In this Elder Law Minute, Wes Coulson discusses the best way to leave an inheritance for your parents.
Transcript:
Sometimes when I am talking to people about their estate plans, they throw out the idea of leaving something for one or more of their parents, and in a sense in a lot of cases that can be a good idea. People who are doing well often have parents who are kind of just getting by on social security. It can be a good idea, but there is a right way and a wrong way of going about it.
The right way is to leave it for them in trust, and to have the trust setup so that money will benefit them but if they wind up in a nursing home and would be applying for Medicaid, that money won’t count as theirs in a way that it would have to be spent to pay for the nursing home care. In other words, whatever’s not needed for their care will stay in the family. The other important reason about doing it into a trust is that whatever money is not needed for them, you will be the one through your trust saying what’s going to happen with the rest of that money that’s left when your parent passes away.
If it’s left to them and they don’t have a will, the fact that you left them money may be the thing that puts their estate into an otherwise unnecessary probate, or they may have left it to people you would not have wanted any money left to.
Taking care of parents – great idea, but come in and see me and we’ll make sure we do that the right way.
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Dent-Coulson Elder Law is dedicated to providing families in the St. Louis area with their Elder Law needs. Our practice areas include Asset Preservation Planning, Veterans Benefits, Medicaid Eligibility, Alzheimer’s Planning, Special Needs Planning, Estate Planning and more. We understand the financial challenges you may face as you and your loved ones grow older. At Dent-Coulson Elder Law, our clients’ well-being is our number one priority. For immediate help, call (618) 632-7000 (IL) or (314) 567-9292 (MO), or Contact Us and we will get in touch as soon as possible.
