E. Alexandra Golden’s Answers

A transaction for a small amount of money would be considered a gift of the current value of the property less the amount of money which actually changes hands, and therefore a disqualifying transfer by MassHealth if your uncle should need the state to pay for the cost of long-term care. Under current law, your uncle would face losing one day of benefits for every $279 in value transferred if he were to apply for benefits within five years of the time that the transfer is made. Your uncle...

There are some limited ways of protecting some of the assets. First, as long as your mother is living in the home, it is not a countable asset. She is also allowed to keep $115,920 as her community spouse resource allowance (CSRA). The remaining funds in excess of the CSRA may also be partly protected, but it has to be done in the right way. Your mother needs to see an elder law attorney ASAP for a thorough review of her assets and whether the legal documents which they may have in place...

Attorney Lewis is correct. However, you should know that getting an actual photocopy of a tax return from the IRS takes much longer than getting a tax transcript. There are plenty of family law attorneys with offices in Wellesley, Needham, Dedham and Westwood who are more than capable of assisting you.

I agree with Attorney Frederick here. Will contests are never easy and they are not inexpensive. You will need to have compelling evidence showing that at least one of the factors he described existed. Further, you did not say if you filed objections to the admission of the Will to probate. You should have received a Citation after the Will and the Petition for Probate was filed. The Citation states that the Petition for Probate was filed, the location of the courthouse where the Petition...

The simple answer is "no." The more complex answer, as Attorney Rosenberg indicates is "it depends." How long ago was the life estate created? Long enough ago that there's no disqualifying transfer? If your mother is not living in the house, how will the costs of upkeep and property taxes be paid? If the property needs to be sold, will that sale occur before or after she is receiving MassHealth benefits? As you can see, the answer to your question is going to be very fact-specific. I...

I practice guardianship and elder law. Trust me.. in general, you do NOT want to file for guardianship if you don't have to. First, a doctor has to evaluate her for competency prior to your filing for guardianship of her person and conservatorship of her estate. If she is competent, then a guardianship cannot go forward. Second, in Massachusetts, guardians and conservators have ongoing reporting requirements to the court. The reporting requirements for conservators include filing annual...

Capacity for the purpose of medical decision making is a pretty low bar. It just means that he has the ability to make informed decisions about his care (even if those decisions might not be ones you'd agree with). If your friend has enough capacity to be able to make his own medical decisions, he should work with an elder law or estate planning attorney to get his affairs in order. He should have a Health Care Proxy, which will appoint the person of his choice to make medical decisions in...

Yes, you need a probate attorney. Unfortunately, you've only hurt yourself by waiting so long to act, so you need to move forward as swiftly as you can now before anything else gets disbursed. An attorney can file the necessary paperwork to force your stepmother to come forward with a list of assets which passed inside and outside probate. You are entitled to a share of the probate assets -- any assets which your father owned jointly with your stepmother go to her as a matter of law.

I'm so sorry you're going through this. It's always easier when you have the funds to hire someone to help you, of course. Since that's not the case here, you need to reach out for help, even if that makes you uncomfortable. Do you have any neighbors or friends you can ask for help? Have you connected with a medical social worker at the hospital you use and asked for assistance finding help? If you belong to a religious community, ask the leader whether there might be a legal, financial or...

I echo Attorney Snell here -- you can't go shopping solely on price. To some degree, you get what you pay for. The real questions you should be asking are"what proportion of your practice is estate planning?" "How frequently do you attend seminars on estate planning and related subjects?" "What can you tell me about how the new Uniform Probate Code might affect my plan?" There are a lot of lawyers who call themselves "estate planners" and may give you a low price, but who really don't focus...