectual disabilities, to make decisions about their own lives, with support from a network of trusted allies. SDM is typically done along with Incapacity Planning, which includes a Power of Attorney and an Advance Medical Directive – documents that all competent adults should have in place.
ESTATE & TRUST ADMINISTRATION
Executors, trustees, and agents under a financial power of attorney are fiduciaries who must act with the utmost fidelity and in accordance with the terms of the governing document. If you’re a fiduciary, you are charged with the job of administering a trust or an estate. Depending on the types of assets owned, how they are titled, the provisions of the governing document, and the applicable law, if you are the fiduciary, you have complicated responsibilities that are often best carried out with the guidance and assistance of a knowledgeable legal advisor, such as the fiduciary department here at the Farr Law Firm.
The Farr Law Firm employs a team of professionals with wide-ranging expertise and provides a variety of services, including:
1. Preparation of Federal estate tax returns and applicable State inheritance/estate tax returns.
2. Preparation of judicial accountings for probate estates and nonjudicial reports for private trusts.
3. Preparation of fiduciary income tax returns and estate tax returns for trusts and estates, including tax planning to minimize taxes.
4. Preparation of Federal and State gift tax returns.
5. After-death planning, including use of disclaimers, small business succession, and redemption of shares of closely-held businesses.
6. Working with executors, investment advisors, trustees, beneficiaries, and accountants to minimize estate tax and income tax.
7. Assisting executors in navigating the estate administration process.
8. Assisting beneficiaries in resolving family disputes regarding inherited or inheritable assets.
9. Assistance with the valuation of closely-held business interests to minimize estate tax.
Introduction to Lifecare Financial Services, LLC:
Evan Farr: Expert Retirement Planning and Long-Term Care Financial Advisor since 2006.
Key Services:
• Retirement planning tailored to all stages of later life.
• Long-term care financial planning services.
• Long Term Care Insurance.
• Life Insurance.
• Funeral Expense Trusts.
• Unique and creative Medicaid-compliant financial strategies.
Financial and Insurance Strategies for Every Stage of Life
1. The Reality of Retirement:
100% of retirees hope to take their last breath at home. Only 30% do; the other 70% wind up needing long-term care in a facility. Most retirement planning assumes that you will live a full and active life until you die in your sleep. But for most people, life won’t go that way.
2. The Unspoken Truth:
Health problems will often make retirement a long, slow, downward skid toward an undignified end. Most retirement plans don’t address this. That’s why so many people wind up broke, either becoming a burden or being forced into institutional care.
3. Our Commitment:
Good retirement planning addresses this potentially catastrophic issue that so many people don’t want to talk about. At Lifecare Financial Services, LLC, led by Evan Farr, we strive to ensure your planning encompasses all possibilities, securing your dignity and independence.
DISABILITY & SPECIAL NEEDS PLANNING
How Parents of Children with Special Needs Can Plan For Retirement
For many parents of children with special needs, the retirement planning process is made more complex with the added layer of planning for their child’s future as well as their own. Below are some tips for how parents of special needs children can plan for retirement.
Begin Early. Similar to early intervention, once parents have identified their child has special needs, the sooner they start planning, the better. When you have a child with special needs in your family, it’s very important to realize that there will be a lot more to consider, and because of this, it is wise to create a plan as early as possible.
Perform a
Budget Analysis.
Don’t just look at what your retirement income needs will be, but also what it may cost to provide for your child after you are gone. Once you have an estimate for these two figures, you can work with a retirement planning professional, such as the Farr Law Firm, to try to reconcile them by figuring out what assets and income streams would be best suited.
Set More Aside.
For many families, providing financially for their child ends a year or two after college. However, for a parent of a child with special needs, that financial assistance may never end, and this should be taken into account during planning. There’s a good chance your child with special needs will be living with you well into your retirement. This will likely impact the income you’ll need.
For instance, if you would have needed $80,000 per year to retire comfortably, you may instead need $100,000 or more to provide for your needs and your child’s needs, such as therapies, hobbies, transportation, etc. If the choice is made to have the child live apart, such as in a privately-run group home, the costs can of course be substantially higher, or the costs could be minimal because many group homes are designed to be affordable for individuals receiving SSI.
Work
Longer. Some people who have children with special needs find themselves working longer than anticipated in order to make up for child-related expenses.
Consider an ABLE Account and Other Programs and Benefits for People with Disabilities. ABLE accounts are available to individuals with disabilities. Money in an ABLE account can be used for medical treatment, education and job training, assistive technology, housing, and many other things to benefit a person with special needs. An individual can contribute up to a specified amount each a year to an ABLE account and the first $100,000 in an account is not treated as personal assets, thereby not affecting government benefits.
