December 2016

CunninghamLegal – The Living Trust Lawyers CunninghamLegal has just released it’s January 2017 Seminar Schedule and the first few weeks of the year are jam-packed with valuable, free education on Estate Planning, Living Trusts and Medi-Cal. Learn how: • Your Living Trust may fail to protect your valuable IRAs (401ks, Roth, 403(b)). • Your Living Trust may fail to protect your...

CunninghamLegal – The Living Trust Lawyers When Nordman, Cormany, Hair & Compton closed its doors in 2013, hundreds of estate planning files were left without a home. In June 2016, CunninghamLegal was entrusted with these files, and is currently in the process of letting the owners of the original documents know about the transfer. If you or someone you know is looking for original...

CunninghamLegal – The Living Trust Lawyers Case Analysis, by Jim Cunningham: When writing a trust that contains a spendthrift provision, a client should consider using a trust protector as well as being able to decant the trust. This means that the trust protector can move the trust site out of the state of California and create a new trust in a jurisdiction that does not permit invasion...

CunninghamLegal – The Living Trust Lawyers I often tell clients to consider a living trust like a box with instructions written on the side.  Assets, including real estate, bank accounts and brokerage accounts are put into the box.  The writing on the side of the box instructs a person (called the “Trustee”) what to do with the items in the box after someone dies.  Assets are “put” into...

CunninghamLegal – The Living Trust Lawyers This year, Governor Brown signed into law SB 833 which will bring major changes to Medi-Cal estate recovery laws beginning January 1, 2017. Generally speaking, the state is required to seek reimbursement for Medi-Cal benefits paid out to an individual over age 55 or to an individual of any age who is an inpatient in a nursing facility. Federal...

CunninghamLegal – The Living Trust Lawyers Planning for Incapacity “I’d like to do a power of attorney for my mother who has dementia.”  This is the type of request that I sometimes receive from a prospective client calling our office.  In these cases, a conservatorship is the only option.  An estate plan is not just for efficiently passing on wealth to the next generation, asset...

In order to qualify for Medi-Cal, an individual must have limited income but may have unlimited assets due to the expansion of Medi-Cal under the Affordable Care Act. Medi-Cal expansion has made it easier for an increasing number of Californians to qualify for Medi-Cal. Although this is welcome news to many, it also presents an unanticipated consequence for many. Note that long term care...

Disinheriting a person it sounds easy but in practice can be difficult to accomplish. The first step is to determine whether the disinherited person is in line to inherit anything in the first place. Put it in Writing Generally speaking, if a person does not create a Will or trust prior to death or incapacity (think stroke, dementia, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s) that person’s wealth is...

Learn more about CunninghamLegal and attorney Jim Cunningham in this informative KAHI radio interview. Jim addresses the basics of estate planning, trust administration and the history of our firm.

When you think about the price of having kids, the costs that come to mind may include things like child care, camp, braces and college tuition. What probably doesn’t spring to mind are mortgages, car payments or personal loans. The reality, however, is that your bank account will likely continue to be tapped long past the day your kids turn 21. According to a 2015 Pew Research Center report,...