Matt Donald Joins Lawyers With Purpose as Director of VA Services

September 11, 2017

by David Zumpano with No Comment VA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Denise Hash
Chief Operating Officer
dhash@lawyerswithpurpose.com
(877) 299-0326 ext. 5445

September 11, 2017

Headline:
Matt Donald joins Lawyers With Purpose as Director of VA Services

Copy:
NEW HARTFORD, NY — Attorney Matt Donald has been named Director of VA Services at Lawyers With Purpose. Donald will oversee the technical support and educational services LWP provides to its member attorneys who focus on Veterans Benefits, Medicaid Planning and Elder Law.

"As a veteran himself, Matt brings unique insight into the challenges veterans face in obtaining assistance for expensive long-term care," said Denise Hash, Chief Operating Officer for LWP. "We are thrilled to have him directing our VA team and sharing his perspective with our member attorneys."

Donald served in the army for 23 years, rising to the rank of Major. An attorney since 2012, he practices primarily in Estate Planning with a heavy focus on Elder Law, specifically Medicaid and Veterans Pension Benefits. Donald is a sought-after speaker and frequently hosts educational seminars for both the general public and private groups on a variety of estate planning topics.

Lawyers With Purpose is dedicated to helping attorneys build purpose-driven practices that strike a balance between professional success and personal satisfaction. The company provides state-of-the-art drafting software, hands-on coaching and team training, and unsurpassed legal/technical learning opportunities both online and in-person. Visit www.lawyerswithpurpose.com to learn more.

Bigstock-Disabled-Athlete-With-The-Whee-85935989

I’m Disabled, Not Incompetent … Why Can’t I Establish My Own Trust?

October 4, 2016

by David Zumpano with 2 Comments Asset Protection Legal Technical SNT

Special needs trusts are an important tool in an elder care attorney’s toolbox. Established correctly, SNTs allow a person to qualify for public benefits such as Medicaid or SSI while maintaining assets in a trust to supplement the funds provided by such programs. First-party SNTs are established with funds that belong to the beneficiary. By placing the assets into a first-party SNT, the beneficiary can reduce his or her resource level to below the $2,000 required by Medicaid and SSI to qualify for benefits. Unlike SNTs established with third-party funds, a first-party SNT will include a government payback provision. Often, competent adults who have a physical injury or disease will want to establish first-party SNTs, with the appropriate government lien, for themselves.

Since the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, it has been a legal requirement that first-party special needs trusts be established by a parent, grandparent, guardian or court. This requirement has caused some issue for competent disabled adults who wish to establish their own trusts, and it is in direct conflict with the pooled trust. Pooled trusts, which are special needs trusts run by a non-profit third party for a pool of beneficiaries who place their own funds in the trust, were permitted by Congress in 1993 as well. Because of these issues, the Special Needs Trust Fairness Act was resubmitted to Congress in 2015 asking for a law allowing competent disabled adults to establish first-party SNTs for themselves.

Currently, the act has passed the Senate and is now under consideration by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. As an issue of policy, it is highly likely the bill will pass a vote in the full House as well. Passing this bill will free up court time and resources and cut down on unnecessary costs for disabled adults. It will also offer us, as elder care attorneys, another option to provide clients who are receiving benefits and who inherit or are awarded a lump sum of money over $2,000. Imagine the convenience to our disabled clients of establishing their own trusts, picking their own trustees and having funds readily available for the remainder of their lifetimes to supplement their SSI benefits without the necessity of court intervention.

You can follow the progress of the bill on Congress.gov or contact your own representative to establish your support as an elder care professional by referencing H.R.670 – Special Needs Trust Fairness Act of 2015. We will keep you updated at LWP as the bill continues to move forward becoming law and providing an exciting new opportunity for our clients!

If you would like to learn more about our Client Centered Software click here and we'll schedule you a live demo!

Kimberly M. Brannon, Esq., Legal-Technical and Software Trainer

Bigstock-One-Two-Three-Numbers-On-Dice--36582055

3 Easy Steps To Consistent Cash Flow

September 19, 2016

by David Zumpano with No Comment Uncategorized

Did you know successful law practice comes down to knowing your primary colors? I've had the privilege of working with estate planning lawyers across America since 2000. One of the biggest struggles I find with attorneys is their understanding of how to run their law practice like a business. Many have read “The E-Myth” by Michael Gerber, but few have implemented it. I was first introduced to “The E-Myth” in 2000, but after reading it I did what few others do: I began living it! I began creating systems and processes to run my practice like a business, and within a year of doing so I was cited by national industry leaders and asked to step on their stage to show their members how to run their practice like a business.

