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Whatever Happened To The Family Cottage/Cabin/Hunting Land?
A Little Bit Of Smarts, A Future Of Golden Memories
Birds Do It, Bees Do It, Even Educated Fleas Do It
Let’s Do It! Let’s Go To The Lake!
—Sincere Apologies to Cole Porter
In uncivilized countries, such as those in Europe and Asia, new workers start out with 6 weeks of mandatory vacation (which they confusingly call “holiday”). Not including public holidays (which they call “festivals” or something). What do these folks do with such excessive periods of sloth and inactivity? Who knows? Who cares?
In America, on the other hand, we have weekends. And summer! And a week or two of “vacation”. And being Americans, we do not wish to waste this time. If Americans were as sedentary and unambitious as our global neighbors, we could spend this time in sidewalk cafés, art museums and reading. Improving our minds. Getting culture. Ghastly stuff. “Deliver us O Lord, we pray…”
Unlike our fellow travelers on Spaceship Earth, all true Americans find home improvement projects irresistible. Paint the walls. Build a deck. Plant a garden. Cut the grass. Replace, polish, fix or improve whatever has not been recently replaced, polished, fixed or improved. Pitiful, benighted foreigners have foreign places with palaces, temples, pagodas, and castles. Blessed, muscular Americans have Lowe’s, Harbor Freight, and Home Depot. Seems like an easy choice.
Sooner or later, though, all true Americans feel the restless urge to get out of Dodge, at least on the weekends. In the summertime. Or hunting season. We ran out of things to improve around the house. The deer ate all the tomato plants. It’s too hot. We were bored. So we got another house. In God’s country!
In the American Tradition, the second home could be a house. Or single wide. Perhaps a shack with no indoor plumbing or insulation. On a 40 foot lot. At the lake, at the shore, in the woods, somewhere other than here. From Idlewild in Lake County to Beaver Island in Lake Michigan, American middle class workers by the thousands filled the developments which sprang up around every lake, pond, and ditch within driving distance. And because the lake wasn’t big enough, we dug canals, dammed creeks, and otherwise expanded our Water Wonderland. Magnificent! And not only lakes, but the woods filled with weekend escapes too! Glorious!
At grandmother’s cottage many of us learned to swim and fish. Caught tadpoles and watched them grow to frogs. Searched for salamanders under logs and rocks. Got mosquito bites and poison ivy. Fell in the mud. Played in the sand. Went ice-fishing in the winter. Campfires on the shore. Remember?
Whatever happened to that place? How much would it cost to buy something similar today? Why did we get rid of it? Too bad our kids and grandkids won’t have the experiences we did. Or the memories. At least they have iPads.
The Family Cottage LifeCycle
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
2 A time to be born, And a time to die; 6 A time to gain, And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;
—Ecclesiastes 3:1-2,6
Is it a ridiculous idea that there is a lifecycle to family cottages and recreation properties? There is a routine evolution in the relationship between family and property. Is it a bad idea to recognize the lifecycle and work with it? Are you against preserving unique opportunities for your family?
The Family Cottage Lifecycle:
1. Young Child: Best. Place. Ever!
2. Teenager: So stupid. Boring. Smells funny.
3. Young Adult: My life is busy. I have no time for that place. If I inherit a share, I’m selling it… I need money for tuition/new car/down payment/taxes…
4. Parent of Young Child: Why did we ever sell the cottage? We can’t even afford to rent at the lake today.
5. Older and Wiser: If I ever get the opportunity, I won’t make that mistake again.
We all pass through seasons in our lives. As we gain experience, some important-seeming situations will fade to nothing. Other events will become more meaningful as time goes by. Wisdom and perspective cannot be taught, only learned. Growing up is the tuition that must be paid for insight.
Are long-term decisions best left to the youngest, least- experienced folks? Is it wrong for those with proven perception and prudence to plan for the long-term? Do you sacrifice long term gain for short term pleasure?
Estate Planning Done Wrong
Two Estate Planning Blunders That Guarantee Failure
Traditional estate planning, if it has any purpose at all, dumps your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries. After you die. Don’t much care what happens to you while you are alive.
Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long-term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.
Is it surprising that thousands of recreation properties: cottages, cabins, hunting land, are lost to pay for long- term care?
LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for.
LifePlanning™ means you do not have to sell the cottage and “spend down” the proceeds. Now what to do with the recreational property?
Traditional estate planning offers two options:
1. Circular Firing Squad or Last Man Standing
2. The Corporate Model or Last One Out is a Rotten Egg
Circular Firing Squad is easy, cheap and disastrous.
The Corporate Model is not easy, not cheap, and not as disastrous.
Circular Firing Squad
Putting all the kids “on the deed” is the circular firing squad. It is the easiest, cheapest, most popular, and worst possible way to leave recreation property to kids.
“Last Man Standing” is the most common Circular Firing Squad method. This involves naming all of the children or other beneficiaries as Joint Tenants with full Rights of Survivorship (JTWROS) on the deed. As joint tenants with rights of survivorship, the last living person owns the entire property. Did you plan to disinherit most of the family?
JTWROS deeds also deny Medicaid benefits to your kids and their spouses. Medicaid treats their share as if it was cash in the bank. But it is NOT cash in the bank, it is a fractional interest that is totally locked up in the property. And now your kids are disqualified from Medicaid. Whoops!
But that is not the worst. JTWROS deeds have no rules. Other than each person can fully use the property without the others’ permission. Congratulations! Your child is the new president of the Pagan Assassins Mud Wrestling Team – Australian Rules. Your child invites the entire 32 member, mixed gender team to the cottage. On the 4th of July. Your child has never paid their share of the taxes, utilities or maintenance. When the Pagan Assassins leave, the place is a bloody shambles. And there is nothing the other kids can do about it. In fact, since you signed a standard, immediately effective, JTWROS deed, there is nothing YOU can do about it. Not even dead yet and already you have lost control of your property. Did you know that when you signed on for this quick and easy solution?
Ladybird to the Rescue? You may have used a ladybird or transfer on death deed to create this living hell. Good News! At least the suffering will not begin until after you have passed on to your reward. Then the JTWROS takes effect and we are off to the races.
You may also create a Circular Firing Squad using a “Tenants in Common” deed. The TIC deed gives individual shares to each child while you retain a share. Unlike JTWROS, each child owns a piece that they can give to the grandkids. Or sell to the Pagan Assassins. Just as with JTWROS, there are no rules.
Did I mention that each Circular Firing Squad method leaves the other kids open to liability claims from the unsanctioned “activities”? And it does no good for them to abandon the property, now they can be prosecuted for housing code violations. And please! Do not get me started on that methamphetamine lab in the basement. Or the fentanyl stockpile in the shed. Oh my!
If you are going to create a Circular Firing Squad, use the TIC method. If they all hate each other enough, they can go to probate court, sue one another, and force a sale. Thanks Mom! Thanks Dad! Great planning!
The Corporate Model: Last One Out Is A Rotten Egg
Do you really want to leave stuff to the kids without any rules? Is blunt force trauma the best way to make sure your grandkids will learn how to swim at the lake? Do you want to empower one of your kids to hold the others hostage?
There are many permutations of the Corporate Model. Most use a limited liability company to hold the real estate and give shares to the kids. And there are rules. And governing provisions. And limited liability for the kids. Still have that pesky Medicaid problem with disqualification, but I guess you cannot have everything.
A general rule in a corporate structure is that minority members can sell their shares and get out. The usual Cottage LLC requires the other members to buy out the one who wants to sell. And if they do not… say hello to the Pagan Assassins.
Doesn’t seem like such a big deal. One kid wants to move to the Himalayas and commune with the mountain spirits. That kid is not planning to come back. Or perhaps another kid wants his money to buy a car. The cottage does not seem so important right now. The problem is not one of law. The buyout provisions are clear and enforceable.
The problem is that as soon as one kid wants out, so do the rest. The other kids don’t want to pay, frequently they are not able to pay. It was a blessing to have had the cottage so long, but now it must go. Over and over again, if one kid wants out, they all do. Last one out is a rotten egg!
The Corporate Model fails because it depends on the continued unanimous support of all the family members. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
What if there were no links? What if no individual could torpedo the entire family’s legacy?
The National Park Model: Recipe For Success
There is nothing so American as our national parks. The scenery and the wildlife are native. The fundamental idea behind the parks is native. It is, in brief, that the country belongs to the people, that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us. The parks stand as the outward symbol of the great human principle.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
You will never go to Yosemite National Park. You have Yosemite-phobia. And a doctor’s note to prove it. Since you will never go to Yosemite, you write to the National Park Service. You demand your share of the value of Yosemite. Cash me out! Do you expect a response?
Roosevelt’s “fundamental idea” is that the national parks belong to everyone, down through the generations. The big idea is simple: Preserve it now or lose it forever.
Isn’t that the idea behind leaving the family cottage to the family? Could you afford, right now, to purchase your cottage, cabin, hunting land? Of course not! Lake Michigan properties that sold in the $20-30,000 range in the 60’s and 70’s are in the millions now. If you can find one. And the same is true of smaller lakes. The wild price inflation is less for hunting land, but still forbidding.
At the turn of the last century, a few visionaries like Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir saw that without national preservation efforts, irreplaceable natural treasures would be lost. In other countries, the rich and the royal preserved land for their own benefit. In America, we did it for all of us. And our descendants.
The National Park Model is a new way of looking at your cottage or recreational property. You are making a promise to your future family that short-term considerations will not outweigh long term goals.
The basic principles are straightforward and are familiar to anyone who has ever traveled or camped in a national, state or local park:
1. Rules for Use. Family members are stewards of a gift. Rules for use and care will be clear and must be observed. There will be an evenhanded system for allocating the available space among various family members.
2. Financial Responsibility. Budgets will be prepared, including all taxes, utilities, insurance and sinking funds for all capital improvements, including the roof, plumbing, fixtures and utilities. Present and future expenses will be identified and incorporated.
3. Nobody Rides for Free. You can’t get in a Park without a sticker to pay for the road. You can’t stay overnight without paying for your campsite. You can’t stay at the Cottage without paying the necessary charge to cover your share of the budget. In advance.
There are other provisions that allow for limited liability and definition of membership. These can all be tailored to the specific needs of individual families.
On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant created Yellowstone as the first national park in the United States and the world. For over 150 years, Yellowstone has been preserved and available to all Americans.
Is it ridiculous to think that the same concepts that worked for Yellowstone for the last 150 years could preserve your family’s heritage too? Are you against providing that sort of experience to your children, grandchildren, and generations yet unborn?
If not you, who? If not now, when?
Is Now A Bad Time For Real Solutions?
Does anyone on this earth have all the answers? Does that mean we should give up seeking the best answers we can find? Perhaps you already have an answer to this problem. Maybe you do not see this as a problem at all. Why not find out? Is now a bad time to find out how to obtain security for yourself? And your family?
Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™ You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family?
Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?
Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.
The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?
NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.
Get Information Now. (800) 317-2812
Message In A Bottle
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D-Liver, D-Letter, D-Sooner, D-Better
(Not Edited For Spelling Or Punctuation Or Anything Else) (Warning: Not Legal Advice!)
Question:
How do I evict my mother-in-law who lives in my home and it’s causing problems between my wife and I?
My mother-in-law is 86 years old and only brings in under $2,000 a month Social Security she has become very belligerent and mean argumentative and causing trouble between my wife and I she needs to move.
Short Answer: How does your blushing bride feel about this? Not as a domestic relations matter, but strictly from the Perry Mason perspective. Do you lovebirds own the nest together (“tenants by the entirety”)? If so, your helpmeet can give Mommy Dearest permission to remain. Forever. You wish to stab yourself with the nearest sharp implement (like Juliet)? We do not advise it, but we understand. You are stuck.
What if your Till-Death-Do-Us-Part’ner agrees: her sainted forbear must seek a happier haven? Face facts: Legally, mother-in-law is a tenant. You are a landlord. Meaning you will have to go through the usual eviction process. Begin by serving her with a 30-day Notice to Quit, Termination of Tenancy. If she does not vacate, move on to a Summary Proceeding in District Court. Now it is strictly by-the-numbers.
