In many situations, there is little benefit in a race to the courthouse. Sometimes, however, it can make quite a difference who becomes the Personal Representative (executor) in a probate.
In Oregon, after a Medicaid recipient dies, the Medicaid Estate Recovery Unit, also called the Estate Administration Unit seeks to recover amounts paid for care by Medicaid from the estate of the Medicaid recipient who has just died.
There are several major kinds of trusts.
These include Special Needs Trusts and Supplemental Needs Trusts (sometimes called SNT Trusts).
They also include Revocable Living Trusts (which are perhaps the most common kinds of trusts).
Having an up to date Will can be crucial to achieving your estate planning goals.
In general terms, if a person has benefitted from a Qualified Partnership Plan Long Term Care Insurance policy, the person can keep extra amounts from Medicaid spend down that are equal to the benefits received from the Qualified Partnership Plan (QPP) Long Term Care Insurance policy.
Under Oregon law, upon reaching a certain age, a home owner can often defer real estate taxes.
There are limits to these deferrals.
Long term care insurance can increase the amount of assets you can keep when you qualify for Medicaid.
Long term care insurance can also increase the amount you can protect from estate recovery after you die, if you have been on Medicaid.
A probate is conducted when a person has died, and has property or assets that need to be administered and transferred to the heirs and beneficiaries.
Even though there can be tax benefits to deferring payouts from an IRA or a 401K, sometimes this benefit is a minor benefit when compared with the risks of having the asset distributed directly to someone who may have problems handling money.
For tax reasons, it is often wise to pass IRAs, 401Ks, and other tax deferred assets outside of probate, by making sure the beneficiary designations on these assets name actual individuals.