What to Do with Your Pet After You’re Gone (Part 2)
         Last week I was talking about options when considering estate planning for pets. One is to leave your pet to someone or some organization along with a sum of money to provide for the pet’s care. I leave my dog Casey to my friend George, for example, with $15,000
Estate Planning for Your Pet (Part 1)
               Everyone loves their pet. We spend millions in pet products and vet bills each year and that number seems to increase every year. A question I increasingly am asked is what happens to my pet when I pass away? What are my options in terms of providing a safe
Health Care Directives and HIPAA Releases
    It’s a common mistake, confusing a health care directive and a HIPAA release. Both are necessary but they are not identical.     First let’s look at a health care directive. There are actually two types of directives, an instruction directive and a proxy directive, both of which are important. An
Medicaid’s Confusing Treatment of Trusts (Part 2)
               Last week I wrote about trusts and how they are treated by Medicaid. Specifically, I am talking about irrevocable trusts. Most people assume that if they have placed their assets in an irrevocable trust, that by itself is enough to protect the assets from having to be spent down