Longer Answer: On the other hand, what if the sweetest, kindest, gentlest, nicest person in the world became “very belligerent and mean argumentative and causing trouble” due to a disease process? Radical personality shifts are common in persons suffering from various forms of dementia. Dementia is often accompanied by depression. Depression frequently manifests as anger, paranoia, vindictiveness. Vascular dementia victims can be especially cruel. Even without dementia, for many older people, aging itself triggers disagreeable moods and behaviors. Is it foolish to consider all possibilities before reaching a conclusion? Would you think it a bad idea to explore various options before suing a family member? Or maybe your in-law simply is the most weak, cranky, crabby, argumentative, testy, provocative, petulant, grasping, grumpy, grouchy, irritable, ungrateful, bad-tempered wretch to ever urge its squat, thick, ungainly bulk across the surface of a complaining earth.
Question:
How do I remove a non-rent/non-bill paying adult child?
My friend (good friend of the homeowner) has durable power of attorney. We’re trying to empty the house and make extensive repairs to, then sell the home very soon. There is an alcoholic borderline psychotic adult son (42 years old and employed) that has been living there 5 years or more that has contributed zero dollars to the household. The mother has asked him several times to vacate and he has excuses why he’s just not going to do that right now. We’re looking for an immediate legal remedy.
Short Answer: “We’re looking for an immediate legal remedy.” There is no immediate legal remedy. The Law frowns on “self-help.” Putting Psycho Son’s stuff in the driveway feels great!
Then come the triple damages for anything you broke, lost, or threw away. More damages for his hotel room. And then he is back in the house! Once somebody has taken root in your home, it is darn tough to get them out. Except through the traditional legal process that applies to any other tenant.
If Psycho Son agrees to leave voluntarily, well and good, maybe mom can convince him to go. But it seems “he’s just not going to do that right now.” Don’t wait, get him served with a 30-Day Notice, Termination of Tenancy and get on with it.
Even Shorter Answer: The typical financial power of attorney will give you the necessary authority to evict this ungrateful child. However, you will save much in the way of blood, sweat, and tears to retain experienced counsel. A power of attorney is only as good as the words it contains. It is not inconceivable that the power of attorney may be insufficient. Get it checked out.
Possible Answer: Has the “alcoholic borderline psychotic adult son” threatened or carried out any physical or psychological abuse of mother? Threats? Actual abuse? If so, a Personal Protection Order may be sought from the Family Court Division of Circuit Court. A PPO, among other things, may prohibit the son from: “entering onto the property where [mother] live[s]” “entering onto [other] property” “assaulting, attacking, beating, molesting, or wounding [mother]” and “stalking as defined under MCL 750.411h and MCL 750.411i” among other things. SCAO Form CC375, Rev. 1/21.
The PPO can be obtained without notice to the “respondent” son. And it can be obtained quickly. Again, consult with counsel. Some folks have exaggerated the grounds for the PPO. Some folks have bitterly regretted the exaggeration.
NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.
Get Information Now.
(800) 317-2812
You Never Call, You Never Write!
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Like Driving Past A Car Wreck… Glad It Did Not Happen To You (Not Edited For Spelling Or Punctuation Or Anything Else) (Warning: Not Legal Advice!)
QUESTION: Can our disabled brothers legal guardian (also a family member and remainderman) terminate disabled brothers life estate?
Disabled brother is now in nursing home and will not return to family home which he has life estate in and is also in an irrevocable trust. There are many remaindermen, (large family) and all are in agreement to sell family home including our disabled brothers guardian. Another family member/remainderman wants to buy us out and move into home, hoping that we can all just sign off of house/ trust and quitclaim the property to her. Not sure if this is “allowable” or advisable. We also have concerns about potential “Medicaid recovery” if life estate is terminated while life estate holder is still alive.
Short Answer: Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice elder law without a firm grounding in the fundamentals. Imagine sorting out this fact pattern after the family house was sold, money distributed, Medicaid denied, recriminations on all sides, nursing home lawsuit against disabled brother, allegations of fraudulent transfer against siblings, and a family feud ripe with recriminations echoing through eternity. In other words, the usual case.
Is it crazy to think it is not too late? Is it impossible for sweet reason and angelic actions to save the day? Must this family suffer?
Long Answer: There are several threads here that need to be disentangled. Let us begin with brother’s life estate.
LIFE ESTATE
In Michigan, “life estate” means that the person can use and live on the property for their entire lifetime. A life estate is valuable. How valuable?
Back in the day, we used to have hearings with expert witnesses and do future value projections based on life expectancy and then present value regression analyses. But in today’s modern world, Michigan makes it easy to figure out how much a life estate is worth. Get a copy of the Bridges Eligibility Manual 400, Exhibit II – Life Estate and Life Lease Factor Table (BPB 2022-07) (available online!). This Table lists ages from birth to 109 years old. For each age, there is a 5-digit life estate factor. You look up the factor that corresponds to the age of the person. Multiply the factor by the value of the real estate. Voila! That is the value of the person’s life estate.
IMPORTANT POINT: Life Estate values have nothing to do with the actual health of the Life Estate holder. Life Estate Value is all about chronological age. Birth certificate and calendar. Healthy or on hospice? Irrelevant.
A few examples. Let us suppose the family home is worth $100,000.
At age 2, the life estate factor is .99017. So, a two- year old’s life estate is worth $99,017. ($100,000 X .99017)
At age 109, the life estate factor is .04545. That means that the 109-year-old’s life estate is worth $4,545. ($100,000 X .04545)
At age 70, the life estate factor is .60522. How much is a 70-year-old person’s life estate worth? Correct! $60,522. ($100,000 X .60522)
What this means is that “if life estate is terminated while life estate holder is still alive” the life estate holder must be paid the value of the life estate as determined by the BEM 400 Life Estate Factor Table. Easy!
Let’s consider the flip side… the remaindermen.
If 70-year-old disabled brother’s life estate is worth $60,522, what are all the remaindermen’s interests worth, collectively? Correct again! $39,478. ($100,000 – $60,522) Divided by the “many remaindermen” of a “large family.” Betcha didn’t see that coming!
DISABLED BROTHER’S GUARDIAN
Disabled brother has a guardian. Does that mea we are in probate court? Yes! Does that mean that any sale of the property must be approved by probate court? Yes! Does that mean that we will have to pay an attorney to help us ask the probate court for permission to sell? No! Like plumbing and electrical work on your home, probate can be a “Do-It-Yourself” adventure. Emphasis on “adventure.” Can you steer your automobile with your feet? Sure! But that does not make it a good idea. Like do-it-yourself electrical work, plumbing, or probate. Jes’ sayin’.
Probate is required even if disabled brother also has a conservator for management of his assets.
MEDICAID RECOVERY
Remember how disabled brother got the money from the sale of the family home? If disabled brother was already on Medicaid, getting the money will boot him off. Until the money is all “spent down.” Or until the money is stashed in a Medicaid payback trust. Or a charitable pooled income fund. Or somewhere else where the other family members will not benefit.
Are there worse ideas than selling the family home before disabled brother’s death? Sure! You could invade Ukraine, expecting a liberator’s welcome. You could dump trillions of dollars into the economy, expecting no inflation. Spit into the wind. Tug the mask off the ole Lone Ranger. Mess around with Jim. Bad ideas.
When disabled brother dies, his life estate is over. No compensation. No estate or Medicaid recovery. The remaindermen get the remainder. All the remainder. Yay!
But in the meantime… You want to keep the family house occupied. Vacant houses have a way of burning down. Vacant house insurance is hugely expensive. Plus you still have to pay the taxes. And utilities. Mow the grass. Plow the snow. Paint it.
Why not let sister move in now, provided she pays all expenses? Subject to a written agreement? Give her a right of first refusal (not an option) so she may purchase the place after disabled brother’s death?
There are other possibilities. Leasing/subleasing.
Etcetera. But do not accept the assertion that it must be sold pronto. The family has options.
IRREVOCABLE TRUST
What’s going on with this?
Somehow there is an irrevocable trust blended into the mix. It is not obvious how that trust is being used, if at all. There are several possibilities. But a review of the trust would be essential to knowing what is going on.
Question: Can my father’s caretaker accept his entire estate? Can she be sued for selling everything? He is still alive. My dad signed over his house to his caretaker before she put him into an assisted living home. She then quickly sold it. He has 2 living children. Do I have any recourse now?
Short Answer: No, you do not “have any recourse now”. Sadly, a properly executed deed has consequences which cannot be undone. Even a deed that reverses the prior transfer has real world consequences that cannot be ignored. What consequences? [WARNING: LAWYER ANSWER TO FOLLOW] It depends.
Longer Answer: Is it possible that the caregiver may be sued or prosecuted for financial abuse of the elderly? Is it possible that Father was incapacitated or mentally incompetent at the time he signed the deed? Could those be grounds to throw it out? What if Father was coerced into signing by undue influence, would those be grounds as well? Perchance. Maybe. Possibly. Mayhap. Hmmmmm, tugs at goatee…
How can you prove that Father was consistently and continually mentally incompetent? Or coerced? Were you there the whole time? When he signed? These are difficult cases. Difficult to forget about apparent injustice. Difficult to remedy the injustice. Difficult to know if there was any injustice at all. Difficult to reconcile when the “bad actor” is a family member.
Is it crazy to think that it might just possibly be helpful to have had some professional assistance in this sort of situation? Maybe possibly a few bucks and hours now to avoid big bucks and years of woe in the future? Asking for a friend…
Father, it seems, was mentally competent and had the legal ability to sign. Adults can choose. Poorly. With disastrous consequences.
You may not believe it, but some folks with signs of developing dementia are propped up by gangs of greedy grasping gargoyles intending to gorge on ill-gotten gains. Despicable devils who deny demonstrable incoherence, impulsiveness, and inconsistency. For their own putrescent purposes. How can such evil exploiters exist? Trust the evidence of your own eyes if you doubt it.
Actions have consequences.
Question #1: Can my durable POA withdraw from my IRA and sell my home if I become incapacitated?
Question #2: Can I specify what accounts he can access?
I have two stepchildren. I will probably make one of them my durable POA—but I don’t want them to be able to access certain accounts that I have… if I become incapitated-nor do I want them to sell my home. Hopefully, I would have enough in my bank account to cover medical bills.
Question #3: Can I specify in my will what accounts the POA would have access to withdraw from? I am concerned about abuses as I have heard some horror stories and I have no children of my own or close friends. Question #4: Would I be better off getting a bank to manage my affairs?
Answer #1: Powers of Attorney always depend on the authority you write into them. You can limit the ability of the Agent under the POA however you choose. Generally, to be effective, you want your Agent to be able to access your Individual Retirement Account and to deal with your home.
Answer #2: Yes, you can limit the Agent’s access to specific accounts.
Answer #3: Horror stories are real. Financial abuse of older folks is also all too common. The good news is that there are professional trustees and fiduciaries who will not steal your money. So if you do have some question about the stepchildren, do not appoint them as your trustees or executors or agents or patient advocates or any other position of responsibility.
Answer #4: You may “be better off getting a bank to manage [your] affairs.” Professional trustees vary widely in their commitment to service and delivering value. Your friendly neighborhood elder law attorney (should) have plenty of experience with a range of professional trustees and banks. Why not ask? However, do not use an attorney as your trustee. The trustee function is fundamentally different than the lawyer function, in my opinion. A focused, professional trustee will do that job with much greater efficiency and at less cost than the typical attorney. But you still need to take care that you have the right trustee, and your attorney can be very helpful in that regard.
Is Now A Bad Time For A Real Solution?
Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?
No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.
The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?
How Did It All Go So Wrong, So Quickly?
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USA! USA! USA!
It was not that long ago. A year or so? America was recovering from the COVID. Economic growth was rebounding. Interest rates continued at historic low levels. Minimal inflation. Energy affordable and secure. Americans doing what Americans do. Getting on with it. Making the best of the situation. Recovering.
Remember before-COVID? Best economy ever for working Americans of all ages and racial groups. Record employment. At the highest real wages in history.
COVID and the response to the pandemic was a body blow. Confronted with a virus of mysterious origin. COVID deaths were 90+% among older folks with other ailments but affected us all. Lockdowns, economic paralysis, “No gardening for you!”.