How Parents of Special Needs Children Do Special Needs Planning and Estate Planning
Some parents make it a priority to focus on Special Needs Planning, rather than retirement planning or Estate Planning. The truth is, all three types of planning are essential to ensure all needs are met for you and your child with special needs.
Why Special Needs Planning is Important
If something happens to you and you are taking care of a loved one with special needs, what will happen to that person? A special needs trust is an essential tool to protect the financial future of an individual with special needs. Also known as “a supplemental needs trust,” this type of trust preserves eligibility for federal and state benefits by keeping assets out of the name of the person with special needs, while still allowing the trust funds to be used to benefit the person with special needs. Special Needs Trusts fall generally into these main categories:
• Third-Party SNTs where one person creates and funds for the benefit of someone else.
• First-Party SNTs, which are created by or for the person with special needs using that person’s own money; unlike a third-party SNT, a first-party SNT requires payback to Medicaid if there are funds remaining in trust at the death of the beneficiary.
• Pooled trusts are an alternative to setting up your own special needs trust if you can’t come up with a good choice for trustee or if you are only putting a small amount of money into the trust. There are both third-party and first-party pooled trusts.
ESTATE PLANNING FAQ
Estate Planning is the preservation and the distribution of your assets, both during your life and upon your death. It is accomplishing your personal and family goals and easing the management of your financial and legal affairs, as well as minimizing taxes if your estate is large enough for taxes to be of concern. An “estate plan,” generally, refers to the means by which your estate is passed on to your loved ones on your death. Estate Planning can be accomplished through a variety of methods, including:
• Revocable Living Trusts
• Last Wills and Testaments / Probate
• Lifetime Gifting
• Joint Ownership
• Beneficiary Designations
• Life Estates
Problems often arise when people don’t coordinate all of these methods of passing on their estate. To take just one example, a father’s will may say that everything should be equally divided among his children, but if the father creates a joint account with only one of the children, there could be a fight about whether that account should be put back in the pool with the rest of the property.
What Will Happen to Your Property if You
Die Without a Will or Trust?
If you die without a will or trust, the state determines who will be your heirs. This distribution plan can be found in the intestacy statute of each state. The applicable state is either the location of your legal residence for personal property, or the state in which your assets are located for real estate.
What is Probate?
Probate is the court-supervised proceeding used to change the title to assets from the name of an individual who has passed away into the name of the living heirs or named beneficiaries. It is also the process by which creditors of a decedent file claims to collect their debts and where interested parties who have a complaint regarding the deceased can file a complaint (such as a will contest). Even without a will contest, probate is complex, costly, and time-consuming.
ELDER LAW FAQ
What is Elder Law?
Elder Law encompasses many different fields of law. Some of these are:
1. Preservation/protection of assets to avoid forced impoverishment when you or a loved one enters a nursing home.
2. Medicaid Asset Protection Planning.
3. Medicare denials and appeals.
4. Medicare supplement and long-term care insurance issues.
5. Disability planning, including use of durable powers of attorney for financial and legal affairs, living trusts, advance medical directives for health care decisions, and other means of delegating management and decision-making to another in case of incapacity.
6. Guardianship and Conservatorship.
7. Estate Planning, including planning for the management of one’s estate during life and its disposition on death through the use of trusts, wills, and other planning documents.
8. Accomplishing your personal and family goals and easing the management of your financial and legal affairs, as well as minimizing taxes if your estate is large enough for taxes to be of concern.
9. Probate and administration and management of trusts and estates.
10. Long-term care placements in nursing homes and life care communities.
11. Nursing home issues, including questions of patients’ rights and nursing home quality.
12. Elder abuse, nursing home negligence, assisted living facility negligence, and medical malpractice.
13. Housing issues, including in-home care and home equity conversions.
14. Retirement, including public and private retirement benefits, survivor benefits, and pension benefits.
15. Mental health law.
Most Elder Law Attorneys do not practice in every one of these areas. So when an attorney says he practices Elder Law, find out which of these matters the attorney handles. You will want to hire an Elder Law Attorney who regularly handles matters in the area of concern in your particular case and who will know enough about the other fields to question whether the action being taken might be affected by laws in any of the other areas of law on the list. For example, if you are going to rewrite your will and your spouse is ill, the estate planner needs to know enough about Medicaid to know whether it is an issue with regard to your spouse’s inheritance.
Why Hire an Elder Law Attorney?
