With proper Medicaid planning, IRAs can be considered exempt for Medicaid eligibility. This means that the money in an IRA does not need to be spent in order for someone to qualify for Medicaid benefits. These benefits can be used to help pay for assisted living facility costs without depleting IRA assets.
For personal Medicaid planning services, please contact our Florida Board Certified Elder Law Attorney Babette Bach at (941) 906-1231.
Use this digital asset inventory template to keep track of all of your important usernames and passwords for your digital fiduciary or personal representative. You should designate who you authorize to access each account or computer and also specify what they are authorized to do. For instance, you may wish for your Facebook account to be closed but want your email account to be preserved so your personal representative can retrieve stored sentimental photos.
Digital Assets Inventory Template
This list of account information should be kept in a secure location with other estate planning documents.
The attorneys at Bach & Jacobs, P.A. make efforts to stay on the cutting edge of new technologies that assist our clients, including the Personal Representatives that we represent. We recommend all trust and durable power of attorney documents specifically authorize access to digital information. We can also help you identify your digital assets and ensure that they are fully accounted for in your estate planning documents.
To set up an appointment to review what estate planning method would be best to grant access to your digital assets, call our office at (941) 906-1231.
When planning for the transfer of your digital assets, you should be sure the person given the power to access and disperse information from your digital accounts is technologically savvy. Most people appoint a surviving spouse or child who is financially literate to take care of many of their assets as personal representative or trustee. If this person is not familiar enough with computers and the technology associated with your digital accounts, you can appoint a separate digital fiduciary to perform actions such as closing accounts, accessing photo storage, and transferring digital content such as videos or purchased books and movies onto DVDs.
The attorneys at Bach & Jacobs, P.A. make efforts to stay on the cutting edge of new technologies that assist our clients, including the Personal Representatives that we represent. We recommend all trust and durable power of attorney documents specifically authorize access to digital information. We can also help you identify your digital assets and ensure that they are fully accounted for in your estate planning documents.
To set up an appointment to review what estate planning method would be best to grant access to your digital assets, call our office at (941) 906-1231.
To ensure that your digital assets are protected and dealt with as you desire after death, be sure to compile all usernames and passwords for online subscriptions and accounts in a secure location. Also, speak with an estate planning attorney about how to ensure your durable power of attorney will have authorization to access assets such as online bill pay, photos, or social media accounts. You should specify which, if any, of your digital assets you want deleted and, if you have digital assets which earn profits, where you want that money to go and who is able to access and handle it. An attorney can tell you where your digital asset wishes should be expressed, keeping in mind that wills become public record after death.
Planning for digital assets is a newly emerging issue in estate planning and is complicated by the fact that many accounts on websites such as Facebook and Google have Terms of Service agreements which can be violated by anyone besides the original account holder authorizing someone else to log in. Attempting to access an account without proper permission can constitute a violation of anti-hacking laws.
The attorneys at Bach & Jacobs, P.A. make efforts to stay on the cutting edge of new technologies that assist our clients, including the Personal Representatives that we represent. We recommend all trust and durable power of attorney documents specifically authorize access to digital information. We can also help you identify your digital assets and ensure that they are fully accounted for in your estate planning documents.
To set up an appointment to review what estate planning method would be best to grant access to your digital assets, call our office at (941) 906-1231.
Digital assets such as online bill pay accounts, online investment management accounts, personal records, digital movies, books, games, airline rewards points, and photos must be accounted for in modern estate planning to ensure your loved ones can access and control your digital accounts as you wish. As technology plays a growing role in our everyday lives, some of our assets carry personal value, such as photos and videos, and others, such as online blogs with paid advertisements, may even have monetary value. In order to ensure that personal accounts, sites, and memories are available to the desired loved ones after death, who you want to be given access to your digital accounts and what type of control they may have over them must be included in your estate planning documents.
At Bach & Jacobs, P.A., we incorporate planning for the transfer of digital assets into our estate and end of life planning for clients. Call our office today at (941) 906-1231 to set up an appointment to review how to make your digital assets a part of your estate plan and ensure access to these accounts is granted safely and as you desire.
Legal protections for Florida’s elderly residents from financial exploitation were strengthened by a new law, effective October 1st, 2014. This new law defines exploitation as occurring when 1) a misuse of a power of attorney or guardianship duties result in unauthorized transfer of property, 2) personal assets are taken without authorization, 3) a vulnerable adult’s money is misused or transferred, or 4) a vulnerable adult’s assets are not effectively used for their support and needs.
If you or someone you love has been the victim of financial exploitation against an elderly person, contact Sean M. Byrne, Esq. at Bach & Jacobs, P.A. to discuss your options for recovery of those assets. Call our office at (941) 906-1231.
An essential part of estate planning is setting up clear instructions for loved ones about your wishes with regard to medical treatment. It is incorrect to believe that a Last Will & Testament contains information that will empower your loved ones to make decisions in line with your desires in the event that you are incapacitated or unable to communicate. To provide your loved ones with information about your medical care desires and give them the power to make decisions on your behalf, you must set up advance directives. It is recommended that you set up a living will, health care surrogate, pre-need guardian, and/or health care proxy to protect your wishes. These documents should be put into place far before incapacitation occurs and discussed with loved ones so they are clear about your wishes. If you would like to discuss what documents you should have in place to give instructions about medical treatment, please contact Bach & Jacobs, P.A. at (941) 906-1231.
We can help you set up a charitable giving plan to ensure you can continue to utilize and increase your money during your lifetime and later provide support to charities of your choice. Some of the different ways to maximize your charitable giving are outlined below:
If you would like more information on any of the above charitable giving plans or want advice on what giving option would be of most benefit to you, please contact our Board Certified Tax Lawyer Fred Jacobs, Esq. at (941) 906-1231.
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