Yet there was some desperate pride in adversity. Frontline healthcare workers’ extraordinary courageous efforts. Army field hospitals established overnight in Central Park. Navy hospital ships designed to treat battle-wounded soldiers converted at incredible speed to COVID treatment. Car factories suddenly manufacturing complex ventilators. Personal Protection Equipment production ramped up. Scientific research and vaccine development at “warp speed”.
Some sought political advantage. Blame Game. Extraordinary stresses resulted from lockdowns, masking, different therapeutic and preventive approaches to dealing with the pandemic. Some violence was excused. Other violence exaggerated and hysterically condemned. Rules for thee, but not for me? Raise your hand if you are surprised by politicians’ hypocrisy. Me neither.
And yet. Despite all the blame-gaming. Whatever your personal politics. Whomever you think is at fault. Let’s look over the edge of this foxhole. Aren’t there are some undeniable realities, some inconvenient truths?
Inflation is at 40-year highs. And getting worse.
Interest rates doubling, tripling. Home ownership out of reach. What do you think higher interest rates will do to the deficit?
Energy dependence is our future. America pleads with oil potentates who refuse our President’s phone calls and verbally abuse his envoys. “Strategic Petroleum Reserve” is pumped out to temporarily mask reality.
Crime and murder rates are skyrocketing back to the bad old days. Carnage in the streets.
Economic gains erased. Recession talk is back. Recession reality about to bite. Stagnation looms.
No borders for the U.S. Millions already crossed over. Given a joke legal document. And a cell phone. And a ticket to your town. To compete with you and your neighbors.
America is on edge. Agitated and anxious. Withdrawn and passive. Contradictory emotions and impulses. Remember Jimmy Carter? Malaise? Anything feel familiar nowadays?
How did we get here? Where do we go now?
Russia Russia Russia
Early 2022. Russia’s main rival (that’s us!) dazed and confused. Some American politicians and partisans credit Russia with powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. Russia chooses America’s president. Some believed this. Others said it for political advantage.
Russia riding high. Europe, with fresh America approval, agreed to new pipelines from Russian oil and gas fields. Europe cast away its independence. Europe invites the Russian boot upon its neck.
Russia’s Chief Crime Boss believed the American politicians. And the American newspapers. And his generals. Russian Chief Crime Boss thought he was really something. Also thought he had a real military.
Chief Crime Boss thought, “Now’s the time!” And invaded another country. Threatens others.
How’s that working out? Tens of thousands of dead or missing Russian soldiers. Thousands of dead Ukrainians. Billions of destroyed civilian and military property. Sunk ships. Millions of wrecked dreams. Years of effort demolished overnight with artillery shells, missiles, and bombs. Medieval brutality. Standard Operating Procedure for Russia, from czarist times to the time you read this. No surprise to anyone familiar with any ancient or modern Russian military adventure.
But Europe has had enough. Petroleum extortion blackmail is okay but killing people and breaking things… too much!
Henchmen of Chief Russian Crime Boss lied to him. Military was for show, not go. Crime Boss losing. But Crime Boss can never lose. Now Chief Russian Crime Boss threatens nuclear weapons.
How did this happen? What now?
USA vs Russia
There is no easy way out. No effortless solutions. We are past that now. Yet there is hope. America still has Americans. People who do not like being lied to. People who want to say what they want to say. We are a talkative bunch. We do not like to be shut up. We like to irritate our betters. We like to shake things up. That is what the First Amendment is all about.
Russia has the Russian system. Shut up or die. Shut up and die. No way out. No Exit. No solution when your country is run by a Chief Crime Boss and his henchmen. For as long as the Crime Boss lives. History provides countless examples. Napoleon: France. Hitler: Germany. Idi Amin: Uganda. Pol Pot: Cambodia. Franco: Spain.
Sadly, some Americans like the Russian Way. Some Americans are afraid of other people talking. So afraid that the government is setting up a “Disinformation Governance Board” staffed by political appointees. To govern “Disinformation”? Who decides which information is true blue, all-American, reliable, sanctified, and Government- Approved Information? Who decides which is evil, bad, horrible, no-good Disinformation? How can anything like this be consistent with the First Amendment? Can it be reconciled? Of course not.
Fortunately, many American immigrants seem to understand the importance of free discourse better than some of us born here. One immigrant, naturalized American has even spent some of his own money to buy a communications company. He promises to make it available to all. We shall see.
And that is the difference. We have our troubles, but the American Way of free speech, without fear or favor, will eventually enable us to solve our problems. If we continue to believe and act as Americans.
This is not a new issue with us. About a hundred years ago, in Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927), the Supreme Court upheld a conviction for dangerous speech. Forty years later, the Court, in Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969), overruled that precedent and forcefully upheld free speech under the First Amendment.
Who wants to turn the clock back? Who wants to suppress, prosecute, and imprison their fellow Americans for speaking on political issues? Why do they fear talk? Are their ideas so weak? Do they have no confidence in their fellow citizens? Are they so smart that no one else need express any thought? Who are these people? Why do they reject the American Way and embrace the Russian Way?
Although it appears nowhere in his writings, Winston Churchill is often credited with saying:
You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.
The Russian Way leads to death and destruction. The American Way leads to disagreement, discomfort, annoyance, and a better future and outcome for us all. We tried a mild variation on the Russian Way. And threw it out. Let’s stick to the American Way!
Is Now A Bad Time For A True Estate Planning Solution?
LifePlanning™ Is A Real Solution Traditional estate planning is concerned with avoiding probate, saving taxes, and dumping your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries.
After you die. Nobody cares what happens to you while you are alive. How does that help anyone? Stupid.
Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long- term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.
Is it surprising that thousands of recreation properties: cottages, cabins, hunting land, are lost to pay for long-term care? Why is your estate planner hurting you and your family? It is evil intent? Or stupidity?
LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for. Good for you. Good for your family. Good example for society.
When my mother suffered from the dementia which led to her death, over 10 years ago, their estate plan preserved their lifesavings. Mom’s months in the nursing home did not mean Dad’s impoverishment. Dad spent the last years with security and peace of mind.
Perhaps you think you already have an answer to this problem. Maybe you do not see this as a problem at all. It is possible that you do not believe in the passage of time or its effects on you.
Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family?
Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?
Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.
The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?
NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.
Get Information Now. (800) 317-2812
Keep Those Cards And Letters Coming!
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Another Missive You Are Glad You Did Not Have To Write
(Not Edited For Spelling Or Punctuation Or Anything Else) (Warning: Not Legal Advice!)
Question: Do I have any legal rights as an Heir to my father house?
I have lived with my father in the house that I grew up in for more then 10yrs now. I care for my father and his needs. I take him to Dr. appts, I cook, clean the house, do his laundry, and always make sure his needs are taken care of. I have 1 sister its just her and I. My father owns his home free and clear. Back in 2002 while i was away my father had some legal issues that concerned his house which at the time he was the only person on the Deed. Because of this legal issue my father put my sisters name on his house. It is a Grant Deed with my father and my sister as Joint Tenants. My father is in the hospital at this time and not doing very well my sister says the house belongs to her and she has recently served me with Eviction 60 day notice to Quit based on a No-Fault Just Cause. I pay my father rent every month and have receipts to show. My father has no Will in place. Do I as his son have any legal rights as his Heir and if so what can I do? My sister and I dont get along for the past few years all she has done is take advantage of our father financially and otherwise. She has no concern for his health or well being she only wants his house and will stop at nothing.
The Short Answer Is: No, you do not “have any legal rights as an Heir to [your]fathers house.” You are totally out of luck. Sister gets the house. You get evicted. “Do Not Pass GO, Do Not Collect $200.” You may get a share of father’s other assets, but not the house. The house is gone. Transferred. That is what a deed does. That is what deeds are for.
Gee, that was rather harsh, wasn’t it? Yeah, but also accurate. Lamentably, this is a very common “plan.” And a very common situation as well. The out-of-towner child gets the gold mine. The do- gooder child gets the shaft.
The Apostle and Evangelist Matthew, however, offers some consolation for you, at 5:12:
Makes you feel better, right?
And if you desire vengeance… Sure, sister may be rejoicing now with her ill-gotten gains. But let’s consult Dante’s Guide to Satan’s Suburb, the “Inferno.” Here we learn that the Ninth Circle of Hell, the one “lowest, blackest, and farthest from Heaven” is reserved for Traitors. Including those who betray their family members. So, your sister will spend Eternity right next door to Lucifer, frozen in an icy lake, tormented by demons. Unless she repents. At the last minute. On her deathbed.
Observation #1 Is it crazy to think that the Deed’s actual language might make a difference? No? In fact, there is a huge difference between “Joint Tenants” and “Joint Tenants with Rights of Survivorship.”
If the deed says: “Conveys to Dad and Evil Sister as Joint Tenants with Rights of Survivorship”. Then there is nothing to be done. And nothing that can be done, unless both Dad and Evil Sister work together. Evil Sister gets the property if Dad dies first. And vice versa. Unless… see Observation #3, below.
If the deed says: “Conveys to Dad and Evil Sister as Joint Tenants”. Then either Dad or Evil Sis can break the joint tenancy by conveying their joint interest. Even if they only convey that interest to a trust. POP! Goes the joint tenancy and now Dad owns one-half and Evil Sister owns one-half. And now when Dad dies, Evil Sister does NOT get his half. Dad could have sold to a stranger or given it to Brother. At death, Dad’s half goes wherever Dad says it should if Dad has done a trust or will. If Dad has done nothing, then the Probate Code (also known as the Estates and Protected Individuals Code) will dictate who gets Dad’s half when he dies.
If the deed says: “Conveys to Dad and Evil Sister.” Or “Conveys to Dad and Evil Sister as Tenants in Common.” Now Dad and Evil Sister each own a one-half interest that they can sell or give or otherwise transfer to someone else. Just the same as if there was a busted Joint Tenancy.
Observation #2 Remember those folks who told you to “Just put the kids on the deed! It is so simple and easy!”? Remember them? Wouldn’t you like to give ‘em a bust in the chops right about now? [DISCLAIMER: The Elder Law Reporter does not advocate or condone violence. Except metaphorically.]
Observation #3 When is a deed not a deed? When it is a “Ladybird” or “Transfer on Death” or “Enhanced Life Estate” deed. Then it is not a “Deed” at all… until Dad dies.
The Transfer on Death deed means that Dad retains all control over the property during his lifetime. Dad can give it away. Dad can mortgage the property. Dad can sell part and keep part. Dad is in total control. While Dad is living.
After death, if Dad has not transferred it while alive, the property then goes to Evil Sister.
Observation #4 Blast from the Past. Back in the day, it was accepted practice to deed real estate to parents and one or two favored children, all as Joint Tenants With Rights of Survivorship. Okay, you say… “Done deal!” Mom and Dad just gave the property to those two kids or their survivor. And you told me in Observation #1 that that was the end of the story. Which is true… pretty much.
Sometimes, after signing the Joint Tenants With Rights of Survivorship deed, the parents would require the kids on the deed to sign a Second Document.
The Second Document was a trust. A very short, one-and-a-half-page trust. The kids signed the trust as Trustees.
The kids signed to recognize that the Joint Tenants With Rights of Survivorship Deed was not really a deed to them, but a deed to the trust. And the trust said that they (or the survivor of them) had to split the property with the rest of the family.
Why? Why? WHY?
Deed plus Mini-trust is “simpler.” Also, these deeds helped to disguise the actual ownership. Also, these deeds were very confusing.
The worst part of these deeds is that well-meaning family members are turned into criminals. After Mom and Dad die, the family does not really know what is going on. One result is tax fraud. Another is federal farm price support and other agricultural program fraud. Frequently, this sort of arrangement results in Medicaid fraud. These crimes are innocent. The kids named on the deed had no idea that they were trustees and had to report. And remember: Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
And it is not just tax, agricultural, and Medicaid laws that are violated. The kids named on the deed often breach their fiduciary duties to their brothers and sisters.
Observation #5 Wouldn’t it be a great idea if all the kids are made Joint Tenants With Rights of Survivorship? Let’s put ALL the kids’ names on the deed. Now we don’t have to worry about anyone being left out! Everybody feels great.
Now your property is subject to all of the kids’ liabilities.
Now all of the kids can use all of your property whenever they like. With whomever they like. Including their mud-wrestling motorcycle gang. And you cannot stop them because they own the property same as you. Same as you.
