Yup, my MIL has an Alexa with drop-in. She has to hear it & accept the drop-in, though, do it’s not useful in our case. My SIL & her H installed cameras to monitor her in bed & in her living area.
3 Likes
We live backed up to forest land and have all those critters as well, but they eat the mice so they never make it into the house.
@ct1417, I can walk without support but want at least one bannister on stairs. I use hiking poles when walking but don’t need really need them at this point – better safe than sorry. My hotel in Rio had elevators as did every place where I had meetings. My colleagues would carry things if I needed it, but tried to carry nothing with me.
I requested wheelchair service and it was a really good call. Rio airport is huge and Miami airport is pretty large too. The guy who pushed the wheelchair dropped me off at the lounge and then picked me up in time for priority boarding. Life could be worse.
We have been seeding and idea that my colleague and I had a year ago. Today we heard that someone whom we spent a day with in London in June fleshing out the idea met with one of the major foundations and laid out our idea. The foundation guy said that it was the best idea he’d heard in five years. But, amazingly enough, the person we talked with drafted a grant proposal with her agency, another prestigious group we’d met with in June, another university and us without consulting with us. She is asking for about $3 MM. We’d be a small part and the idea is completely ours. We don’t need grant money and she mostly credits us with the idea, but it is surprising for someone to do a complete life of our idea and start a grant application without asking first.
4 Likes
Sounds underhanded, as you describe it. Annoying, if nothing else.
Bannister on stairs is definitely a good idea, as is the wheelchair escort in the airports. Hope your return is smooth.
She does not have a pull-up bar but I will ask if that is a possiblity.
And yes, it seems a bit weird. But one of my team members who is used to creating/promoting big ideas says that when you have the right idea, you get all sorts of enthusiasm and people want to be part of it. The trick is to control the narrative and channel other people’s embrace of the idea in the right direction. He also has a long, trusting relationship with her (although he was quite surprised as well that she did not consult him first).
2 Likes
Of all the adaptations to my mother’s house, the pull-up bar for the bed was the easiest, least expensive & immediately appreciated. Oh, night lights were easy also.
Glad to hear that your team member is content with the process.
3 Likes
Yesterday my husband accompanied his mom to the lawyers.
My in-laws have an irrevocable trust. I don’t actually understand but it’s doesn’t start until one spouse is in skilled nursing care to protect assets for the other spouse.
There is a spend down phase. The in-laws won’t have to invoke the trust because there’s enough money to pay. If their assets get under a threshold, then the trust would be set in motion. That won’t ever happen fyi, they aren’t going to get under the threshold unless there’s a similar stock market crash of 1929, which is very unlikely. They are also going to change their investments from what I was told to something very conservative.
That’s how my husband explained it.
They also switched around some wording on the will and trust since my fil can no longer make informed decisions. My husband was always financial POA, I’m thinking they took his dad’s name off and inserted my husband.
Sounds like the meeting went well, my mil was happy. I’m glad it worked out and that my husband is feeling good about everything.
We talked about trusts earlier so I thought I would share what we found out. Sounds like you can protect some assets but if you have enough, you’ll have to pay 
If I’m completely wrong, then I don’t understand any of it!
6 Likes
Not an expert in this by any means, but my understanding is there is a five year claw back period when one becomes eligible for Medicaid, so the assets need to be put into to trust 5 years prior if they are going to be excluded.
So I don’t understand how activating the trust when someone enters the nursing home is going to be helpful, unless you are planning for a longer than 5 year stay.
What an I missing? 
2 Likes
Trusts can have a lot of purposes, beyond just shielding assets from Medicaid. In this case though, sounds like they are talking about a status change on an existing trust.
When we were researching, there was suggestion for a trust that was revokable until the first spouse dies (or maybe also included incapacity?), then automatically becomes an irrevocable trust for the survivor.
I’m missing things also. If anyone knows, I’m all ears.
This is an elder law firm, the nursing home says they deal with them all the time. We went to one of their seminars and this is what they claim.
The trust was set up at least 10 years ago, I think it was closer to 15.
From what my understanding is, assets are put into the trust when it’s written up but not enabled until one spouse goes into a care facility that accepts Medicaid.
I’m happy that there is enough money to pay and this nuclear so to speak option does not have to be used.
2 Likes
that’s a typical marital trust or A/B trust; it goes by different names. When the first spouse passes, half of the revocable trust become irrevocable with its own tax ID (for that spouse’s heirs), but surviving spouse can spend down those earnings and assets if necessary to live. The Survivor Spouse half trust gets its own tax ID and is revocable until death of the surviving spouse.
Or, at least that’s how my folks’ trust worked. They were common back when the estate tax kicked in at $1-2m.
3 Likes
My parents had separate living trusts. They each had a local to the time bank as co-trustee. When Dad passed, his trust automatically became irrevocable with brother and myself as beneficiaries and Mom getting all the income. When Mom passed, her trust became irrevocable. That local bank was still a trustee but it had been many years since anyone lived in that town. We then had to evenly split and transfer Dad’s trust assets, and transfer Mom’s assets to her estate then to us, and get rid of that trustee. Who would have been very happy to stay with us! Brother (a former banker) was working so I took most of the responsibility for figuring out what we had to do. My goal was to get it done so we only needed one year of death tax returns and we did manage that.
But no matter, please be sure there’s something in writing! A good friend of husband passed earlier this year with no will. No spouse, children, parents, or siblings. Husband and a couple of other friends were able to handle the funeral. But there turned out to be multiple cousins, long estranged from friend and from each other to some extent. Husband was only aware of one or two of them, and friend dated back from high school days. No one had any authority to deal with the estate, and the state had to be involved. It’s still not settled to any extent.
And this friend was husband’s broker and financial advisor! I never much liked him, may his memory be a blessing. 
4 Likes
My parents had an A/B trust in WI. Dad died in 1995 and mom died in 2010. It worked as intended.
3 Likes
deleted
not sure I understand the question. Are you asking if children beneficiaries should also be a trustee when the last Grantor (parents) dies? The answer is yes, it is common for adult children to be the Trustee of their parent’s trust, even when they are also a beneficiary.
(Assumes that at the adult child is responsible, and not a special needs, or someone who has other issues, such as gambling, drugs,…)
OTOH, you might want a third party Trustee until the age of 25 or 30 of the children…
Depends on why you established the Trust in the first place. A Trust helps avoid Probate, but probate in some states is simple, so no need to avoid. Or, you might want a trust to provide for a special needs child long after you are gone.
I think we paid around $10k for a will, HCPs, POAs, two trusts, and the costs of transferring 6 properties into the trusts.
And it is so important to associate properties and assets with a trust. Otherwise it serves no purpose. I’ve heard that some people meant to get around to that “step 2” but procrastinate… never get it done.
2 Likes
I just looked. $3300 for our will and trust. Just did it this year
We have a very uncomplicated financial situation
2 Likes
We paid $1500 for our estate plan but I had a relationship with the attorney. Wills, POAs, AMDs, two trusts. I previously worked for an estate planning attorney who charged anywhere from $3500 to $10k for clients. I think the local average was around $3k.
2 Likes
Can you explain the need for more than one trust? Was one primarily for properties?