Fast forward 16 years – after having made thousands of lawyers more successful, I'm happy to say true success in your law firm business really comes down to understanding three primary colors: yellow, blue and green.

In the Lawyers with Purpose Practice Management system, all lawyers are trained to pay attention to how they spend their time. To create a successful business, you must spend your time in three keys areas. First, you must, as Michael Gerber says, work "in your business." That means you must schedule time on your calendar when you are not working on clients, marketing or paying bills, but rather are working on your business and identifying your future goals, wants and needs. In LWP we call this “yellow time.” This is the time when you are focusing on your business, building systems, streamlining work and doing things that over the long term will make you more efficient and profitable.

Second, to have a successful law firm practice, it is critically important that you market your firm. If nobody knows you're there, what services you provide or how you can help them, then no one will hire you. In Lawyers with Purpose we have three primary methodologies of marketing: wholesale, retail, and branding. Wholesale marketing is working with “allied professionals,” or those who serve your target market. The typical wholesale relationship will be with financial advisors, bankers, accountants, nursing homes, assisted-living facilities and the like. Using the Lawyers with Purpose Relationship Management System and our Synergy Meetings often leads to referrals from these allied professionals that generate revenue in excess of $10,000 within one to two weeks of your meeting them. In Lawyers with Purpose this has become known as the $10,000 breakfast.

Retail marketing is also important and is your way to identify yourself in the marketplace so people know where to find you when they need you. Chet Holmes International did a multimillion-dollar study that identified an interesting idea: At any point in time, 3 percent of the people need what you're selling right now, and there's another 7 percent who will need it in the very near future. Retail marketing is a great way to reach that 10 percent of the public, so they "know who to call" to solve the problems you fix.

Retail marketing is also important because it helps establish your brand. Branding is what people think about you when they hear your name. Branding is a product of your wholesale marketing, retail marketing and who you are with your clients. What clients experience when they work with you or your firm becomes your brand. Your brochure, logo and written material also become part of your brand. When utilizing wholesale, retail and branding methodologies within the proper context, your marketing time can be maximized.

In Lawyers with Purpose, marketing time is “blue time,” and we differentiate between light blue and dark blue marketing time. Light blue marketing time is general marketing, where you are creating relationships and getting individuals to identify whether you might be able to help them. Dark blue times are specific meetings where clients will or will not hire you. The significance of dark blue is that, although light blue time is used to generate and develop relationships, dark blue time is spent converting those relationships into active clients! Therefore, in the Lawyers with Purpose Relationship Management system and Client Enrollment System, it is essential to distinguish your light blue appointments from your dark blue appointments to ensure that you will get hired. In Lawyers with Purpose, we call getting hired our “green time.”

Anyone who took art class in elementary school learned that combining yellow and blue results in green. The same is true in your business. When you work on your business (yellow time) and have an effective marketing strategy (blue time), people will hire you. Green, in the Lawyers with Purpose system, is money time. This is time in your calendar when you are working on things that generate revenue – not marketing, but rather working on client work or things that cause clients to actually write you a check.

Many lawyers’ cash flow suffers merely because they fail to get the work done. Doing timely work is essential to having consistent cash flow and profitability. In Lawyers with Purpose, one of our first priorities with members is to ensure that their time template for the week has all the necessary yellow and blue time to generate green time.

Most lawyers have all blue time and then all green time; that's why they ride a cash flow rollercoaster, , because they market, market, market, then they stop marketing to get all the work done, and then by the time they get all the work done, there's no more work and they have to go out and market again. This leads to inconsistent cash flow. The Lawyers with Purpose cash flow calendaring system is color-coded to ensure that not only you but your entire team utilizes yellow time, blue time and green time sufficiently to ensure that your cash flow is consistent and you operate your firm like a business. Our members have said it is the most empowering thing they've experienced – having consistent cash flow, being able to take vacations without worry, and having the relationships and marketing that lead to consistent cash flow. More importantly, it enables them to spend the time on their business to ensure that it continually grows to the next level.