Observation #6 Ignorance is bliss.
Conclusion A: Is it unimportant to plan your estate? Should you be careless about who gets what? Are you happy to leave confusion, tax liability and potential criminal responsibility on your kids? Do you want your legacy to be wreckage?
Then maybe you should take this stuff seriously. Is that a ridiculous notion?
Conclusion B: “Everything should be as simple as possible. But not more simple.” Albert Einstein.
The most expensive thing you can do is to cheap out on your estate planning. It is very attractive to get the free steak dinner that comes with a free trust. “If it’s free, I’ll take three!” Words to live by… But the consequences can be… severe.
Conclusion C: These various deed tactics were employed for generations. Today, it is the Ladybird Deed that takes center stage. If the past is a guide, the Ladybird Deed will soon come home to roost. And it won’t be pretty.
Actually, Ladybird Feuds are already happening. What we are seeing now is just the tip of the iceberg, early Ladybird Deeds. When the bulk of these deeds transfer property, it’ll be “Katie bar the door!” Which will be great for the lawyers fighting these cases.
Sometimes these deeds work well enough. Maybe there are great relationships among the family members. Maybe no one has died. Maybe no in- law is obnoxious, obtuse, officious, or offensive. Maybe the stars align perfectly! Maybe you get lucky. Is luck a plan?
It’s not that “deed planning” cannot possibly work. That’s not the point. The key is that you have no reason to think that it will work. It might. But it might not. And any little problem can cause great, unforeseen disaster.
Is it crazy to think that a little flexibility might preserve your intent while weathering the storms of the future?
Conclusion D: Stupid planning does not survive. As time goes by, faulty planning techniques are abandoned. But because lawyers and clients typically do not communicate, strategies that were dumped long ago continue to show up and cause havoc today. Properties worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Farms held in the family for over 150 years. Cottages and hunting land. All of these, as well as your traditional family homestead, are needlessly put at risk.
Conclusion E: Maybe you should go to a LifePlan™ Workshop. Just saying.
Traditional Deed Planning Is Dangerous To You And Your Family
Traditional estate planning is concerned with avoiding probate, saving taxes, and dumping your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries. After you die. Nobody cares what happens to you while you are alive. How does that help anyone? Stupid.
Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long-term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.
Is it surprising that thousands of recreation properties: cottages, cabins, hunting land, are lost to pay for long-term care? Why is your estate planner hurting you and your family? It is evil intent? Or stupidity?
LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for. Good for you. Good for your family. Good example for society.
When my mother suffered from the dementia which led to her death, over 10 years ago, their estate plan preserved their lifesavings. Mom’s months in the nursing home did not mean Dad’s impoverishment. Dad spent the last years with security and peace of mind.
Is Now A Bad Time For A Real Solution?
Perhaps you think you already have an answer to this problem. Maybe you do not see this as a problem at all. It is possible that you do not believe in the passage of time or its effects on you.
Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family?
Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?
Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.
The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?
NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.
Get Information Now. (800) 317-2812
“Golden Age” or “Hell In A Hand Basket”?
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A Confederacy Of Dunces?
Are The “Best And Brightest” In Charge?
Did We Elect The Most Arrogant and Stupid?
Five Basic Laws of Human Stupidity
Setting New Records For Pitiful Stupidity?
Every day in every way, we are getting better and better! Who believes that? You try and try, but isn’t it getting more and more difficult to keep the faith? Just look around. Or in a grocery store. Or any kind of store. We are #1! Setting records every week… ain’t it grand?
BASIC PRICE INFLATION. In March 2022, the United States set a 40-year record high for inflation. April 2022 says, “Hold my beer.” And catapults past March, with a new 40-year record high. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Let’s blame Russia.
(Don’t you just love this chart which pretends you can ignore food and energy prices? Excellent!)
MORTGAGE INTEREST RATES. Not to be outdone, mortgage interest rates also jumped to new highs. The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, known to its friends as “Freddie Mac,” proudly proclaims prodigious price proliferation. “Well done, Freddie!” say us. You want to buy a house? Ha ha ha. Renting is good.
FEDERAL FERTILIZER FRACAS. Is it ridiculous to observe that large quantities of cow-based organic fertilizer are produced by government operations? Do you doubt that the highest level of government work product consists primarily of bull-based fertilizer, also known as “BS”? Verily, the highest praise from one bureaucrat to another: “That is total BS!” How can there be a fertilizer shortage with all this manure and BS? Our “public servants” find the way.
BONUS QUESTION: Will skyrocketing fuel and fertilizer costs reduce food prices? What do you think? Asking for a friend…
IT AIN’T JUST FERTILIZER. Is it crazy to think that raw material costs have something to do with store prices? Do manufacturers get everything for free? Is the cost of steel and rubber and aluminum and a whole bunch of other stuff irrelevant to the price of your new car?
Let’s look at overall raw material costs. Remember that store prices are up 8.5%. How about raw material prices? Any good news there? Nope. Those prices are up 11.2%. Unexpectedly.
RUSSIAN INVASION. Everybody feel bad for murderous thieving Russian crime boss. Crime boss unhappy because neighborhood victims no want murder or stealing no more.
Is good club in neighborhood. Nice neighborhood people make good club so murderous Russian crime boss no murder them and steal stuff. But Russian crime boss like murder and steal. Sad now.
Other neighborhood folks name Sweden and Finland want join good club. Russian crime boss no like that idea! So, Sweden and Finland not join good club so Russian crime boss not get very sad then start murdering and stealing again.
Nobody to murder or steal from. Russian crime boss sad, so sad. And bored. Russian crime boss get angry. Say no one even think about join good club. Then Russian crime boss start murder and steal from neighbor.
Sweden and Finland see Russian crime boss murder and steal. Sweden and Finland now say, “Hmmm, maybe good time join good club.”
Russian crime boss get many Russians killed. Russian crime boss lose lots of Russian stuff. Russian crime boss get many neighbor people killed. Russian crime boss wreck lots of neighbor’s stuff. [By the way, there are very few Russians healthy and young enough for military service. And this idiot is feeding them wholesale into a meat grinder. That’s how stupid he is.]
Russian crime boss gets nothing good, loses lots. Russian crime boss neighbor gets nothing good, loses lots.
No good. All bad. Very bad.
Russian crime boss evil, yes. Very evil. Russian crime boss worse than evil. Russian crime boss stupid.
The Five Basic Laws Of Human Stupidity
Carlo M. Cipolla stated that there are 5 basic laws of Human Stupidity that help to explain the world around us. Do politicians intend to harm us? Are they doing it on purpose? Some are, probably, but most are just stupid. They actually believe that creating more money will cure inflation. Well.
Last week we visited the first 3 of Cipolla’s Laws:
The First Basic Law Of Human Stupidity
Always And Inevitably Everyone Underestimates The Number Of Stupid Individuals In Circulation.
There are more stupid people hanging around that you can possibly imagine.
The Second Basic Law Of Human Stupidity
The Probability That A Certain Person Be Stupid Is Independent Of Any Other Characteristic Of That Person.
Rich people, poor people, Harvard graduates, elementary school dropouts, artists, butchers, bakers, candlestick makers, lawyers, doctors, politicians. All are equally, proportionately, stupid.
The Third and Golden Basic Law Of Human Stupidity
A Stupid Person Is A Person Who Causes Losses To Another Person Or To A Group Of Persons While Himself Deriving No Gain And Even Possibly Incurring Losses.
BANDIT. It is possible to be an almost intelligent bandit. The bandit always harms others. Bandits are evil. But not necessarily stupid. An intelligent evil bandit steals your car. And keeps your car. You are down a whole automobile. Bandit is up by an automobile. You lose. Bandit gains. Gains and losses balance. The whole is not worse off, even though evil stuff happened.
Most bandits are not intelligent. Most bandits are stupid. Most bandits cause far more harm to you than they benefit themselves. Bandit carjacks your car. Shoots you. You lose automobile, pancreas, kidney, and part of your left lung. You are way way down. Bandit does not get to keep stolen car. Bandit sells for cheap to chop shop. Bandit is now Public Enemy #1. Bandit gets caught, goes to jail. Bad things happen.
Bandit hurts you and hurts self. Stupid.
BANDIT POLITICIAN. Politician wants to be liked. Pumps up trilllions of money from nowhere. Gives to friends. Lots of friends. Would print up and give away even more, but spoilsports say “NO!”. Politician sad.
Price inflation takes away more money than Politician gave to friends. Friends now unhappy. Much more unhappy than before. Cannot buy house. Cannot go on vacation. Cannot buy food.
Politician now unliked by all. Popularity in the toilet. Most people say “Big Stinker!”. Politician loses. Friends lose. Everybody loses.
Politician hurts you and hurts self. Stupid.
The Fourth Basic Law Of Human Stupidity
Non-Stupid People Always Underestimate The Damaging Power Of Stupid Individuals. In Particular Non-Stupid People Constantly Forget That At All Times And Places And Under Any Circumstances To Deal And/Or Associate With Stupid People Always Turns Out To Be A Costly Mistake.
Did you think Russia would be threatening thermonuclear war against Sweden and Finland (and the rest of us) in the Spring of 2022? Did you guess that the United States would be fighting a land war in Europe right about now? Did you foresee the highest inflation rates in 40 years? Did your crystal ball foretell that testicle’ed humans would be celebrated for beating uterus’ed humans in athletic contests? Did you predict that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology would give up the most effective screening tests available to admit unqualified students who flunked out at astounding rates? And so on and so on and so on…
Stupid people endanger us all. With nuclear war. And conventional war. Murder. Destruction. And the acceptance of preposterous positions that no one with a grain of common sense could countenance.
The Fifth Basic Law Of Human Stupidity
A Stupid Person Is The Most Dangerous Type Of Person
Traditional Planning Is Stupid Planning
Traditional Planning Is Dangerous To You And Your Family
Stupid people are unpredictable. Totally and completely unpredictable. You cannot protect yourself, or any part of what you value, from the stupid person.
For example, you can calculate how a bandit will operate. An “intelligent” bandit wants your stuff. If you give the “intelligent” bandit your stuff, the bandit will (probably) not harm you further. It is evil. You have lost. But you live another day.
Stupid bandits shoot you. You lose. They wind up in a bad place. Everybody loses. See, Ukraine. Intelligent people are quite predictable.
Intelligent people see what is good for them. You can understand why they want what is good for them. Intelligent people do not want to hurt you, because you can benefit them again in the future. Also you get good things from the intelligent person. Cooperation! Even competitive cooperation, where both persons actively and intelligently strive for advantage, without gratuitously harming the other. What a wonderful thing!
Middle class folks may be proportionally as stupid as any other groups. But, middle class people act more intelligently than any other group. Murderous thieving Russian crime bosses, grifting politicians, overbearing tech oligarchs, and other persons in positions of power are tolerated because of their power. They do not hear the truth because they are feared.
Who fears you? Who lies to you rather than tell you the truth because of your awesome, terrible power? Nobody.
Powerful People are just as stupid as we are. But we get better information than the Powerful People who are surrounded by fear-ridden toadies. Do you want to be the one who tells murderous thieving Russian crime boss that his big missile boat was blown up? Me neither.
Stupid Powerful People unpredictably, do harmful things that hurt all of us and benefit them not at all.
Thank God that you are middle class. You have the power to do good. And nobody lies to you out of fear.
Traditional Planning Is Stupid Planning
Traditional Planning Is Dangerous To You And Your Family
Traditional estate planning is concerned with avoiding probate, saving taxes, and dumping your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries. After you die. Nobody cares what happens to you while you are alive. How does that help anyone? Stupid.
Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long-term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.
Is it surprising that thousands of recreation properties: cottages, cabins, hunting land, are lost to pay for long-term care? Why is your estate planner hurting you and your family? It is evil intent? Or stupidity?
LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for. Good for you. Good for your family. Good example for society.
When my mother suffered from the dementia which led to her death, over 10 years ago, their estate plan preserved their lifesavings. Mom’s months in the nursing home did not mean Dad’s impoverishment. Dad spent the last years with security and peace of mind.
Is Now A Bad Time For A Real Solution?
Perhaps you think you already have an answer to this problem. Maybe you do not see this as a problem at all. It is possible that you do not believe in the passage of time or its effects on you.
Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family?
Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?
Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.
The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?
No Poverty. No Charity. No Waste.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.
Get Information Now. (800) 317-2812
Why Do Stupid People Rule The World?
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We Create Value, Fix Things, Make It Happen… We Help The World Become A Better Place They Are Helpless Or Thieves Or Stupid… Why Are They In Charge?
IS THE WORLD RUN BY IDIOTS?
Is now a bad time to reflect on the state of our world? Are you opposed to taking an honest look around and assessing the situation candidly? Have you given up making a positive contribution? Is it ridiculous to think, yes, the sun is going down, in the late innings, between a rock and a hard place, in a tough spot, jammed against the wall, but we can fix it yet, we can bounce back, all is not lost, is that ridiculous?
Remember a few years ago? Drilling skyrocketed. Energy prices plummeted. So much oil hit the market that prices went through the floor. All Americans had job opportunities. More Americans, of all races and genders, were providing for their families than ever before. Even so-called “unemployables” were working. Peace was breaking out in the Middle East. Countries that had been blood enemies since WWII decided to get along with all the benefits of warm peace rather than cold war. Inflation and interest rates were low. No new foreign wars were begun. Old wars were being wrapped up. No more Americans killing other people for inexplicable reasons with no end in sight. Now what?
COVID PANDEMIC. Viral pandemic almost exclusively kills older folks. Reaction: Force toddlers to wear masks. Empty the schools. Crush small businesses. Poor families and kids hurt the worst. Suicides jump.
Washington Post headline: “Colleges scramble to recruit students as nationwide enrollment plunges”. A million college students are “missing.” And the kids who show up? More bad news. The Chronicle of Higher Education: “Post-Lockdown Higher Education: A Stunning Level of Student Disconnection”. New college students are “by and large tragically underprepared to meet the challenges of university life — both academically and in terms of ‘adulting,’” such as understanding the consequences of missing a lot of class.”
AFGHANISTAN BUG-OUT. Ignoring the most basic military concepts, the Commander in Chief insists on immediate withdrawal. Hundreds of American citizens abandoned in a foreign land. Billions in weapons, ammunition, equipment, and training delivered to those sworn to kill us. Death and destruction follow. Economy derailed. Hope denied. Violence results. Riots described as “mostly peaceful protests.”
MORTGAGE INTEREST RATES. Another headline: “US mortgage interest rates hit 5% for the first time in a decade. That’s great news.” QZ.COM, April 6, 2022.
Do you think that doubling the home mortgage interest rate is a good thing? Is it “great news” to your children or grandchildren buying a starter home that the interest rate has increased over 100%?
PRICE INFLATION. Across the board price inflation is at 40-year highs. Everybody knows this is the inevitable result of dumping trillions of stimulus dollars into the economy. Rising prices devastate middle class plans and dreams. And still, Presidential spokespersons variously claim that inflation is good, inflation is bad, inflation is Russia’s fault for invading Ukraine. Even though inflation happened before Russian invasion.
RUSSIAN INVASION. Chief of Russian oligarchs decides to invade small neighboring foreign country. Chief is a corrupt crook who leads cabal of corrupt crooks stealing national wealth to buy superyachts, gold toilets, and jet airplanes. Chief is surprised and disappointed that everyone else is a corrupt crook too. Russian army, Russian equipment, Russian tactics, Russian discipline are suicidal embarrassment. Russian soldiers die. Lots of them. The rest torture and kill civilians. Unexpectedly.
Russian mechanics supposed to maintain equipment steal the money instead. Mechanics pay off their sergeants. Sergeants pay off lieutenants. Lieutenants pay off captains… and on up the chain. All the way to the top. And then they all lied about it.
So, let’s invade! Two weeks, tops! But. Half the bombs and missiles are duds. Tires fall apart. No food. No gasoline. No bullets. Lousy tanks. One hit, tank goes boom! Airplanes fall out of sky. Now Russia losing. Russia doubles down. More dead Russians. More dead Ukrainians. More wrecked stuff.
TWO QUESTIONS: A certain former President claims he warned leaders of Russia and China that if they invaded Ukraine or Taiwan, respectively, he would immediately bomb Moscow and Beijing.
Q1: Do you think the former President made these threats?
Q2: If the former President had made the threat, do you think would Russia and China take it seriously?
You can easily multiply the examples offered here. Again and again our senses are assaulted with arguments, images, reasons, and acts which seem stark, staring madness. What explains this? How can we understand what is happening, so that we can remedy the problems and move ahead?
The First Basic Law Of Human Stupidity
Always And Inevitably Everyone Underestimates The Number Of Stupid Individuals In Circulation.
Carlo M. Cipolla, University of California, Berkley, 1987
As a middle-class person, don’t you do your best to attain ambitious goals? Wouldn’t you like to have a comfortable retirement? Don’t you try to make situations better for yourself and others, too? Are you against sharing your good fortune with others? With your family?
And yet, try as you might, reality kicks you hard. As Mike Tyson said, “Everybody has a plan, until he gets punched in the mouth.” Is it a ridiculous idea to think you are surrounded by stupid people? Cipolla challenges you to ask yourself whether the following has happened to you, again and again:
a) people whom [you] had once judged rational and intelligent turn out to be unashamedly stupid.
b) day after day, with unceasing monotony, [you are] harassed in [your] activities by stupid individuals who appear suddenly and unexpectedly in the most inconvenient places and at the most improbable moments.
You have encountered these frustrations so often, you no longer notice. You have become used to outrageous levels of stupidity that now threaten our existence as a free people and, indeed, the life of humanity on this planet. How many stupid people are there? Any estimate would be too low. Your good faith and belief that others operate as you do blinds you to the overwhelming stupidity you encounter daily.
The Second Basic Law Of Human Stupidity
The Probability That A Certain Person Will Be Stupid Is Independent Of Any Other Characteristic Of That Person.
Id.
The “80/20 Rule” or Pareto Distribution is a generally accepted observation about humanity. The 80/20 Rule says that 80% of results come from 20% of causes. Twenty percent of any workforce does 80% of the work. Twenty percent of workers get 80% of the results. Twenty percent pull all the rest along. But it doesn’t stop there. Twenty percent of the 20%, get 80% of the 80% results. That means 4% of workers get 64% of the results.
This ratio holds across cultures, races, numbers, professions. The Second Law of Human Stupidity says that Stupidity has a Pareto Distribution. The size of the group doesn’t matter. Education level of the group is irrelevant. Wealth has no bearing. Stupidity is equally distributed.
Politicians are stupid. Communist dictators are stupid. And they surround themselves with other stupid people. Who tell them stupid lies. So they do stupid things.
Unfortunately, the more we rely on powerful individuals to be smart and honest, the more likely they turn out to be stupid. And dishonest. And with more power to act on their dishonest stupidity.
Think about one of your children. You make think your child is not so bright. Or, you make think your child is the smartest person you have ever met. Your opinion does not matter. Now imagine that your child was a habitual drug user. And paid other people to have sex. And took pictures of himself having sex and doing drugs. Imagine further that your child approached rich foreigners and offered to intercede with you, to arrange dinner for them with you, or perhaps to play a round of golf with you. And your child would try to get those rich foreigners to pay your child millions of dollars for your “friendship.”
Is it crazy to think your child would fail? Who in their right mind would pay $20, let alone millions to make your acquaintance? Nobody. Your child would be laughed out of the room.
Now imagine that you are a prominent, national politician. You are stupid. You lied about your family history and athletic ability. You lied about your dead wife’s fatal car accident. And your law school experience. You lied so much, you had to drop out of running for President. But you got over that. And now you have power. And you want money. More money. Much more money. You also have a stupid child who does drugs and pays for sex. Now those foreigners are standing in line, checkbooks in hand.
The Second Basic Law of Human Stupidity holds that stupidity is equally spread through the population. Maybe so. But you have to get up in the morning, deliver value, and get paid. You cannot spend the day getting high, paying for sex, and cashing foreigners’ checks.
Do you have teams of highly-paid professionals covering for your every gaffe and blunder? If you say something incredibly stupid, will squads of public relations experts send out tweets, press releases, emails, TikToks and whatever else to explain away your obvious dementia?
We middle class folks may be stupid in the same proportions as politicians or rich folks, but we cannot get away with it. Consequences for us are real. Like months of solitary confinement after being waved through a building by police officers, staying between the velvet ropes. Getting the same treatment as those who actually assaulted and injured 56 police officers. Will their charges be dismissed like those who rampaged through the streets of D.C. and other major American cities, firebombing police stations, federal buildings, and other folks’ property?
Plus, our stupidity does not wreck economies, or spike teen suicide rates, or invade other countries. Our stupidity does not wipe out years of saving through hyperinflation. Middle class stupidity does not explode home mortgage interest rates, then pretend that pricing families out of homes is a good thing.
The Third And Golden Basic Law Of Human Stupidity
A Stupid Person Is A Person Who Causes Losses To Another Person Or To A Group Of Persons While Himself Deriving No Gain And Even Possibly Incurring Losses.
Stupidity is hurting others without helping yourself and sometimes even hurting yourself.
Is it reasonable that someone would hurt others and themselves at the same time? Or that they would hurt others with no selfish benefit? It makes no sense. That is why we rational people call that behavior stupid.
There are two more Basic Laws of Human Stupidity that we will discuss next week, stay tuned!
The Fourth Basic Law Of Human Stupidity
Non-Stupid People Always Underestimate The Damaging Power Of Stupid Individuals. In Particular Non-Stupid People Constantly Forget That At All Times And Places And Under Any Circumstances To Deal And/Or Associate With Stupid People Always Turns Out To Be A Costly Mistake.
The Fifth Basic Law Of Human Stupidity
A Stupid Person Is The Most Dangerous Type Of Person
Traditional Planning Is Stupid Planning
Traditional Planning Is Dangerous To You And Your Family
Traditional estate planning is concerned with avoiding probate, saving taxes, and dumping your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries. After you die. Nobody cares what happens to you while you are alive. How does that help anyone? Stupid.
Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long-term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.
Is it surprising that thousands of recreation properties: cottages, cabins, hunting land, are lost to pay for long- term care? Why is your estate planner hurting you and your family? It is evil intent? Or stupidity?
LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for. Good for you. Good for your family. Good example for society.
When my mother suffered from the dementia which led to her death, over 10 years ago, their estate plan preserved their lifesavings. Mom’s months in the nursing home did not mean Dad’s impoverishment. Dad spent the last years with security and peace of mind.
Is Now A Bad Time For A Real Solution?
Perhaps you think you already have an answer to this problem. Maybe you do not see this as a problem at all. It is possible that you do not believe in the passage of time or its effects on you.
Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family? Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?
Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.
The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?
NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.
Get Information Now.
(800) 317-2812
Are Future Generations Counting On You?
BlogWe had a wish list. A bit of calm. Some basic decency. Dignity. A modicum of competence. Peaceful progress. Contained inflation. Continued defeat of unprecedented pandemic. Permission for middle-class America to restore the best economy in history. Demolish barriers. Uplift for regular folks. Normalcy. World peace. Not all were deceived. Still, we trusted those with “wealth and taste.”
What did we get? What do you see when you look around? Happy now?
Home mortgage interest rates explode. Supermarket necessities skyrocket. Gasoline gone wild. Inflation at 40 year highs, as far as the eye can see. War in Europe. Threats of nuclear war. Government policy undermines working Americans with floods of cheap labor. Credentialed experts of “wealth and taste” splintering America into selfish, shattered, hostile factions. As government policy. Walt Disney died over 50 years ago; now his company refuses even to say “Boys and Girls.” Wall Street money competes with young families, pricing homeownership out of sight. American Dream crushed: a nation of renters, not owners. Weak, grifting politicians. Squandered respect, phone calls refused. Money, power, and information piled up by the few “of wealth and taste.” Is what’s puzzling you the nature of their game?
Honest people lie sometimes. You’re embarrassed for it, fess up, apologize, make amends. You lose credibility and fight to restore integrity. Humility, forgiveness, kindness, redemption. Human weakness accepted and acknowledged. Denial rejected. Virtue vindicated.