Attorneys who primarily work with the elderly bring more to their practice than an expertise in the appropriate area of law. We bring to our practice a knowledge of the elderly that allows us and our staff to ignore the myths relating to aging and the competence of the elderly. At the same time, we take into account and empathize with the physical and mental difficulties that often accompany the aging process.
We understand the afflictions that often accompany aging, which allows us to determine more easily the difference between the physical versus the mental disability of a client. We are more aware of real-life problems, health and otherwise, that tend to crop up as people age. We are tied into a formal or informal system of social workers, psychologists, physicians, home health care agencies, geriatric care managers, and other elder care professionals who may be of assistance to you. All of these things will hopefully make you more comfortable when dealing with us and ease your way as we try to resolve whatever legal issues you may have.
LIVING TRUST PLUS® FAQ
What Is the Living Trust Plus® Medicaid Asset Protection Trust?
The Living Trust Plus is an irrevocable asset protection trust that you create while you are living; you retain the right to live in any trustowned real estate. The trust can be written to allow you to receive all income from the trust assets, but you cannot have direct access to principal. If either you or your spouse has any direct access to principal, the assets in the trust would be deemed “countable” for Medicaid eligibility purposes and would be completely available to all other creditors. Prohibiting direct access to principal is the key to why the Living Trust Plus works — for general creditor protection and for Medicaid Asset Protection.
I’m Still Healthy. Why Should I Care About Avoiding Nursing Home Expenses?
Because 70 percent of Americans who live to age 65 will need long-term care at some time in their lives, and because 50 percent of all couples and 70 percent of single persons become impoverished within one year after entering a nursing home. You can’t just hide your head in the sand and hope that you will never need nursing home care. The best estate plan in the world is useless if you wind up in a nursing home and spend all of your assets on long-term care.
WHAT IS A CELA?
CELA is an acronym which stands for Certified Elder Law Attorney. The National Elder Law Foundation is the only national organization certifying practitioners of Elder Law and special needs law approved and certified by the American Bar Association. The purpose of the certification program is to identify those lawyers who have the enhanced knowledge, skills, experience, and proficiency to be properly identified to the public as Certified Elder Law Attorneys.
The Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA) is known as the gold standard for Elder Law and Special Needs planning practitioners. This reflects the hard work and proof required before an attorney can proudly proclaim that they hold this valued designation.
Preparation for a CELA designation includes numerous steps and different types of qualifications, all of which are designed to assure that clients receive the best possible legal care. A Certified Elder Law Attorney is more than just an attorney who specializes in the field of Elder Law. CELAs are committed, through certification, to maintaining and improving their proficiency with continual practice and continuing legal education. Becoming certified in Elder Law validates a lawyer’s specialty in handling issues that affect senior citizens.
A CELA is uniquely positioned to serve the interests of older, maturing populations by having met comprehensive and strict requirements.
A certification is not a requirement to practice law. What that means is that any attorney licensed to practice law can claim to be an Elder Law Attorney. Many of those who do are highly skilled professionals with extensive knowledge in Elder Law, but many are not.
If you choose a CELA as your attorney, you can be assured that your attorney has demonstrated extensive knowledge and skill in Elder Law and Special Needs Planing, has passed a rigorous full-day examination, maintains continuing legal education and standards of involvement in Elder Law matters, and has undergone a review by other Certified Elder Law Attorneys (prior to certification and every five years after certification), focused on the applicant’s reputation for ethical and competent representation in Elder Law and Special Needs Planning matters.
There are approximately 525 CELAs in the country, as of the time of this publication in 2024, so not every community has even one person who has been certified. Your lawyer should ideally be a CELA as it is your surest method of independently confirming that they are more than just qualified.
BOOKS BY EVAN FARR, 4-TIME BEST-SELLING
Amazon Best Seller How to Protect Your Assets from Probate PLUS lawsuits PLUS Nursing Home Expenses with the Living Trust Plus® explains the only type of self-settled asset protection trust that allows a settlor to act as the trustee and therefore keep management and investment control over trust assets, and retain an income interest in the trust if needed, while also protecting the assets from being counted by state Medicaid agencies.
Amazon Best Seller Nursing Home Survival Guide: Helping You Protect Your Loved Ones Who Need Nursing Home Care by Preserving Dignity, Quality of Life, and Financial Security
Tax-Free Money for Long-Term Care, available only through our office.
Evan has also authored dozens of articles that have appeared in the popular press and numerous scholarly publications for the legal profession, including two legal treatises published by ALI-ABA and now available through the American Law Institute: Planning and Defending Asset Protection Trusts and Trusts for Senior Citizens.
Amazon Best Seller, Protecting Your Assets from Probate and Long-Term Care: Don’t Let the System Bankrupt You and Your Loved Ones combines most of the content from Evan’s Living Trust Plus® book and Nursing Home Survival Guide.