So, do you know your primary colors? Are you living them? Come join Lawyers with Purpose in the room in Houston the week of October 26th – 28th. Click here to reserve your seat today, and let us show you how to use yellow and blue time to produce green time, so you can have the practice you've always dreamed of.

David J. Zumpano, Esq., CPA, Co-founder Lawyers With Purpose, Founder and Senior Partner of Estate Planning Law Center

Bigstock-Broken-Wedding-Rings-19863971 (1)

Does Your Trust Really Have Remarriage Protection?

September 13, 2016

by David Zumpano with One Comment Asset Protection David J. Zumpano Estate Planning Drafting Software Legal Technical

As a lawyer practicing in the elder law and estate planning industry for 25 years, I'm always intrigued by what lawyers refer to as remarriage protections. Remarriage protection relates to the provisions that one puts in a trust to ensure after a spouse dies and a surviving spouse remarries (or cohabitates) that the underlying estate plan of the deceased spouse is honored and maintained. The truth is that trust systems in the estate planning industry have little, if any, remarriage language or protections. The general protection that trust systems provide for remarriage is that if a spouse remarries, they allow you to discontinue payments of interest or principal to that spouse, and that's usually limited to the context in a family or marital trust. Wow, that's remarriage protection?

Hardly. In the Lawyers with Purpose Client Centered Software (LWP-CCS) system, there are layers of remarriage protections available to the client. First and foremost, the trust system tracks all of the benefits granted to a surviving spouse as you design the plan and import data into the trust system. Second, the trust system tracks all of the authority that you give a surviving spouse as trustee, trust protector, etc. Third, the LWP-CCS system allows you to identify what your client considers to be “remarriage.” In our default definition, the language identifies that a spouse will be deemed to be remarried after cohabiting for one night. The software also allows you to customize your own definition of remarriage, and once that definition is triggered you are then allowed to customize which of the powers or benefits that you have granted a surviving spouse will be modified or eliminated, along with any conditions for reinstatement.

For example, if a surviving spouse has been named trustee, the software knows that and asks you if you want to remove the right of the surviving spouse to be trustee upon marriage. Secondly, the trust software tracks all beneficial interests of the surviving spouse, and if you elect to have remarriage restrictions, the software will show you all the different places where the surviving spouse has retained a right to benefit from the trust. It will also ask if you want to minimize or eliminate any of those benefits individually, not collectively. That is, you can pick and choose which ones stay and which ones go.

Does this seem too good to be true? Well, it is if you have regular software, but the LWP-CCS software has been designed around the needs of the client, not the lawyers. The good news is, once you identify the needs of the client, the software will put in the necessary legal language to accomplish the objectives that you have identified for the clients. This is what being a Lawyer with Purpose means, and this is what client-centered software is all about. Don't go it alone. Let Lawyers with Purpose show you how to do real remarriage protection planning for clients.

If you aren't a Lawyers With Purpose member and are even thinking about adding estate or elder law to your existing practice, or want to make your estate/elder law practice more efficient, join us in the room in Houston this October 24th and 25th. Click here for the full agenda and to discover more of what you'll get from this program!

David J. Zumpano, Esq, CPA, Co-founder Lawyers With Purpose, Founder and Senior Partner of Estate Planning Law Center

Honoring the Chocolate Factory by Protecting our Grantors During Life and After Death

September 7, 2016

by David Zumpano with One Comment Asset Protection Systems & Processes

Unknown to most of us, Gene Wilder suffered from Alzheimer’s disease during his final years. Mr. Wilder decided early in his diagnosis not to disclose his medical condition to the world. His family quietly dealt with the pain of caregiving and memory loss in a quiet and secluded way. After Mr. Wilder’s peaceful passing in his home, which came after a family chicken dinner while he listened to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” his nephew made an official statement about his death, and then the family went back to mourning the loss of a beloved member.

As an attorney, I immediately imagined what planning must have gone into this decision. I imagine the HIPAA forms that must have been signed to make sure the medical records of someone so famous stayed under wraps. Mr. Wilder must have had a strong personal care plan with wonderfully explicit direction to direct that, when he remembered nothing, his family should have his favorite meal and listen to his favorite song as he passed amid them all.

But mostly, I imagine the moment when it could have all gone wrong from a legal perspective. I imagine that moment when a doctor or lawyer told the family that Mr. Wilder could no longer make his own decisions. I wonder how that moment went, but I will never know. There were no court hearings about Mr. Wilder’s competence or who would control his fortune. There were no tabloid articles written. So, while we will never know what Mr. Wilder chose for us not to see, I do believe one thing to be certain. Gene Wilder must have had a strong trust plan in place, with dependable trustees, a solid disability panel and a watchful trust protector.