Ever catch a liar in a lie? Stand by for a volcanic eruption of words, explanations, limited admissions, diversion of blame, insistence that there was really no lie at all. After years of deceitful denial, major media are forced to admit the authenticity of a laptop, one of several, containing genuine evidence of corruption at the highest levels of our national government. Videos of drug-fueled debauchery, emails of corrupt deals, military encryption codes, it is all there. Any regret? Apology? Amends? No. Instead, the habitual liar’s halting, reluctant, misleading admissions of the absolutely undeniable dribble out erratically. Clutching their Pulitzer Prizes for peddling prevarications, they spin new lies to cover the old. Integrity is a joke. To them.
Good Deeds Should Have Good Consequences
You accepted the challenge of doing the right thing. You live a life of integrity. Responsibility. Old fashioned notions of right and wrong. It’s a free country, I can say what I want. Fundamental concepts that are under constant, violent assault. By those of “wealth and taste.” Does it make sense that those who have benefited the most from American values are the very people who are most destructive?
Your American journey has brought you American success. Not flashy nor flamboyant. Your victories have come one at a time. Modest. Measured. Step-by-step. Building brick by brick. Solid. Common sense.
Today’s turbulent reality challenges yesterday’s success. Our world has changed. We wished for respite, a break, a rest. We thought, “What could go wrong?” Seduced by falsehoods. We chose leaders. We chose poorly.
Your life’s journey goes on. With all the trials and tribulations of today. How best to continue your success? Are you opposed to sharing the achievements of your lifetime with family members in the future? Is it a bad idea to fight against the rising tide of dependence and depravity?
Thousands of families have rejected traditional estate planning. Thousands of hard-working folks, just like you, have recognized that unless you take care of yourself and your spouse, there will be nothing left for the future. Thousand of families have embraced LifePlanning™.
Traditional Estate Planning Is Death Planning
Traditional estate planning is all about what happens after you die. Traditional planning ignores long-term care. Traditional planning ignores the single greatest threat to your financial security. You are welcome to take advantage of 32 years developing, testing, and implementing practical, realistic, effective methods to secure your future. Reject traditional notions of estate planning. Traditional planning is failure planning.
LifePlanning™ means: No Poverty: You will not go broke. No Charity: Caregivers get paid. No Waste: Your gift to your family will be honored.
LifePlanning™ has always focused on preserving your lifesavings so that your lifetime of work and thrift will serve you until the very end. And then carry your legacy on to future generations. Is now a bad time for a real solution?
What Is Your Cottage?
For many families, a cherished dream is to leave a cottage, farm, or hunting property to future generations. These families know that special places, like a cottage, are unaffordable and beyond the reach of their children and grandchildren. They act to preserve and protect these special places now, so their descendants may benefit.
Not everyone has a cottage, farm, or hunting property. Not everyone can give such gifts. But everyone can do something.
When you and I grew up, it was possible to work your way through school. When you bought your first house, you haggled on the price and the bank financing came through weeks later. It was possible to raise a family without sacrificing everything to the job.
Today, a single semester of college is tens of thousands of dollars. Wall Street money prices homes out of reach. Wages today and demand for workers are higher than ever. Only prices are growing faster. Your children must run to simply stay in place.
You can help. You can make the American Dream a reality for your children, grandchildren. Not by sacrificing yourself. By smart, hard-nosed, eyes-open LifePlanning™. Not everyone has a cottage to leave their kids. But everyone can make a difference. You must take care of yourself first. Then, your options to help your family succeed open wide.
What is your Cottage? What will you leave for tomorrow’s family? Is it ridiculous to think that your family needs you now more than ever?
It does not take much to have an enormous effect. The avalanche begins with a few snowflakes. Rockslides begin with a few pebbles. A few dollars in the right place are powerful. It does not take much.
Your goal is within reach. Follow the steps to continued success. Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™.
The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?
NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.
Get Information Now.
(800) 317-2812
Why Only Rich Kids At The Lake?
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Whatever Happened To The Family Cottage/Cabin/Hunting Land?
A Little Bit Of Smarts, A Future Of Golden Memories
In uncivilized countries, such as those in Europe and Asia, new workers start out with 6 weeks of mandatory vacation (which they confusingly call “holiday”). Not including public holidays (which they call “festivals” or something). What do these folks do with such excessive periods of sloth and inactivity? Who knows? Who cares?
In America, on the other hand, we have weekends. And summer! And a week or two of “vacation”. And being Americans, we do not wish to waste this time. If Americans were as sedentary and unambitious as our global neighbors, we could spend this time in sidewalk cafés, art museums and reading. Improving our minds. Getting culture. Ghastly stuff. “Deliver us O Lord, we pray…”
Unlike our fellow travelers on Spaceship Earth, all true Americans find home improvement projects irresistible. Paint the walls. Build a deck. Plant a garden. Cut the grass. Replace, polish, fix or improve whatever has not been recently replaced, polished, fixed or improved. Pitiful, benighted foreigners have foreign places with palaces, temples, pagodas, and castles. Blessed, muscular Americans have Lowe’s, Harbor Freight, and Home Depot. Seems like an easy choice.
Sooner or later, though, all true Americans feel the restless urge to get out of Dodge, at least on the weekends. In the summertime. Or hunting season. We ran out of things to improve around the house. The deer ate all the tomato plants. It’s too hot. We were bored. So we got another house. In God’s country!
In the American Tradition, the second home could be a house. Or single wide. Perhaps a shack with no indoor plumbing or insulation. On a 40 foot lot. At the lake, at the shore, in the woods, somewhere other than here. From Idlewild in Lake County to Beaver Island in Lake Michigan, American middle class workers by the thousands filled the developments which sprang up around every lake, pond, and ditch within driving distance. And because the lake wasn’t big enough, we dug canals, dammed creeks, and otherwise expanded our Water Wonderland. Magnificent! And not only lakes, but the woods filled with weekend escapes too! Glorious!
At grandmother’s cottage many of us learned to swim and fish. Caught tadpoles and watched them grow to frogs. Searched for salamanders under logs and rocks. Got mosquito bites and poison ivy. Fell in the mud. Played in the sand. Went ice-fishing in the winter. Campfires on the shore. Remember?
Whatever happened to that place? How much would it cost to buy something similar today? Why did we get rid of it? Too bad our kids and grandkids won’t have the experiences we did. Or the memories. At least they have iPads.
The Family Cottage LifeCycle
Is it a ridiculous idea that there is a lifecycle to family cottages and recreation properties? There is a routine evolution in the relationship between family and property. Is it a bad idea to recognize the lifecycle and work with it? Are you against preserving unique opportunities for your family?
The Family Cottage Lifecycle:
1. Young Child: Best. Place. Ever!
2. Teenager: So stupid. Boring. Smells funny.
3. Young Adult: My life is busy. I have no time for that place. If I inherit a share, I’m selling it… I need money for tuition/new car/down payment/taxes…
4. Parent of Young Child: Why did we ever sell the cottage? We can’t even afford to rent at the lake today.
5. Older and Wiser: If I ever get the opportunity, I won’t make that mistake again.
We all pass through seasons in our lives. As we gain experience, some important-seeming situations will fade to nothing. Other events will become more meaningful as time goes by. Wisdom and perspective cannot be taught, only learned. Growing up is the tuition that must be paid for insight.
Are long-term decisions best left to the youngest, least- experienced folks? Is it wrong for those with proven perception and prudence to plan for the long-term? Do you sacrifice long term gain for short term pleasure?
Estate Planning Done Wrong
Two Estate Planning Blunders That Guarantee Failure
Traditional estate planning, if it has any purpose at all, dumps your leftover stuff on your beneficiaries. After you die. Don’t much care what happens to you while you are alive.
Traditional estate planning fails because the overwhelming majority of us will need long-term skilled care. 70% of us. For an average of 3 years. And we will go broke paying for it.
Is it surprising that thousands of recreation properties: cottages, cabins, hunting land, are lost to pay for long- term care?
LifePlanning™ defeats Nursing Home Poverty. Keep your stuff. Get the care you have already paid for.
LifePlanning™ means you do not have to sell the cottage and “spend down” the proceeds. Now what to do with the recreational property?
Traditional estate planning offers two options:
1. Circular Firing Squad or Last Man Standing
2. The Corporate Model or Last One Out is a Rotten Egg
Circular Firing Squad is easy, cheap and disastrous.
The Corporate Model is not easy, not cheap, and not as disastrous.
Circular Firing Squad
Putting all the kids “on the deed” is the circular firing squad. It is the easiest, cheapest, most popular, and worst possible way to leave recreation property to kids.
“Last Man Standing” is the most common Circular Firing Squad method. This involves naming all of the children or other beneficiaries as Joint Tenants with full Rights of Survivorship (JTWROS) on the deed. As joint tenants with rights of survivorship, the last living person owns the entire property. Did you plan to disinherit most of the family?
JTWROS deeds also deny Medicaid benefits to your kids and their spouses. Medicaid treats their share as if it was cash in the bank. But it is NOT cash in the bank, it is a fractional interest that is totally locked up in the property. And now your kids are disqualified from Medicaid. Whoops!
But that is not the worst. JTWROS deeds have no rules. Other than each person can fully use the property without the others’ permission. Congratulations! Your child is the new president of the Pagan Assassins Mud Wrestling Team – Australian Rules. Your child invites the entire 32 member, mixed gender team to the cottage. On the 4th of July. Your child has never paid their share of the taxes, utilities or maintenance. When the Pagan Assassins leave, the place is a bloody shambles. And there is nothing the other kids can do about it. In fact, since you signed a standard, immediately effective, JTWROS deed, there is nothing YOU can do about it. Not even dead yet and already you have lost control of your property. Did you know that when you signed on for this quick and easy solution?
Ladybird to the Rescue? You may have used a ladybird or transfer on death deed to create this living hell. Good News! At least the suffering will not begin until after you have passed on to your reward. Then the JTWROS takes effect and we are off to the races.
You may also create a Circular Firing Squad using a “Tenants in Common” deed. The TIC deed gives individual shares to each child while you retain a share. Unlike JTWROS, each child owns a piece that they can give to the grandkids. Or sell to the Pagan Assassins. Just as with JTWROS, there are no rules.
Did I mention that each Circular Firing Squad method leaves the other kids open to liability claims from the unsanctioned “activities”? And it does no good for them to abandon the property, now they can be prosecuted for housing code violations. And please! Do not get me started on that methamphetamine lab in the basement. Or the fentanyl stockpile in the shed. Oh my!
If you are going to create a Circular Firing Squad, use the TIC method. If they all hate each other enough, they can go to probate court, sue one another, and force a sale. Thanks Mom! Thanks Dad! Great planning!
The Corporate Model: Last One Out Is A Rotten Egg
Do you really want to leave stuff to the kids without any rules? Is blunt force trauma the best way to make sure your grandkids will learn how to swim at the lake? Do you want to empower one of your kids to hold the others hostage?
There are many permutations of the Corporate Model. Most use a limited liability company to hold the real estate and give shares to the kids. And there are rules. And governing provisions. And limited liability for the kids. Still have that pesky Medicaid problem with disqualification, but I guess you cannot have everything.
A general rule in a corporate structure is that minority members can sell their shares and get out. The usual Cottage LLC requires the other members to buy out the one who wants to sell. And if they do not… say hello to the Pagan Assassins.
Doesn’t seem like such a big deal. One kid wants to move to the Himalayas and commune with the mountain spirits. That kid is not planning to come back. Or perhaps another kid wants his money to buy a car. The cottage does not seem so important right now. The problem is not one of law. The buyout provisions are clear and enforceable.
The problem is that as soon as one kid wants out, so do the rest. The other kids don’t want to pay, frequently they are not able to pay. It was a blessing to have had the cottage so long, but now it must go. Over and over again, if one kid wants out, they all do. Last one out is a rotten egg!
The Corporate Model fails because it depends on the continued unanimous support of all the family members. The chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
What if there were no links? What if no individual could torpedo the entire family’s legacy?
The National Park Model: Recipe For Success
You will never go to Yosemite National Park. You have Yosemite-phobia. And a doctor’s note to prove it. Since you will never go to Yosemite, you write to the National Park Service. You demand your share of the value of Yosemite. Cash me out! Do you expect a response?
Roosevelt’s “fundamental idea” is that the national parks belong to everyone, down through the generations. The big idea is simple: Preserve it now or lose it forever.
