August 12, 2011
Filed under: Elder Law — Christopher J. Berry @ 3:03 pm
As a Michigan elder law attorney, I appreciate when others serving seniors and veterans recognized the need for an elder law attorney to provide guidance to families facing the legal issues associated with aging. Lynn Breuer of Elder Care Solutions, a great geriatric care management group, wrote a wonderful blog post on how important an elder law attorney is.
You can read Lynn Breuer’s blog post here: Why Do I Need An Elder Law Attorney?
Filed under: Asset Protection,Elder Law,Medicaid Planning,Will — Christopher J. Berry @ 11:25 pm
I just saw a blog post entitled “Helping Your Clients Protect Their Family Fortunes,” which I thought was a bit odd and out of place. Especially on days like this when the stock market and people’s retirement assets are tanking. Our firm heritage is that we started out as an estate planning firm in Michigan, and we still are. However, more and more, every day, I consider my practice, at least, more geared towards every day Michiganders, who don’t have a “family fortune,” but instead worked hard and saved a nest egg that has taken a hit with the plummeting economy.
I spend my day as a Michigan elder law attorney, helping clients with modest assets save as much as they can from taxes, probate, and long-term care costs. Sure, we have the skill set to plan around the Federal Estate Taxes ($5million dollar exemption this year and with portability $10 million, do you have that much?) and do complicated, high end estate planning utilizing GRITs, GRATs, ILITS, IDGT’s, and the rest of the alphabet soup. But, I find that my day is spent helping working class Michigan families with questions such as “how do we pay for assisted living for mom?” or “dad’s going into the nursing home, how to we make sure that mom can continue to pay the bills?”
Very different than “Helping Your Clients Protect Their Family Fortunes.” I’d say a good tag line for much of the work I am helping Michigan families with is “Helping Your Clients Save Their House and Savings.”
