Author: Lockhart Gardner

CunninghamLegal – The Living Trust Lawyers Ever hear this, “Don’t Settle,” or better yet, “Never Settle!” ?  These may be wise words to follow in certain aspects of your life, but what about your legal life, or specifically, your inheritance? After a person dies and their estate is being administered, unforeseen circumstances can arise that affect distribution of the estate.  Such...

CunninghamLegal – The Living Trust Lawyers Jim Cunningham is certified as a Legal Specialist in Estate Planning, Trust, and Probate Law by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization. He is an attorney at CunninghamLegal in Auburn, and Mr. Cunningham has exclusively focused on estate, trust, and probate-related cases since 2001. Jim enjoys assisting clients by delivering...

CunninghamLegal – The Living Trust Lawyers The year 2017 is bringing changes to the estate and gift tax exemption, the annual exclusion as well as a possible repeal of the estate tax due to President Trump and a Republican majority in Congress. The estate and gift tax exemption is increasing this year as expected. As a refresher, the estate and gift tax is a tax on the transfer of assets...

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...