Do-it-yourself Estate Planning

According to a recent study, a large amount of people in need of legal assistance use the Internet instead of consulting with an attorney.

But why?

The internet provides a faster, easier and lets not forget FREE way to search for legal advice. Unfortunately, the Web makes searching so easy that it convinces people into believing they can actually do their own estate planning or handle their own legal issues.

Websites such as LegalZoom and others serve to reinforce this mistaken belief. The reality is drafting your own estate plan is like doing your own root canal surgery.

Do-it-yourself Medicaid Planning

When it comes to planning for long-term care and how to pay for it without  going broke, some people believe they can do it themselves by simply  searching  the internet. Without training and experience doing your long-term  care  planning is extremely risky and can result in your family going broke  paying for  care.

We compared doing your own estate planning to root canal surgery, well  doing  your own Medicaid Planning is like doing your own brain surgery.

With the risk so high, its hard to believe some people actually put their home  and their life-time savings at risk by trying to do it themselves.

Don’t end up losing substantially more than modest professional fee by trying to do Medicaid Planning yourself or by consulting with someone who lacks the requisite expertise.

Here Are Twenty Medicaid Mistakes

1. Going in it alone, doing it yourself
2. Failing to pre-plan
3. Letting the nursing home submit the Medicaid application
4. Assuming Medicaid caseworkers will help with planning
5. Submitting a Medicaid application “just to see it you qualify”
6. Comparing your case to what was done in someone else’s situation
7. Relying on the advice of friends, neighbors, etc.
8. NOT consulting an attorney who specialize in Medicaid Law
9. Thinking it’s too late to plan, when it’s almost never too late
10. Submitting a Medicaid application too early, even by one day
11. Assuming that your living trust will protect your assets from Medicaid
12. Assuming that your existing annuity will protect your assets from Medicaid
13. Attempting to hide assets or conveniently “forgetting” about them
14. Giving away assets without knowing the consequences
15. Not considering the consequences of financial transactions
16. Ignoring the safe harbors created by Congress
17. Failing to take advantage of protections for the spouse for a nursing home resident
18. Not taking advantage of the allowable spend-down rules
19. Failing to properly prepare for estate recovery
20. Stopping planning after approval of the Medicaid application

And an additional bonus one: Failure to know that what works in other states may not work in your state.

Make sure you do the smart thing and let a professional with experience do your planning. Whether it is Medicaid or Estate Planning, protect your family and do it the right way.