Vermont Estate Planning Blog

The road to eligibility for long-term care Medicaid benefits can be long and winding, so it can be tempting to board a magic carpet ride and try a so-called “Medicaid” trust, more descriptively referred to as an irrevocable income-only trust.  The theory behind such a trust is that assets owned by the trust are protected from creditors, primarily in consideration of long-term care costs and the desire to become eligible for government benefits.  However, there is no free ride, and transferring assets into an irrevocable trust comes with risks and costs.

IRREVOCABLE: As its name suggests, you cannot change the terms of the trust.  If circumstances change requiring a modification, you would need Court approval and/or consents of all interested parties.
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Without question, the most common misunderstanding about a Will is that it avoids probate.  THIS IS FALSE.  It’s almost the same as believing the bank will accept your Monopoly money.

Imagine this: your uncle passes, and you are named Executor in his Will.  Can you take a copy of that Will to his bank and access his funds?  Not unless you are the Hulk using your super strength to open the bank vault at night!  The Will on its own carries no legal authority.

Two little girls were having a heated argument about who had the better dad. One girl declared, “My dad’s a carpenter and builds buildings.”   Her friend replied, “Well, my dad’s a lawyer and makes loopholes.”

Estate/transfer tax

Vermont estate tax exclusion:

$2,750,000

Federal estate tax threshold:

$11,400,000

Federal gift tax exclusion (annual):

$15,000

Vermont Medicaid

Community Spouse Resource Allowance: $126,420

Minimum Maintenance Needs Allowance (spousal allocation): $2,114

Home Equity Limit (singles): $585,000

Freezing Credit: A new federal law effective 9/21/18 permits consumers to freeze their credit, free of charge.  For more information, visit:

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/2018/06/free-credit-freezes-are-coming-soon-0

Lawyer Joke

Q: What do you have when a lawyer is buried up to his neck in sand?

A: Not enough sand.

Games are usually a lot of fun, but you don’t really want to play hide and seek with your estate planning documents.  After you have signed and implemented your plan, you may want privacy, but you should not hide your documents from everyone.  If you excel at concealing, it may not be found when needed.  How and with whom you share will depend upon the document and your goals, but here are some considerations:

Will—while this document has no effect until after death, it has zero effect if never discovered; you can store the original:

¨ In a fire-proof safe at home. if someone else knows location and its key

¨ In a safe deposit box at a bank, if someone else has joint access and a key to the box; without a surviving joint owner, no one will be allowed in the safe deposit box after your death without Court authority; if the joint owner cannot locate a key, there will likely be additional procedures and costs involved in accessing the box

¨ At the Probate Court in the county in which you live, for a modest fee (currently $30); however, if you move out of the county or update your will, it will be necessary to either retrieve your original will or replace it with the updated version

Trust—a revocable living trust is effective during your lifetime, and the Trustee may need to produce a copy of it, or a Certificate of Trust, when managing its assets.
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Q: Why don’t lawyers play hide and seek?

A: Nobody wants to look for them.

New estate/transfer tax numbers for 2018:

Federal estate tax threshold:

$11,290,000

Vermont estate tax exclusion:

$2,750,000

Annual gift tax exclusion:

$15,000

Life insurance plays a vital role in many estate plans.  Proceeds can provide essential funds to replace lost earnings, pay debts, finance college tuition expenses, or even cover estate tax liabilities.  However, there is confusion about the taxation of these life insurance proceeds.  Contrary to common belief, insurance benefits are taxable to the estate of the insured.   For many Vermont estates, it is inconsequential because they total under $2,750,000.
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Can you remember what you had for breakfast yesterday morning? Or what you wore last Friday?  Details involving routine tasks elude many of us, but does that define our legal capacity?  While that may provide clues, it is not an absolute ingredient in the test for legal capacity.  In fact, there is no “bright line” test for capacity.  It is a grey area and does not equate to passing a memory test.

Accordingly, individuals suffering memory impairment or even diagnosed forms of dementia are not automatically deemed legally incapacitated.  While medical providers are generally concerned with diagnosis and treatment, a legal assessment of capacity focuses on a person’s functional ability to engage in and understand a particular transaction.
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