Isn’t that the idea behind leaving the family cottage to the family? Could you afford, right now, to purchase your cottage, cabin, hunting land? Of course not! Lake Michigan properties that sold in the $20-30,000 range in the 60’s and 70’s are in the millions now. If you can find one. And the same is true of smaller lakes. The wild price inflation is less for hunting land, but still forbidding.
At the turn of the last century, a few visionaries like Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir saw that without national preservation efforts, irreplaceable natural treasures would be lost. In other countries, the rich and the royal preserved land for their own benefit. In America, we did it for all of us. And our descendants.
The National Park Model is a new way of looking at your cottage or recreational property. You are making a promise to your future family that short-term considerations will not outweigh long term goals.
The basic principles are straightforward and are familiar to anyone who has ever traveled or camped in a national, state or local park:
1. Rules for Use. Family members are stewards of a gift. Rules for use and care will be clear and must be observed. There will be an evenhanded system for allocating the available space among various family members.
2. Financial Responsibility. Budgets will be prepared, including all taxes, utilities, insurance and sinking funds for all capital improvements, including the roof, plumbing, fixtures and utilities. Present and future expenses will be identified and incorporated.
3. Nobody Rides for Free. You can’t get in a Park without a sticker to pay for the road. You can’t stay overnight without paying for your campsite. You can’t stay at the Cottage without paying the necessary charge to cover your share of the budget. In advance.
There are other provisions that allow for limited liability and definition of membership. These can all be tailored to the specific needs of individual families.
On March 1, 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant created Yellowstone as the first national park in the United States and the world. For over 150 years, Yellowstone has been preserved and available to all Americans.
Is it ridiculous to think that the same concepts that worked for Yellowstone for the last 150 years could preserve your family’s heritage too? Are you against providing that sort of experience to your children, grandchildren, and generations yet unborn?
If not you, who? If not now, when?
Is Now A Bad Time For Real Solutions?
Does anyone on this earth have all the answers? Does that mean we should give up seeking the best answers we can find? Perhaps you already have an answer to this problem. Maybe you do not see this as a problem at all. Why not find out? Is now a bad time to find out how to obtain security for yourself? And your family?
Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™ You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family?
Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?
Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.
The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?
NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.
Get Information Now. (800) 317-2812
Can Your Plan Survive A Punch In The Mouth?
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Why Do 96% Of Trust-Based Estate Plans Fail?
You Paid Good Money, Why Did You Get Such A Lousy Plan?
Your Banker, Accountant, Insurance Agent, Tax Preparer, Financial Advisor, Attorney All Know Your Trust Won’t Work… Why Aren’t They Telling You?
Is it easy to plan for the future? How can we anticipate changes in the law, changes in the rules, changes in our health? Sure, you like Von Moltke The Elder your kids now, but what if one of them [Fill- Creative Commons In-The-Blank]? Do things always turn out just as you expect?
For example, let’s say you are evil. And decide to invade a neighboring country. Seems like a good idea to you. Everybody thinks it’ll be super. Plus, everybody says the people in that neighboring country will welcome your bullets, bombs, death and destruction. They simply cannot wait for you to rescue them from independence. So you plan. Poorly. Who needs extra food rations or ammo? Not us! Instead, your invading soldiers pack their dress uniforms for a Victory Parade. What? Me worry?
What if things do not go according to your plan? What if you get punched in the mouth? What if your invasion takes days rather than hours? Weeks rather than days? Thousands of your guys dead? And your missiles are falling on maternity hospitals? Plus you have run out of gas, your vehicles break down, and your tires are falling apart? And because your military radios don’t work, you use open access civilian walkie-talkies. Your economy in shambles? Then what, Mr. Evil Invader Guy? Are you in deep trouble?
Maybe. But what if your primary geopolitical adversary is a corrupt career grifter whose primary skill is steering bribes to family members? What if this opponent was also an aw-shucks front for multinational corporations? What if he was well known for plagiarizing the homespun life stories of other politicians? Lucky you, Mr. Evil. Maybe you’ll be OK.
Of course, that is all so unrealistic and fantastical, it could never happen in real life. Ha ha. Mr. Evil invading a sovereign country in the heart of Europe… ridiculous! Bumbling, ineffective opposition who claims “I maybe Irish, but I’m not stupid!”… preposterous!
And since we are being so silly and ridiculous, let’s add a few more what-if’s, shall we? What if that grifting politician was also suffering from the onset of dementia? And what if the second-in-command was also a grifter, as well as a national embarrassment and disgrace? And what if the next backup replacement was, of course, also a grifter, but over 80 years old with mannerisms indistinguishable from public drunkenness? Absurd, of course, Mr. Evil Invader Guy would sure have to be lucky!
Too outlandish. But remember what Yogi Berra said:
What if you seek normalcy? You have had enough excitement. All you want is for things to go smoothly. Calm. Peaceful. Simple. So you plan for peace. To run things, you hire a guy who says he is a no malarkey, down-to-earth fella. And you believe him.
All of a sudden, Mr. Evil appears. Wars erupt. Prices skyrocket. Food shortages are threatened. People getting shot in the streets. Atomic war back on the table. People at each other’s throats. And all you did was hire a nice old man to take care of things for a little while so the world could simmer down. So much for your plans.
Planning is tough. No kidding. It takes a lot of work to make things work. As the Dread Pirate Roberts, a/k/a Farmboy Wesley, said to Princess Buttercup:
Why Your Trust Will Fail, Despite Your Best Laid Plans
Your trust will fail because you will not retitle your assets to the trust. That is it. Simple. In your trust binder is a memo telling you to put your stuff into the trust. You did not do it. That is how your assets will wind up in probate. That is why your trust will not avoid probate. And because you got the memo, it is all your fault.
You have heard all this before, right? Boring! So let’s go to the next level.
How Ladybird Deeds Cost Regular Folks Millions Of Dollars
How A Ladybird Deed May Cost You $68,500 Warning: This Part Is Really Confusing
Seems like lots of folks are doing ladybird deeds. Also known as “enhanced life estate” deeds. Or “transfer on death” deeds. There are many reasons to avoid ladybird deeds, except in precise circumstances. Unfortunately, many folks (including so-called elder law attorneys) think these deeds are “Medicaid-friendly.” They cannot tell you why these deeds are so “friendly”, but they will repeat the phrase endlessly.
We are not getting into all the reasons ladybird deeds are disastrous. Like a laser beam, our focus is how the misguided ladybird deed can cost a married couple $68,500. And why the hapless, hopeless person who told you to do a ladybird deed should stick to doing something else. Like drunk driver defense or something…
As you know, this blog is an infallible source of witty repartee, banter, life lessons, and easy-to-understand concepts. What follows is none of that. So do not complain to me if you keep reading.
I call this the “Pump Up the Pie” technique. If you can have half a pie, do you want a small pie or a big pie to start? I say, let us make the pie as big as possible. This technique has saved hundreds of families well over a million dollars: Background: How It Usually Goes, The $68,500 Mistake!
1. A married couple. John and Jane. (Or Jane and Jane, etc, it’s up to you.)
2. John and Jane own a house worth $137,000. Ladybird deed to the kids. Or a trust.
3. John and Jane have a checking account with $139,000.
4. John has dementia, needs skilled long-term care, checks into a Skilled Nursing Facility (“SNF”) for the duration. At $12-$15,000 per month.
5. Jane says “Oh dear! How will I pay?”
6. The Protected Spousal Amount – Minimized By Poor Planning
a. SNF social worker says, “Jane, what do you and John own?”
b. Jane: “House with ladybird deed.”
c. SNF Social Worker: “We don’t care about that. Homestead with or without ladybird deed is exempt. What else?”
d. Jane: “Checking Account with “$139,000.”
e. SNF Social Worker: “Well, John gets to keep $2000. And you can keep one-half of what is left! Your Protected Spousal Amount, that you can keep, is $68,500.”
f. Jane: “What?”
g. SNF Social Worker; “After you ‘spend down’ to $68,500, Medicaid will pay the bills.”
h. Jane; “Oh happy day! I thought I’d go bankrupt!”
i. SNF Social Worker: “Yes, happy days are here again.”
7. Jane pays the SNF the $68,500 and 4 months later, John is on Medicaid. With a dodgy roommate. And one shower a week. And laundry service that lost all his clothes, but provides others “just as good.”
8. Jane is entitled to the “Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs Allowance” and gets some of John’s income through the “Community Spouse Income Allowance” so she can make ends meet, month to month.
SUMMARY: When a married person needs Medicaid to pay for long-term care, the Community Spouse can keep one-half of the lifesavings up to a maximum of $137,000 (for 2022). Remaining lifesavings go to the facility for care of the Institutionalized Spouse (Or other spend-down.)
NOTE: Is it obvious that lots of details are being left out? Well, lots of details are being left out.
Planning Ahead: Do No Harm, Preserve Lifesavings
Here’s how we get John the Medicaid benefits that he and Jane have earned, without calamitous “spend-down” of lifesavings security.
1. A married couple. John and Jane. (Or John and John, etc, your call.)
2. John and Jane own a house worth $137,000. Deeded to their basic, vanilla, nothing special, garden variety, revocable living trust (“RLT”).
3. John and Jane have a checking account with $139,000.
4. John has dementia, needs skilled long-term care, checks into a Skilled Nursing Facility (“SNF”) for the duration. At $12-$15,000 per month.
5. Jane says “Oh dear! How will I pay?”
6. The Protected Spousal Amount – Maximized by Brilliance
a. SNF social worker says, “Jane, what do you and John own?”
b. Jane: “House that is deeded to our RLT.”
c. SNF Social Worker: “Oh no! That is terrible! When a house is deeded to an RLT, it is NOT exempt. It counts just as if it were cash! So sad… What else?”
d. Jane: “Checking Account with “$139,000.”
e. SNF Social Worker: “Well John gets to keep $2000.”
f. SNF Social Worker: “Now we have to figure out how much you can keep as your Protected Spousal Amount. Let’s see, there is $137,000 of house that counts like cash, PLUS, $137,000 of real cash. That is a total of $274,000. And you can keep one-half! You can keep $137,000.”
g. Jane: “That’s great! With a ladybird deed I could only keep $68,500.”
h. SNF Social Worker: “Yeah, but now you have to sell the house. And give us the money.”
i. Jane: “Urk!”
7. Jane has a Special Telephone Conversation with her Attorney from the parking lot:
a. Jane: “#@*^%#!!! $@!#$%!!!”
b. 20 minutes later…
c. Attorney: “Jane?”
d. Jane: “I can’t believe you cost me my house! You are Mr. Evil. -)<>(-@#$!!”
e. Attorney: “I may be Irish, but I’m not evil.”
f. Jane: “Prove it!”
g. Attorney: “Because the house was in the trust on the first day of continuous care, which is also called the Initial Asset Assessment Date, or the snapshot date, the house counted as cash.”
h. Jane: “I already know that you hellhound!”
i. Attorney: “Because the house counted as cash, your Protected Spousal Amount (aka Community Spouse Resource Allowance) is maxed out at $137,000.”
j. Jane: “Enough with the double-talk you shifty shyster. You cost me my home!”
k. Attorney: “No, not at all… because we anticipated this situation and wrote the trust and the powers of attorney as we did, you can now deed the house out of the trust to you and John.”
l. Jane: “So what?!”
m. Attorney: “So now, the house is not countable cash, it is exempt homestead once again!”
n. Jane: “You mean it just disappears?”
o. Attorney: “No, we account for the house to the Medicaid folks, but now it is exempt homestead, because it is in your name and John’s.”
p. Jane: “David, is this legal?”
q. Attorney: “Oh yes, Bridges Eligibility Manual 405 says ‘Converting an asset from one form to another of equal value is not divestment even if the new asset is exempt.’ We are converting your home from countable asset to exempt homestead.”
r. Jane: “I think you’re giving me the old razzamatazz!”
s. Attorney: “What we have done together is a plan that just saved you $68,500, because John immediately qualifies for Medicaid without any spend down.”
t. Jane: “That’s OK, I guess.”