Often when creating trust plans, attorneys focus only on who will get property, at what time and in what manner. Certainly those are important prongs of a complete plan to focus on, but they are not the only issues. A solid client-centered plan will also focus on who will fulfill each crucial role of making sure the client’s plan is carried out when it is funded, after he becomes disabled and upon his death. A trustee or successor trustee should be selected with care and thought. And, by using age restrictions, powers of appointment and remarriage restrictions, a trustee can be guided in the exact direction the grantor intended for his estate plan.

A trust protector can be appointed to offer protection to the trust estate and the beneficiaries against any law changes, trustee vacancies and/or disputes that arise in the estate. A trust protector’s ability to restate or amend a trust, appoint a trustee or settle a family dispute can eliminate the need for an expensive and public court hearing on a private family issue. Trust protectors, usually attorneys, are the perfect parties to offer their clients the security of knowing that the plan they drafted has an outside eye ready to look over and protect the intent of the original plan.

Finally, I have no doubt that Mr. Wilder’s final years would not have been as private had he not had an excellent disability panel in place. A disability panel – a group of individuals hand-picked by the grantor who will decide when he is incapacitated for purposes of being trustee of his own estate – can make a determination of incompetence. By determining the incapacity of a grantor as a group, the disability panel can eliminate the need for a court hearing to declare the incapacity of a grantor. I cannot imagine the security a hand-selected disability panel must offer to people like Mr. Wilder who know that the day they need someone to take over is fast upon them and that it can be done with no court interference or adverse action by the family.

We are fortunate at Lawyers with Purpose to have client-centered drafting software that allows us to produce documents that take into account the need for disability panels, trust protectors and all of the other practice tools listed above that might be necessary to meet a client’s goals.

I am positive that Mr. Wilder would be thankful for our ability to help clients through client-centered planning. I am certain of this because Mr. Wilder’s family spoke of why he made the decision to keep his prognosis and struggle private. He did so because he did not want the children of the world to see Willy Wonka as a sick, elderly man. I believe Willy Wonka himself best defined Mr. Wilder’s actions leading up to his death: “So shines a good deed in a weary world.”

If you want to learn more about becoming a Lawyer With Purpose, join us in Houston October 26-28 for the Tri-Annual Practice Enhancement Retreat. Click here to see the full agenda and reserve your seat now!

Kimberly M. Brannon, Esq., Legal-Technical and Software Trainer

Bigstock-Blended-Family-Word-Cloud-105173693

How Do You Plan For Blended Families?

August 24, 2016

by David Zumpano with 2 Comments David J. Zumpano Estate Planning Drafting Software Legal Technical Systems & Processes

There's a great buzzword out there in estate planning called planning for “blended families.” The term “blended families” represents individuals who are married but have previous marriages or relationships that resulted in children. One example would be a second marriage in which the husband and wife have children from a previous marriage, or one does and one doesn't. The question becomes, how do you plan for these individuals so they can provide for each other but still be confident that in the end, their children or beneficiaries will get what's legally entitled to them?

The challenge with blended family planning is that the spouses “trust each other” to carry out their wishes. The problem is, life doesn't often work out that way. After the death of one of the clients, the relationship between the surviving spouse and the deceased spouse's family tends to become more remote and diminished. As a result, over time the surviving spouse may forget or no longer wish to follow the planning as originally intended, or may no longer deem it relevant based on the new circumstances. More importantly, even if the surviving spouse did wish to follow the original plan, circumstances may occur that put the assets in danger. The surviving spouse might need a nursing home, or might face a lawsuit, or might remarry to another individual who could gain power of attorney and modify the planning after the incapacity of the original surviving spouse. There are so many complications in blended families, but there doesn't have to be.

The Lawyers with Purpose Client-Centered Software (LWP-CCS) system is designed to plan for each client’s individual needs and goals, including blended families. The LWP-CCS has extensive provisions that allow designation of particular assets, allocated and separated at the death of the first spouse for the benefit of the surviving spouse under the terms and conditions that the clients agree to. This permits the surviving spouse to continue to benefit from the deceased spouse’s assets until the conditions are met for the next stage of the planning to occur. For example, in many of our trusts, clients elect to have a trust for the surviving spouse terminate upon the spouse's remarriage or another terminating event as identified by the couple. Although this seems complicated, it's actually easy when you ask your clients. They are pretty clear on what they want. They're just looking for some guidance on how to accomplish it.

