While it can be very unfortunate to wait too long to apply for Medicaid, possibly losing benefits that might have been available, and possibly losing money that did not need to be spent on care costs that could have been paid by Medicaid if an application had been made at the correct time, it
After a divorce is completed, there is usually still a lot of work to be done.
With blended families, the standard provisions for intestate succession (the distribution of money if you do not have a Will) can produce results that are very different than a person might prefer, or even expect.
Under Oregon law, a divorced spouse will be treated as pre-deceased for purposes of inheritance from their former spouse under a Will that existed before the divorce, in most cases.
Many people do not think they have enough money to need a Will.
Others think they will spend everything before they die.
Sometimes people die unexpectedly, of course, and do not get around to spending their money.
Some people (and even some lawyers) question whether a person can make a Will or an Estate and Incapacity Plan providing for their children before they have any children.
It is perfectly possible, and perfectly simple to do this.
In this new environment of the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic, some adjustments may need to be made to a whole range of our lives.
One of the areas where changes may be wise may be parenting.
There may be good reasons for some families to depart temporarily from the existing parenting plan for their children during the Coronavirus/COVID 19 pandemic.
Generally, a parent can structure his or her time during visitation with a child (or during primary parenting time, if the parent is the primary residential parent), without much input from the other parent.
There is some confusion as to how the school closures caused by the Coronavirus/COVID 19 pandemic will affect parenting time.
Many people are worried by the Coronavirus/COVID 19 pandemic, and are limiting their social contacts, and abiding by guidelines for social distancing.
The current health crisis is causing some people to think seriously about creating a Will or a Trust. It is causing others who have been thinking of this to stop putting it off, and to start actually working toward finding a lawyer to work with them on estate and incapacity planning.
It is not uncommon for people who have married late in life, or who are living with a significant other to whom they are not married, to want to protect that other person, and make sure that the other person has a place to live as long as they need it, while also ensuring that their own child
It is not uncommon in a divorce for a couple to agree to a settlement where one former spouse gets the lifetime use of a certain home or investment property, with the understanding that the other former spouse’s children will ultimately receive the real estate.
A question sometimes comes up in estate planning situations where a parent wants to be sure that a child gets a home or some other certain piece of real estate, but does not want to transfer the property immediately.
A life estate is created when someone gives the current rights to real estate to a third party (or retains these rights themselves), while giving the rights to that same piece of property to someone else after the holder of the current rights passes on.
Sometimes a Will is not well thought out.
Sometimes things simply have changed since the Will was written.
It is important to transfer assets into your trust, if you have a trust at least in part because you want to avoid probate.
If you become incompetent (technically, in Oregon, this is called financially incapable) and are unable to handle your finances, someone will have to do this for you.
If a child lives in their parent’s house, and provides a certain level of care for the parent, for at least two years, the parent can give the house to the child without creating a period of Medicaid ineligibility.