8. What if Jane dies first?
a. Jane: “But what if I die first? Then John owns the house and all the assets and they all melt away like snowflakes on a hot griddle!”
b. Attorney: “Good point. So here’s what we do next:
i. Deed the house from John to Jane, only.
ii. Amend the RLT to provide that at Jane’s death, if John is still alive, the RLT assets, including house and money, all go to a new trust established by Jane’s will.
iii. Deed the house from Jane to the RLT, but NOW using a ladybird deed. This way the house does not actually transfer until Jane dies. This way the house does not count like cash.”
c. Jane: “Why do I have to do a new trust established by my will? That sounds like make work for you lazy lawyers!”
d. Attorney: “Honestly, I don’t know why they make us do it this way, but BEM 401 says the trust must be “established by a will” or all the assets will count against John.”
e. Jane: “But you keep saying that wills mean probate!”
f. Attorney: “Yes, there is a two-page filing in probate court to set up this trust for John, but no inventory or accounting. Simple and quick. First with experience and quality.”
g. Attorney: “Now all the family assets are held for John’s benefit.”
h. Jane: “That’s OK, I guess.”
9. What happens when John dies?
a. Jane: “So what happens to the leftovers after John dies?”
b. Attorney: “The trust in your will says to put the assets back in the original trust after John dies, so the distribution to your kids and beneficiaries stays private and out of the probate court.
c. Jane: “Well, you certainly seem to have thought of everything!”
d. Attorney: “Yes, we are amazing!”
If you are still reading this, you may be getting the idea that there’s a lot going on here. And you would be correct. The bigger question: Is it worth it?
Even If This All Works… Is It Worth It?
Imagine that your dad is a high-flying politician. That you are a crack-smoking, self-indulgent, profane, idiot who likes to video his sex and drugs and rock n roll on his laptops. And then lose various laptops at least 3-4 times. Imagine that you can break all the rules because you funnel the back channel bribe money to Pops. Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends… Money just keeps flowing…
Well, if that is you, what does $68,500 mean? Seriously, $68,500 is last night’s bar tab, not including the broken furniture or “room service.” To some people, $68,500 is not much. Certainly nothing to worry about. But what is $68,500 to Jane? John is not around to fix things. Not here to cut the grass. Or shovel the snow. Not running errands anymore. How is Jane supposed to cope? Especially with her financial security cut in half? What is $68,500 to Jane? It is making sure John gets all the care he needs… whether Medicaid will pay or not. That money is a lifetime of blood, sweat, tears, and coupon clipping. Common sense frugality that provided a comfortable way of life. That should not be sacrificed because some clown with a shingle or a shiny website can’t be bothered to learn how this stuff really works.
Can You Really Do That? Is That Legal?
Faithful readers know that we do not write the rules, we merely read them. And report the results to you. Not making stuff up. Whose fault is it that nobody told you about these things? Sure, the blame game is pretty popular with some folks. We think it is better to light one candle than curse the darkness. Let’s take it from here without the coulda, shoulda, woulda, shall we?
This “Pump Up the Pie” technique has been used by many families over the last 30 years. Saving millions. Legal? As the day is long. Approved repeatedly over the decades by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Because it is the law. Of course, applications must documented to a fare- thee-well. Hundreds of pages of audit-proof financial records. So, yes, you can really do that. If you do it correctly.
Why Would Medicaid Let You Get Away With Such Pie-Racy?
Is it piracy when the State lets you keep some of what you have earned? Is it ridiculous for you to get a bit of return on your tax dollars? Do you deserve nursing home poverty?
Of course, the State answers, “Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!” to these questions. So why do they allow us to Pump Up the Pie? Who knows? Probably because most families are not aware of it and do not get to keep as much as they should. It is not that big a deal for them. It is a big deal for you, and that is what LifePlanning™ is all about.
Is Now A Bad Time For A Real Solution?
Do you have all the answers? Maybe you do not see any problems at all. Is it possible that you do not believe in the passage of time or its effects on you?
Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family?
Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?
Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.
The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?
NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.
Get Information Now. (800) 317-2812
Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner… And Breakfast, And Lunch, And Dinner Again
BlogRead the print version
Do You Want To Go To The Nursing Home? Must You?
Do The Right Thing, Without Breaking The Bank
Who Wants Institutional Care?
Why Don’t You Move In With The Kids?
Why Don’t The Kids Move In With You?
Whom do you know who is impatiently champing at the bit to get into institutional long-term care? Which of your friends or fellow church members are eager to dump the familiar surroundings of home, cottage, farm to live with strangers? Oh boy! Middle-class America’s highest ambition: “When I get old, I want to move out of my house to live in a tiny apartment with a hot plate and no privacy!” If you do know someone like that, please introduce me. I’ve never met anyone like that myself… Over the last 32 years of this elder law stuff, met thousands of folks who feel differently, though.
Is it crazy to think that, as we get older, we are less able to care for ourselves and our surroundings? Why do you want to be pushing the lawn mower around at 87? Or shoveling snow? What’s the answer?
Traditionally, for many families, one solution has been living together. Three generations, one roof. Mary Rose O’Connor, my widowed Irish grandmother, lived with us for many years. 1700 square feet (including the attic) with 3 grown-ups and 8 kids sharing a single bathtub and one toilet. Not always easy, but it was all we knew… it had to work. How could that succeed today, with everyone’s expectations so different?
Is it surprising that different families come up with unique variations on this theme? Life-long bachelor who never left home now provides care for mom who spent the last 30 years bringing clean laundry, meat loaf and Hot Pockets™ to the basement. Single working woman moves back to care for dad. Grandma moves in with her married kid. And the kid’s kids. And their dog. Folks sell home/farm/cottage, build “in-law” apartment at the favorite kid’s home.
Are these arrangements ideal? Do they always work? Imagine June and Ward Cleaver, now in their 80’s, moving in with Wally or the Beaver… Wouldn’t that be great! Leave It To Beaver Revisited: Life Lessons for a New Generation. Wonderful! Now imagine Eddie Haskell’s mom moving in with him… The Edge of Night, indeed.
Do you think preservation of the family home/farm/ cottage figures into these discussions? Do we keep it? Sell it? Use it? Don’t we all know that the homestead is “protected” if nursing home care is required? We have all heard that bit of misinformation, right? And what if you sell the family property outright? Might as well hand over the cash to the long-term care facility, I guess…
Besides, who will actually provide care? Mom and dad want to live on their own. They do not really want the kids to move in. Given their druthers, the kids do not want mom or dad to move in, either. Aren’t we having this conversation because we can see clearly now that there is a significant need? And, to be brutally honest, we saw this coming years ago and have avoided the conversation until now… Denial ain’t just a river in Egypt.
Doesn’t it all boil down to: How do parents and children work together to provide necessary care? How do parents and children cooperate with one another to preserve the family home/cottage/farm? As Baby Boomers gracefully glide (kicking and screaming) into their twilight years, should their accumulated wealth go to long-term care facilities or be maintained within the family?
As rampant, uncontrolled inflation rips through and makes a mockery of your children’s middle-class America’s hopes and dreams, should you stand idly by? Can you?
As long-term care costs of $6000, $12,000, $25,000 per month deflate your parents’ life-savings, destroying their security and introducing them to nursing home poverty, should you stand idly by? Can you?
Are you opposed to finding mutually beneficial solutions to these riddles? Is it impossible to believe that we can thread this needle? It is crazy to think that you have come to the right place to get workable solutions? Would you like several more rhetorical questions?
Long-Term Care: Just The Facts, Ma’am
Can we agree on 7 basic, long-term care fundamentals?
1. Long-term care is crazy expensive.
2. 70% of folks will need an average of 3 years of skilled long-term care.
3. Long-term care makes middle-class America broke.
4. When middle-class Americans go broke, Medicaid pays for long-term care.
5. Your taxes already paid for your long-term care through Medicaid.
6. Just as with Social Security and Medicare, you should not have to go broke to get some pay back on the tax dollars you paid in.
7. Despite what “they” say, your homestead is at risk. The Child Caregiver Exception
Is it possible to save the homestead for caregiving children? Here’s what the Bridges Eligibility Manual 405, pp 10-11 (1-1-2022) says:
It is not divestment to transfer a homestead to the client’s:
* * *
• Child age 21 or over who:
Lived in the homestead for at least two years immediately before the client’s admission to LTC or waiver approval (BEM 106), and
Provided care that would otherwise have required LTC or waiver services (BEM 106), as documented by a physician’s (M.D. or D.O.) statement.
In other words, Medicaid has no problem with you giving the house to your kid who lived with and cared for you for twenty-four (24) months. Providing skilled care type services. Provided you have a doctor’s letter. Who knew? (We did!) And now you do too.
Easy Case: Kid Cares For Parent At Parent’s Home
1. Dad with dementia.
2. One hundred and ten pound Mom cares for two hundred and fifteen pound Dad. Dementia increasing. Mom no longer spring chicken.
3. Concerned Kid moves home to help. Kid changes drivers license, voter registration, tax address. Kid provides care that would otherwise have required long-term care or waiver services.
4. Dad stays out of nursing home. Doctor documents.
5. Two years and one month later. Dementia worse than ever. Dad must get residential nursing home care. Other requirements met.
6. Mom deeds homestead to Concerned Kid.
7. Medicaid says, “OK! No penalty.”
Hard Case: Parent Sells Home, Moves In With Kid
Fact: When one spouse cares for the other, the caregiver spouse dies first 40-50% of the time.
1. Dad with dementia.
2. Caregiver Mom dies first.
3. Dad moves in with Concerned Kid and family at their house.
4. Dad sells homestead. Has much cash.
5. Dad buys a full or partial interest in Concerned Kid’s home with Dad’s home sale cash. This full or partial interest is now Dad’s homestead.
6. Kid provides care that would otherwise have required long-term care or waiver services.
7. Dad stays out of nursing home. Doctor documents.
8. Two years and one month later. Dementia worse than ever. Dad must get residential nursing home care. Other requirements met.
9. Using appropriate Financial Power of Attorney with necessary provisions, Dad deeds Kid’s house back to Kid.
10. Medicaid says, “OK! No penalty.”
Can You Really Do That? Is That Legal?
Faithful readers know that The Elder Law Reporter does not write the rules, we merely read them. And report the results to you. Not making stuff up. Whose fault is it that nobody told you about these things? Sure, the blame game is pretty popular with some folks. We think it is better to light one candle than curse the darkness. Let’s take it from here without the coulda, shoulda, woulda, shall we?
This “Child Caregiver Exception” has been used by many families over the last 30 years. Preserving homes, farms, cottages, cabins. Legal? As the day is long. Approved repeatedly over the decades by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Because it is the law. Of course, applications must documented to a fare-thee-well. Hundreds of pages of audit-proof financial records. So, yes, you can really do that. If you do it correctly.
Why Would Medicaid Let You Get Away With Such Piracy?
Is it piracy when the State lets you keep some of what you have earned? Is it ridiculous for you to get a bit of return on your tax dollars? Do you deserve nursing home poverty?
Of course, the State answers, “Yes, yes, a thousand times yes!” to these questions. So why do they allow the Child Caregiver Exception? Somebody once said, “Follow the money.” Let’s consider. If Concerned Kids are caring for Mom and Dad at home, then Medicaid is not paying for Mom and Dad to be in a long-term care facility. Who is saving money now?
Everybody wins. The State avoids years of paying for nursing home care. Mom and Dad get to stay home. Kids get to inherit the family home, farm, cottage. And family bonds are strengthened. Gee, how’d that happen? LifePlanning™ that’s how.
Is Now A Bad Time For A Real Solution?
Do you have all the answers? Maybe you do not see any problems at all. Is it possible that you do not believe in the passage of time or its effects on you?
Peace of mind and financial security are waiting for everyone who practices LifePlanning™. You know that peace only begins with financial security. Are legal documents the most important? Is avoiding probate the best you can do for yourself or your loved ones? Is family about inheritance? Or are these things only significant to support the foundation of your family?
Do you think finding the best care is easy? Do you want to get lost in the overwhelming flood of claims and promises? Or would you like straight answers?
Well, here you are. Now you know. No excuses. Get the information, insight, inspiration. It is your turn. Ignore the message? Invite poverty? Or get the freely offered information. To make wise decisions. For you. For your loved ones.
The LifePlan™ Workshop has been the first step on the path to security and peace for thousands of families. Why not your family?
NO POVERTY. NO CHARITY. NO WASTE.
It is not chance. It is choice. Your choice.
Get Information Now.
(800) 317-2812