Perhaps the greatest final significance of using the LWP planning solutions for blended families is to protect the deceased grantors' assets from the surviving spouse’s unintended or unforeseen creditors and predators. This by far has had the greatest impact for my personal clients over the last 25 years of my planning for them. Unfortunately, too many lawyers today use the standard boilerplate trust, and most trust systems in the industry do not permit attorneys to do any extensive planning once prepared for blended families without expensive post-merge modifications.

That's why Lawyers with Purpose is different. Because we focus on purpose first, the software has been designed to always consider the client's needs, goals and wishes first, then the software puts in the appropriate legal language to accomplish those objectives. Although it sounds counterintuitive, it's actually easy, fun and valuable to the client. I actually have clients laughing as we design their plans; do you? If you want to learn more about how Lawyers with Purpose can help you plan for blended families in ways you never knew existed.. consider joining us for THE estate planning event not to be missed!

Member click to register here.

Non-members click to register here.

David J. Zumpano, Esq, CPA, Co-founder Lawyers With Purpose, Founder and Senior Partner of Estate Planning Law Center

Bigstock-Pupils-raising-hand-during-geo-83001707

Lessons from Braiterman

August 22, 2016

by David Zumpano with 2 Comments David J. Zumpano Estate Planning Drafting Software Legal Technical

Well, here we go again. On July 12, a New Hampshire Trial Court ruled that an irrevocable trust was an available resource. Or did it? A careful examination of the Braiterman case really comes down to three issues. The first was an imaginary stretching of the "any circumstances" provision in Medicaid law. The second was an imaginary stretching of "trustee's powers," and the third, superfluous language added by the attorney that had no legal relevance to the trust document.

I believe, however, that the superfluous language had the greatest impact on this court to find a way to make the trust assets available. The good news is that this case is neither precedent setting not universally applied. Let us take a look at the faulty (weak) holding. The crux of the court’s argument is that, under 42USC1396P(d)(3)(B), "if there are any circumstances under which proceeds from a trust could be made to or for the benefit of the applicant, then the irrevocable trust is deemed available for purposes of determining eligibility for Medicaid." Interestingly, it was clear under the trust terms that there were not any circumstances under which the payment from the trust could be made available to the beneficiary applicant. In fact, the court highlighted that the language specifically said that the trustees cannot make any distributions of income or principal to the grantor.

The court, however, focused on superfluous language in the trust stating that, if at any time during the lifetime of the grantor, the grantor could lose eligibility for benefit because of the existence of this trust, then it was the grantor's “request” that the trustee consider bringing action to terminate the trust and to distribute the trusts corpus to the beneficiaries (again, NOT the grantor). Continuing, the trust stated that the grantor “hoped” that the people who received the trust corpus would use it for her benefit. The superfluous language goes on explicitly to identify the grantor's disability, or need for income. The imaginary stretch by the court here is that, although the attorney added this language that the court hangs on, in fact, there's no legal authority to enforce it. Under most states’ laws, termination of an irrevocable trust requires the consent of not only the trustee, but also of the grantor and the residuary beneficiaries; state law determines whether an irrevocable trust can be terminated, not a trustee. The only authority granted to the trustee in this trust was to bring an action to terminate the trust and distribute it to the beneficiaries.

So there's a double faux pas here; first, there is a presumption that the trustee has the unilateral authority to terminate the trust. Second, there is an enormous leap by the court in deciding that, because the grantor added the language “hoping” for the beneficiaries to use the proceeds for her, that there in fact actually is a legal obligation or even a legal authority to consider it required, so as to make the assets declared available to the grantor. The mistake by the court here is that any access to the trust income or principal is NOT contained within the four corners of the trust, but rather is a stretch to what a beneficiary will choose to do with trust assets after receiving them (which, by the way, is no longer a trust asset!).

