Estate Planning & Elder Law
Wills, trusts, incapacity planning, and the later stages of life.
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Estate Planning & Elder Law
Funeral and Burial Instructions: Who Decides and How to Make It Binding
Every state has a ranked list of who controls funeral and burial decisions. If you do not want that list to apply to you, the way to change it is a signed document, not a conversation.
6 min readGuide -
Estate Planning & Elder Law
ABLE Accounts: Saving Money Without Losing Disability Benefits
An ABLE account is the one savings tool built so that having money does not disqualify a person from means-tested disability benefits. Here is how it works and where its limits sit.
7 min readGuide -
Estate Planning & Elder Law
Powers of Attorney: Scope, Revocation, and Third-Party Refusal to Accept
A power of attorney is only as useful as the institutions that accept it. This is what the document can authorize, how it ends, and what to do when a bank says no.
7 min readGuide -
Estate Planning & Elder Law
Veterans Aid and Attendance: Eligibility, Evidence, and Appeals
Aid and Attendance raises the VA pension rate for a veteran or surviving spouse who needs help with daily activities. Three separate tests have to be met, and each one fails claims for different reasons.
7 min readGuide -
Estate Planning & Elder Law
POLST and Do-Not-Resuscitate Orders: How They Differ From a Living Will
Two documents look similar and behave nothing alike. One is a medical order a paramedic can follow immediately; the other is a legal directive that only matters once you cannot speak.
6 min readExplainer -
Estate Planning & Elder Law
Guardianship of an Adult: Alternatives, Process, and Ongoing Duties
Guardianship transfers decision-making from one adult to another by court order. Modern statutes treat it as a last resort, and the alternatives are the first thing a judge asks about.
7 min readExplainer -
Estate Planning & Elder Law
Ancillary Probate: Handling Property Owned in Another State
Real estate is governed by the law of the state where it sits. That single rule is why an estate with a cabin two states away often needs a second court case to sell it.
6 min readGuide -
Estate Planning & Elder Law
Transfer-on-Death Deeds and Payable-on-Death Accounts
A recorded beneficiary deed or a payable-on-death form can move an asset at death without probate, without a trust, and without giving anyone rights while you are alive.
6 min readExplainer -
Estate Planning & Elder Law
Pet Trusts: Funding and Enforcing Care for Animals After an Owner Dies
Leaving money to an animal does not work, because an animal cannot own property. A pet trust is the structure that turns a wish about care into something a court will enforce.
6 min readExplainer -
Estate Planning & Elder Law
Nursing Home Admission Agreements, Residents' Rights, and Discharge Appeals
Admission paperwork is signed at the worst possible moment, in a hallway, under pressure. Federal law already voids some of what it asks for, and limits when a facility may make someone leave.
6 min readGuide
