Many of the "Ask Dale" inquiries that I have received throughout the past week have been regarding the requirement of the beneficiary designations on Medicaid Compliant Annuities consisting of tax-qualified investments. At one time it was a federal rule that a state Medicaid agency was not required to be made a remainderman on annuities holding tax-qualified funds; however, this is no longer the case.
Most post-Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 ("DRA") states have dictated their own re ...
In 2010, there are slight changes to the personal and trust tax brackets. The following chart shows the projected tax brackets for married couples filing jointly, single filers, estates, and trusts.
Almost four years have passed since President Bush signed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 ("DRA") into law. Forty-eight states have since passed the legislation, yet many elder law attorneys are not aware of an immense planning opportunity that still exists.
When DRA was signed into law in 2006, it was clear that some annuities required the state Medicaid program to be named as the beneficiary. If that was the case, the beneficiary designation was only to the extent that Medicai ...
An "irrevocable trust' can offer a grantor lifetime control over his or her assets of the trust is established with the following provisions:
All taxable income shall be disbursed to the grantor;
The grantor shall have the right to direct how the trust assets are held or reinvested; and
The grantor shall have a limited power of appointment over the final distributions of the trust; this power shall be in favor of a limited class of beneficiaries, consisting of the grantor's ch ...
With more and more attorneys adding VA pension benefit planning into their practices, the buzz word seems to be Aid & Attendance ("A&A"). While the A&A pension provides the largest monetary benefit to a veteran, what about the other millions of veterans who need financial assistance but do not medically qualify for the A&A pension?
According to the Veterans Benefits Administration, three levels of benefits exist depending on the claimant's level of disability. The ...