The court notes that in her capacity as trustee, the grantor had authority without limitation to "terminate the trust by distributing the principle and accumulating income of the trust fund if in her judgement she might lose eligibility to substantial cash benefits or medical or other services. Again, the court stretches and fills in this imaginary chasm with rationale that indicates that there's actually legal authority for the trustee to do this. In fact, the court alludes that the grantor not being named a trust beneficiary is not dispositive, and held that because there is "any circumstance" that would permit the grantor to get the proceeds, then it was countable. In this fact pattern, the court argued that, since it could be distributed to the children and there was no prohibition on the children to distribute it back to the grantor, the court could infer that there is a circumstance in which the grantor could benefit. This is troubling, as there is no basis, no background and legal support of language anywhere to support this other than the court's opinion.

So what does this case tell us? First and foremost, it affirms what we already know: that a lot of courts do not like Medicaid planning. And that's OK. Second, it tells us attorneys that adding superfluous language that does not relate to the legal provisions of the trust has absolutely no legal impact on the trust terms, but in every contrary case decided up to this point, including Braiterman, it is proven to be the words hung on by the court to disallow planning for people who engage in Medicaid planning. I have been a longtime advocate of Medicaid planning, but more importantly, proper Medicaid planning. When following the rules, individuals who give away their assets are subject to the lookback period and potential imposition of ineligibility based on any uncompensated transfers. The law anticipates this, provides for it, and has clearly stated it. The challenge here is when courts usurp the law and assume information that is not legal or based on legal principles. I fully expect this case to be overturned on appeal, but nonetheless in a state like New Hampshire, a more liberal state, anything is possible.

The good news is the Lawyers with Purpose Client Centered Software (LWP-CCS) system has specific language that would nullify the court's holding in this case. In addition, Lawyers with Purpose attorneys are trained never to add superfluous language that does not relate to the legal terms of the trust. It is when lawyers forget that trusts are legal documents and entities, much like an LLC, that we get cases such as Braiterman. For example, in an LLC operating agreement, would you allow the owners to have rights to pay their medical expenses if they went into a nursing home? Obviously it's silly, but a trust is no different; it's a separate legal entity and should be respected as such. Attorneys must ensure that all of the provisions and terms relate to authority of the trustee to administer the trust and make distributions to the intended beneficiaries, and should in no way ever suggest or provide that trust principal be available or used for the grantor if it is an irrevocable trust intending to exclude its assets from consideration for Medicaid eligibility.

Interestingly, on the same day this case was released, I was notified once again by an LWP member in Florida that the Florida Department of Medicaid upheld a Lawyers with Purpose trust that provided that the grantor was trustee and that all assets in the trust were deemed unavailable. So before we jump off any bridges based on the Braiterman case and give up our Medicaid practices, understand your jurisdictions, understand your job as the attorney and, as we focus on at Lawyers with Purpose, always be an advocate for your client using the law, and keep your superfluous language out of it.

Registration for THE estate and elder law event not to be missed is open! Grab your seat today before early bird pricing ends on September 5th. Click here to register now.

David J. Zumpano, Esq, CPA, Co-founder Lawyers With Purpose, Founder and Senior Partner of Estate Planning Law Center

Bigstock-Workshop-Word-Cloud-With-Magni-130546559

What Is A Successful Workshop? Here’s All You Need to Know…

August 17, 2016

by David Zumpano with One Comment David J. Zumpano Estate Planning Drafting Software Legal Marketing Systems & Processes

I've been working with estate planning attorneys around the United States for almost 20 years, and I am always intrigued about how excited they get when they deliver a presentation, seminar or workshop. The interesting dynamic is how pumped they get in front of a room full of people. It might surprise you to learn that such a situation is not exciting to me or to any LWP attorney, for one simple reason. We have learned that it is not the number of people in the room or your ability to speak to them that matters, but rather your ability to communicate and create relationships with them so they trust you and understand how you can help them accomplish their goals. That’s when they hire you.

Under the Lawyers with Purpose workshop system, our members are provided three different workshops, depending upon which best matches their personal objectives. We offer members the “Estate Planning Essentials” workshop, the “Seven Threats to Every Estate Plan” workshop, and the “How to Protect Your Stuff in Three Easy Steps” workshop. All three teach the same concepts and utilize similar stories, but most importantly, all connect and relate to the Estate Plan Audit™ utilized in the Vision Meeting™ with individuals who attend the workshop and opt for a meeting with you. They also delve into what estate planning is and the specific issues you want them to know (all contained in our trademarked and copyrighted workshops).

Why is this relevant? Because the excitement over the number of people in your workshop is baseless if none of them hire you. If your workshop can't show people how you can help them and explain how your solutions are relevant to them and will benefit them, then stay home with your family rather than waste the time.