It has sold over 25,000 copies –a major achievement in the world of publishing!
This is the free e-book version of the Best-Selling book How to Protect Your Assets from Probate PLUS lawsuits PLUS Nursing Home Expenses with the Living Trust Plus®
Amazon Best Seller Protect & Defend teaches you the legal steps you need to take to safeguard your family, your business, and your money. Learn what it takes to protect your rights and defend you and your loved ones from unforeseen legal threats. This book has one chapter written by Evan and numerous other chapters by other leading attorneys in their fields.
The Farr Law Firm has been selected every year since 2021 by U.S. News and Best Lawyers® for inclusion in their listing of “Best Law Firms.” U.S. News – Best Lawyers is the only Purely Peer Review™ guide to the legal profession and has ranked more than 15,000 law firms in 127 specialties in 188 metro areas.
Evan has been named by SuperLawyers.com as one of the top 5 percent of Elder Law and Estate Planning attorneys in Virginia every year since 2007, and in the Washington, DC Metro Area every year since 2008. Evan has also been awarded the highest rating by Martindale-Hubbell every year since 2012 and listed in Best Lawyers in America every year since 2013.
Evan Farr has also been selected for inclusion in Northern Virginia Magazine’s Top Lawyers in Northern Virginia for 2024, Washingtonian Magazine’s Top Lawyers for 2024, and Arlington Magazine’s Best of Arlington top lawyers for 2024, and for many prior years.
Evan is the “Expert to the Experts”
Evan Farr has been quoted or cited as an expert by numerous sources, including The Washington Post, Newsweek Magazine, Northern Virginia Magazine, Trusts & Estates Magazine, The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the American Bar Association. He has been featured as a guest speaker on numerous radio shows, including WTOP and Washington Post Radio.
Evan is a nationally renowned 4-time best-selling author and one of the most frequent educators of other Estate Planning and Elder Law Attorneys across the U.S. As one of the leading experts to the experts, Evan has educated tens of thousands of attorneys across the country through frequently speaking and writing for numerous national legal organizations such as the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA), the American Law Institute, the American Bar Association, the National Business Institute (NBI), the Virginia Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (VAELA), the Virginia Bar Association (VBA), Virginia Continuing Legal Education (Virginia CLE), the Maryland State Bar, and the District of Columbia Bar Association, having taught the 3-hour DC Medicaid Continuing Legal Education course every year since 2018.
WHAT WE NEED FOR YOUR INITIAL MEETING
Prior to the initial meeting, which usually lasts 60 to 90 minutes, we will need you to provide several types of information concerning yourself, your family, and your estate:
• Our confidential intake form, which we will send you with our initial letter confirming your appointment. Please fill this in as best as you can. The more information you give us, the better the guidance we will be able to give you.
• It is important that all of the family “decision-makers” be present at the initial meeting so that everyone’s questions can be answered directly by the attorney and so that the work can begin as soon as possible. If you would like to bring additional family members with you to the appointment, you are welcome to do so, but this is not required.
OUR GOALS
Our goals in serving you are to give you not only the best legal advice but also excellent client service. We try very hard never to keep you waiting. We return your phone calls promptly and we work as a team so that there is always someone available to help you when you need it.
We always strive to deliver consistent high-quality service.
All of our team members are committed to this goal. They are kind and caring people and they understand the issues you are facing.
We are able to help almost everyone who comes into our office, so we can most likely help you achieve your goals. Please give us the opportunity to assist you and the information that we need to give you the best possible guidance and representation.
Having a great financial planner is often important to help ensure a more prosperous retirement. To that end, Evan Farr is affiliated with Protection Point Advisors to offer you full-service investment advice and financial retirement planning. By using Protection Point Advisors to help you manage your investments, Evan will be involved in the process of working with Protection Point Advisors to help ensure your trust plan is properly funded, and you’ll have a professional team working with you to help ensure that your estate plan and your financial plan are properly integrated and remain synchronized going forward.
We believe in customized solutions for you. Our process starts with understanding you and how you see money. Next, we spend the time and effort to make a detailed financial plan, leading to some innovative investment solutions beyond the imagination of many advisors.
While money and investments are important, what is often more consequential is how your money is used by your family. Many of our discussions with clients are about who you love and what is best for them. We understand the importance of looking beyond the numbers.
One of the highest priorities of our clients is their children. To that end, we offer investment and financial planning services to the children of most of our clients without additional fees. We can also help teach your children about money through our financial education system, Finance 101, which has over 400 short educational classes — everything from buying a first car to retirement planning.
