Tax Rules You Must Know When Using Trusts (Medicaid Planning or Otherwise)
Creating trusts for estate planning and Medicaid planning is an essential tool for every estate planning and elder law attorney. However, any time a trust is created, there are income tax consequences that could be both unexpected and detrimental to the client’s overall financial picture.
Robert A. Mason, JD, CELA, CAP is owner of Mason Law, PC, of Asheboro and Charlotte, North Carolina, a firm devoted exclusively to legal issues involving estate planning, the elderly, the disabled and asset protection planning.
Bob also is the creator and developer of TrustChimp, a trusts and tax learning resource for elder law attorneys and other financial professionals. Through TrustChimp Bob conducts intensive three day seminars throughout the country for attorneys mastering advanced Public Benefits, Trusts, and Tax issues. Better yet, those materials are available as an online “at home or office” course called “The BaseCamp.”
Letha Sgritta McDowell currently serves as InterActive Legal’s Director of Legal Strategy. Letha is an ACTEC Fellow and past president of NAELA, and practices law with The McDowell Law Group. She is licensed to practice in both North Carolina and Virginia and has been an elder law and special needs planning attorney for more than 15 Years. Letha is a Certified Elder Law Attorney, is Board Certified as a specialist in Elder Law by the North Carolina State Bar Board of Legal Specialization, and is accredited to prepare and prosecute claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
At InterActive Legal, Letha provides insight into how modern law firms run in order to assist in strategic decisions about how to maximize the tools provided by InterActive Legal, as well as what tools may be useful for practitioners in the future. In addition, Letha contributes to the elder law and special needs planning content in the software and to the InterActive Legal practice management and development tools.
Letha is a member of the Board of Directors for the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and the North Carolina Bar Association’s Elder Law and Estate Planning Sections, serves as Vice President of the Elder Law Specialization Committee for the North Carolina State Bar, and serves as an active mentor to a number of young attorneys through the North Carolina Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. She is a 2001 graduate of Purdue University and a 2004 graduate of the University of Maine School of Law.