So, to avoid that scenario, let’s consider the core elements of a successful workshop. First, ensure in advance that you are clear on who is registered to attend your workshop. You should also ask how each attendee heard about you; that is, what source of marketing got them to call your office (a professional relationship, a retail advertisement, or other). Second, your staff should welcome all attendees during enrollment, excite them about the workshop they're going to attend and touch on how it will offer new ideas to solve their concerns. Third, your team should follow up with attendees ahead of time and confirm attendance. Fourth, during the workshop it is essential to set the expectation up front that you will make commitments to the audience, and to make sure the audience understands that you expect them at the end of the workshop to complete the evaluation and request a meeting if they think it's appropriate. This is perhaps the most important part of the workshop – not all the education you provide, but rather the invitation for them to move forward with you at the conclusion. You must be enthusiastic and excited for them to come in and apply what they learned to their personal situation, in hopes of helping them accomplish their goals and objectives based upon what they’ve learned in the workshop. If you don't believe in yourself, why would they?

And finally, another very important element of every workshop, one in which I have found that most lawyers fail, is to follow up with the attendees to schedule the appointment. I cannot tell you how many times I've worked with attorneys who either neglected to get an evaluation at the end or got the evaluation and failed to follow up on it.

Life is busy. People don't have “free time” to just pop into a workshop, and oh, by the way, I can't wait to go see a lawyer tomorrow to talk about all this crazy stuff. For most people, their lives are busy and complicated, and they're confused. You must be the one who clarifies the confusion and shows them a simple approach for them to get their concerns solved.

That's what the Lawyers with Purpose workshop system does. In fact, we call it the Client Enrollment System™ because it's a complete process, from identifying the client's needs after their initial contact with you, to the point of their engagement with your firm. That's the significance of workshops and seminars: not the excitement of delivering them, but the excitement of actually being able to help people implement great planning solutions that protect them and their family. Contact Lawyers with Purpose today if you want to learn more about what we can bring to your estate and/or elder law practice. Just click here and give us a little information then download our membership brochure.

David J. Zumpano, Esq, CPA, Co-founder Lawyers With Purpose, Founder and Senior Partner of Estate Planning Law Center

Understanding the Child Caregiver Exemption

July 28, 2016

by David Zumpano with 2 Comments Asset Protection

As many of us are aware, the federal guidelines allow Medicaid applicants to transfer their home to a child caregiver without suffering a Medicaid penalty for the transfer. It is a transfer often attempted by families in the Medicaid application process. It is also a transfer that often fails to meet the requirements necessary for the Medicaid agency to acknowledge the transfer under the child caregiver exemption.

The federal guidelines for the transfer remain somewhat vague, declaring that each state must develop “reasonable standards … for determining eligibility for and the extent of medical assistance,” and that the individual must “fulfill the criteria established by the State in which he lives.” 42 USCA 1396a(a)(17)(A), 453 US 34. This makes it of critical importance that we look to our individual state laws for the specific guidelines necessary. It is also crucial that our clients provide the documentation necessary to prove they acted properly as a caregiver for the parent for at least two consecutive years prior to the transfer.

Generally, individual states require that the child caregiver has resided in the parent’s home for at least two consecutive years immediately preceding the institutionalization of the parent AND provided full-time care for the parent who would otherwise have required institutional care for that entire time period. This is a very specific burden to meet. Just last month, the Superior Court of New Jersey held that a transfer made to a child caregiver who had taken care of her parent for five years prior to institutionalization and met all other requirements of the rule was not valid because the parent had left the nursing home and resided with her son for five months prior to moving back to the nursing home and making the transfer to the daughter. MK v. Dep’t of Human Services, Superior Ct of NJ, Docket No. A-0790-14T3.

So, what must we ensure that our clients have in order to make the transfer? First, we as attorneys must have a clear understanding of the Medicaid guidelines in our own states. Then we need to be sure our clients obtain, and we review, the required documentation. The Medicaid Child Caregiver Exemption generally requires the following documentation.

1. Doctor’s letter

I immediately require that my clients bring me the letter from the doctor as soon as they indicate they may qualify for the exemption. I encourage them to have the doctor state all conditions that the parent suffers from, the time period the parent has suffered from those conditions, and that BUT FOR THE CARE OF THE CHILD, the period of time the parent would have required institutional care. Medicaid may, after reviewing the doctor’s letter, request medical records; however, they do not generally need to be provided without Medicaid requesting them.

