Blog of The Law Offices of Daniel Timins

Disabled with Cash: When to Use ABLE Accounts

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In 2014 the federal government passed legislation allowing the creation of “Achieving a Better Life Experience” [“ABLE”] accounts. Much like Supplemental Needs Trusts, these accounts are permitted to hold funds for disabled individuals that would otherwise leave them with too much financial resources to maintain Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income [“SSI”]. The main benefits of ABLE accounts are that they are self-created and inexpensive: No legal fees, no on-going trustee commissions. The disabled individual, his family members or his Power of Attorney may create ABLE accounts, as may a Trust created by another person. And while ABLE accounts can pay for health-related expenses, any money that is used for food and shelter will not result in SSI being reduced by

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Codicils and Trust Amendments May Burn Your Estate

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Hiring an attorney has been obnoxiously expensive since the first time a guy’s donkey backing into another guy’s mud version of today’s tiny houses: You tend to want a person or document that best insures you are going to get things done your way, but good results cost a lot of money. So, it is not surprising that people prefer to change their Wills using Codicils and Trust Amendments instead of redrafting the entire original document. I have concluded this is often a mistake and now believe clients should spring for the costs of redrafting their entire document. Codicils are quick changes to existing Wills, and only modify the portions they are intended to change (and maintain the remaining contents

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Last Minutes Gifts and Transfers for 2018

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Congratulations, you made it through Christmas / Hanukkah / Kwanza, despite the fact you were seated next to your anti-vaxxer cousin who tried to explain to you in two syllable words how the earth actually is flat. All nieces and nephews have been given your gifts (likely a sweater instead of the cool toy they desperately needed to show off to fit in on the school bus), all dishes are cleaned, and all the leftovers have been thrown out unless you are a bachelor. BUT WAIT!! You haven’t wrapped up the Holidays until you make a complete drunken fool of yourself on Snapchat slurring Old Anzine (it’s pronounced “Auld Lang Syne” in Scotland for some reason) and have made the

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Requiem for Stan Lee: Superhero of the Superheroes

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As a former collector of Bronze-Age Marvel comic books, I was sad to hear of the passing of Stan Lee. As the creator or co-creator of so many comic book characters – the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Spider Man, Iron Man, the Avengers, the Uncanny X-Men, Doctor Strange, the list goes on – Lee is one of the most meaningful entertainment influencers of our era. True, Lee owed a great debt to his prolific co-creators (and arguably more talented artists), such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, but even though Lee’s style often promoted himself instead of Marvel and anyone else that made Marvel Comics the cultural juggernaut it has become, everyone from once-teenage comic collectors, to Disney executives

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