Finances and Business
Trusts
Trusts
In General
There are a variety of situations in which other people may make decisions for you.
Wills and trusts can both be used to direct where and to whom your property passes once you have passed on.
Trusts
Trusts can also be used to allow someone else to manage your property during your lifetime if you wish to have someone else do this, or if you become incompetent.
Health Care Documents, Finances and Business, Guardianships and Conservatorships
There are a variety of situations in which other people may make decisions for you.
Health Care Documents
It can be very important to have a valid Advance Directive for Health Care in place, so that if you are unable to direct your own health care, the person you want to make health care choices for you will be able to direct doctors and hospitals, and will be able to have access to your health care information.
Elder Law includes a wide range of subjects, including matters relating to Medicaid, including asset protection, Medicaid spend down, look back periods, avoiding or dealing with disqualification for Medicaid, and planning for a situation where one spouse needs to enter long term care, but the other may be able to remain in the home.
Affidavits of Heirship can be used to transfer assets of some kinds when the owner is dead, and there is not going to be a probate or a small estate proceeding.
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.
Probate is the process by which a Will is given effect, and the assets of a person who has died are distributed to his or her heirs and beneficiaries.
A probate will take a minimum of four months, and usually will take at least five months.
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).