2. Proof of child’s address

To qualify for the exemption, the child is required to have lived in the parent’s home for the two years IMMEDIATELY preceding the institutionalization. The fact that the child owns a home and spent part of the time there may pose an issue. Any break in living together in the parent’s home may pose issues as it did in the New Jersey case.

3. Proof of relationship

If the child has a different last name than the parent, he or she needs to be prepared to present a birth certificate in order to prove relationship. Step-children generally do not qualify for the child caregiver exemption.

4. Proof the child provided full-time care

Medicaid may also ask for the past two years of tax returns. Clients may run into an issue here if they worked during the past two years. Generally, the exemption disallows any occupation other than acting as caregiver for the parent. However, in some states, part-time work outside the home is allowed when another child was providing services, or a caregiver was hired, during that time period.

Again, the first step in successfully transferring a home under the child caregiver exemption is knowing the rules of your jurisdiction. Second, we must make sure our clients can actually provide us with the proof required to meet Medicaid’s standards. Often, it is the second prong where we run into trouble. Medicaid rules are often not malleable, and documentation must prove that each prong of the state standard is met.

If you want to learn more about Lawyers With Purpose and make sure you keep up on the latest and great in the estate and elder law arena, subscribe to our blog and we'll deliver content right to your in-box: http://blog.lawyerswithpurpose.com/

Kimberly Brannon, Technical-Legal & Software Trainer – Lawyers With Purpose

2016-06-28-Remembering-Pat-Summitt-001-681x383

Pat Summitt: Redefining Heroism in the Face of Alzheimer’s

July 18, 2016

by David Zumpano with No Comment Uncategorized

Those of you who know me well, know that I am an avid University of Georgia fan (or perhaps fanatic). I arrive at football games at 6 a.m. to set up my tent. I will stand in the 100-degree sun, downpours, 90,000-person adversarial crowds and whatever else is thrown at me to support the Red & Black.

As any true Bulldog should, I refuse to wear or own anything orange. Working for a Syracuse company owned and dominated by graduates thereof, this is not an easy feat. Kyle, our Brand Development Specialist, continually tries to present me with orange apparel, cards and business accessories I will neither use nor touch. So, until the untimely death of Patricia Summitt earlier this week, it was hard to imagine any circumstance under which I would say anything positive about any orange team, much less our bitter rival, the Big Orange of Tennessee.

But Coach Pat Summitt may have softened my perspective on that. I have watched Coach Summitt many times from the stands as she and her orange-clad teams continually dominated women’s college basketball. She appeared loud and strong, and seemed to tower with confidence over a group of women all averaging 6 feet tall and half her age.

However, I only once had the privilege of meeting Pat Summitt in person – at the 2012 National Alzheimer’s Association dinner, where she was being honored for her work for the association. There, she stayed close behind her son the entire night as he guided her through the room. When they took the stage, he held her hand, took her speech and read it. She stood silent with a look of slight discomfort and confusion. Yet there she stood on stage in Washington D.C. in front of advocates, celebrities and Congress members from every state. For me, in that moment, Patricia Summitt of Clarksville, Tennessee redefined bravery and heroism.

Coach Summitt made a conscious choice after her diagnosis to champion Alzheimer’s awareness. As she struggled with early onset and discovered the lack of information and research on the subject, it is said that she made her son promise to help her bring the awareness to the cause necessary to make change. She and her son Tyler did just that until the day she left us. She taught us that Alzheimer’s does not discriminate based on physical fitness level, race, gender, age or wealth. She showed the world that even the strongest among us with the best resources will buckle to this disease if we do not continue to fight together for a cure.

Pat Summitt once said, “It is what it is, but it will be what you make it.” Through her powerful example, Coach Summitt put Alzheimer’s on a national stage and led a growing team of advocates, caregivers, families and sufferers across our country to fight for funding, research and reform. In my mind, that will always be her greatest coaching feat. Therefore, in honor of Patricia Summitt, I will say (just this one time), GO BIG ORANGE!

If you want to learn more about becoming a Lawyers With Purpose member, join our FREE webinar on Wednesday, July 27th at 8 EST. Click here to reserve your spot today!

Kimberly Brannon, Legal-Technical & Software Trainer