Using Estate Planning To Protect Your Assets
Asset protection is about one simple goal: protecting your home and the savings you have worked so hard to build. Life can present serious financial challenges, from unexpected nursing home costs to lawsuits or taxes. Without a proper plan, these risks can quickly deplete these savings.
Our attorneys use advanced estate planning tools and carefully structured trusts to better shield your assets to reduce potential risks and liabilities. We have seen how a lack of planning can lead to devastating losses from disability, long-term care costs, or estate and capital gains taxes. Advance planning can help ensure that you and your family are not put in that position.
A comprehensive estate plan is one of the most powerful tools you can have to protect what you own. If you are concerned about your assets, an investment in this process can provide invaluable security and peace of mind for the future.
Put Devotion And Dedication In Your Corner
Our Certified Elder Law Attorneys (CELAs) have decades of combined experience protecting our clients’ assets and families throughout Massachusetts and across the country. We are Curley Law Firm LLP, located in Wakefield. Our practice is devoted to elder law and estate planning, including asset protection.
For additional information about our qualifications and the benefits of retaining our services, please see our page entitled “Why Choose Us.”
For experienced representation and sound advice concerning asset protection from an experienced estate planning lawyer, please call us at 866-406-8582.
Why You Should Have An Asset Protection Plan
An asset protection plan legally structures your finances to defend against future uncertainties. A strong plan helps you:
- Protect assets against the risk of expensive nursing home care and long-term care or MassHealth (Medicaid) needs
- Protect business real estate and other property from litigation or lawsuits through a Limited Liability Company (LLC)
- Address the financial impact of a spouse’s long-term care expenses to prevent impoverishment of the healthy spouse
- Put a team in place to manage the fallout of sudden disability and unforeseen accidents
Our experienced attorneys can review your situation and explain which strategies will work for you.
Answering Your Questions About Asset Protection
At Curley Law Firm LLP, securing the assets you have worked hard for is a top priority. Below are answers to some of the most common questions we receive from our clients regarding asset protection:
What legal strategies can you use to safeguard your assets from a nursing home and MassHealth?
Asset protection planning involves legally organizing your finances and property to shield them from long-term care costs and nursing home costs. A sudden serious illness can quickly consume a lifetime of savings if there are no legal protections in place. Our attorneys can help you create a comprehensive estate plan that can help protect your home and assets against this risk.
How do irrevocable and revocable trusts affect asset protection and control?
As the names imply, irrevocable and revocable trusts offer different amounts of control and protection over your assets:
- Revocable trusts allow you to maintain complete control: You can change, amend or terminate the trust at any time. However, the assets inside a revocable trust are generally not protected from creditors, lawsuits or being counted toward MassHealth (Medicaid) eligibility.
- Irrevocable trusts offer a higher level of protection: You give up a degree of control over your assets once you transfer them into an irrevocable trust. You will lose the ability to easily change the terms or take the assets back. However, this is also what can help protect the trust assets against MassHealth and nursing home costs, provided the trust is structured specifically for this purpose and the transfer is completed well in advance of a need for care.
Our lawyers will guide you through the pros and cons of each trust structure to find the right balance for you and your family.
When should you start planning to protect assets from potential long-term care costs?
When it comes to estate planning and asset protection, there is no better time than the present. This is especially true if you want to use trusts to protect your assets from MassHealth eligibility, which involves a five-year look back period.
This means that if a person transfers assets during that five-year period before their application, they may face a MassHealth disqualifying penalty period. This can delay their eligibility for benefits, in a worst case scenario by even longer than five years. Early planning is one of the most effective ways to avoid issues like these. One of our lawyers can review your finances and timeline to help you create a plan.
Can transferring property to family members jeopardize your eligibility for benefits?
It depends on how and when you transfer the assets. While giving assets away can seem like a straightforward solution to reduce your estate for MassHealth purposes, it can trigger certain penalties (such as the one mentioned in the above question) if not done properly and timely.
Transferring assets can also involve unexpected tax consequences for the beneficiary. For example, transferring a home to a child may eliminate the parent’s ability to claim certain property tax exemptions. In addition, it could result in a much higher capital gains tax for the child if they decide to sell the home in the future. It can also put the asset at risks from the beneficiary’s own creditors, such as a lawsuit or divorcing spouse.
Contact A Massachusetts Asset Protection Attorney
To discuss your asset protection goals with an experienced lawyer, please schedule a confidential consultation by calling us at 866-406-8582. You may also elect to submit our intake form, and we will contact you. Out-of-office consultations can be arranged by appointment. We serve clients in Wakefield, and throughout Essex, Suffolk and Middlesex counties.