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Ask Todd: Best ways to protect your assets for your specific situation · The Financial Exchange Show

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  Speaker 1: This is Ask Todd on the Financial Exchange Radio network.
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  Speaker 1: If you have an existing estate plan or in the
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  Speaker 1: market for one, Todd Letsky is here to answer your
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  Speaker 1: questions and help you plan for a later life. Ask
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  Speaker 1: Todd is presented by Cushing and Dolan, serving Massachusetts and
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  Speaker 1: New England for more than thirty five years, helping families
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  Speaker 1: with a state and tax planning, medicaid planning, and probate law.
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  Speaker 1: Visit Cushingdolan dot com. Now here's Todd Lutsky.
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  Speaker 2: As promised, We've got Todd Lutsky with us here in
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  Speaker 2: studio for Ask Todd to answer your estate planning questions.
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  Speaker 3: This is your chance to ask those questions.
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  Speaker 2: Live on air right now, and we do have the
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  Speaker 2: phone lines open at eight eight eight to zero five
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  Speaker 2: two two six three. Again that number is eight eight
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  Speaker 2: eight two zero five two two six three.
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  Speaker 3: So this is your chance.
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  Speaker 2: If you've been thinking about getting you know as sibling
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  Speaker 2: and irrevocable trust for Christmas, here's your chance to talk
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  Speaker 2: to uh Todd and find out good idea, bad idea,
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  Speaker 2: ugly idea. But again eight eight eight two zero five
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  Speaker 2: two two six three is the number to call. Make
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  Speaker 2: sure you call early. To get in line, since we
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  Speaker 2: can usually only get through a couple of these. Mister Lutsky,
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  Speaker 2: how are you doing today?
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  Speaker 4: I'm great. Never really thought this was a Christmas present,
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  Speaker 4: but I like I like the idea. How are you doing?
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  Speaker 3: Uh? Tough day for me, I'm sure.
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  Speaker 2: Had to fire my uh fruit delivery driver this morning.
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  Speaker 4: Fruit delivery.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I had to let the man go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you.
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  Speaker 2: Know how it is, Todd. Want to talk to you
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  Speaker 2: about UH asset protection the way I see it, And
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  Speaker 2: maybe I'm wrong because you do this every day and
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  Speaker 2: I don't. There seem to be three different ways to
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  Speaker 2: deal with the cost of long term care irrevocable trusts,
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  Speaker 2: long term care insurance, and self insuring.
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  Speaker 3: Is that accurate? I would say yes, in general, Like
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  Speaker 3: you know those.
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  Speaker 4: Are I would think so. Yeah, So there are really
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  Speaker 4: only three things you can do.
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  Speaker 2: How does someone go about figuring out which is the
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  Speaker 2: right instrument for their situation?
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  Speaker 4: So, if you're thinking about irrevocable versus insurance versus self insurance, yeah,
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  Speaker 4: it's it's not just limited to this question, Chuck. I
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  Speaker 4: think it's great. I think when you talk about estate
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  Speaker 4: planning in general, where do you begin value value value,
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  Speaker 4: what's the size of your estate? How much are you worth?
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  Speaker 4: I mean, I think that's one of the first fundamental
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  Speaker 4: things you need to think about when you're doing a
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  Speaker 4: state planning. So you sit down and let's let's apply
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  Speaker 4: it to all of these. You sit down and you say,
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  Speaker 4: I need to do a state planning. Okay, do I
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  Speaker 4: need an irrevocable trust or a revocable trust? First question, well,
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  Speaker 4: how much are you worth?
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  Speaker 5: Oh?
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  Speaker 4: I'm worth ten million dollars. Okay, pretty sure. You probably
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  Speaker 4: don't need nursing home planning. Why because I'm self insured.
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  Speaker 4: I've got ten million dollars I'm generating you know, seven percent,
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  Speaker 4: that's seven hundred thousand dollars a year in income.
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  Speaker 3: I'm good.
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  Speaker 4: I can pay for the nursing home. I'm self insured,
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  Speaker 4: which also means I don't need an irrevocable medicaid trust.
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  Speaker 2: But there might be other planning needs, just not specifically
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  Speaker 2: on that end.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 4: So then you shift and you say, okay, well, then
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  Speaker 4: I'm going to go with the revocable trust. Correct, And
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  Speaker 4: then we can talk about planning from a revocable perspective.
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  Speaker 4: So very helpful there. Next, let's come back with the
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  Speaker 4: answer being well, geez Todd, I'm worth about four million,
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  Speaker 4: and you know one and a half million of that
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  Speaker 4: is my home, and I got maybe five hundred you know,
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  Speaker 4: in an IRA, I want to protect my assets from
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  Speaker 4: the nursing home. Sure, oh, you're right. So now I
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  Speaker 4: don't need the revocable trust. I need an irrevocable trust,
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  Speaker 4: and we can go down and explore that at the meeting.
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  Speaker 4: But it also makes me think that's long term care.
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  Speaker 4: I'm not self insured. Cross that off, and I know
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  Speaker 4: that I wouldn't that. I you know, I don't want
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  Speaker 4: to just I think irrevocable trust planning would be the
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  Speaker 4: other way. Let's say I'm too old, I'm seventy, I
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  Speaker 4: can't get long term care insurance, so that's out. I
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  Speaker 4: guess I'm stuck with irrevocable trust planning. I don't want
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  Speaker 4: to stay stuck with. That's a good that's a good approach, sure, right,
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  Speaker 4: So I think looking at value, a value of your
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  Speaker 4: estate is really what's going to drive not only the
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  Speaker 4: type of trust you need, but also how you might
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  Speaker 4: protect your assets from the nursing home if you get there.
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  Speaker 4: If you can insure yourself, great, I'd start you know,
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  Speaker 4: in my fifties looking for those policies because they're great,
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  Speaker 4: they do work, and you know, just got to make
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  Speaker 4: sure you can afford them.
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  Speaker 2: Talking with Todd A Lotski from Cushing and Dolan Studio.
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  Speaker 2: Line still has room on it at eight eight eight
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  Speaker 2: two zero five two two six three. That is number
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  Speaker 2: to call for you to ask Todd your estate planning
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  Speaker 2: questions live on air right now again eight eight eight
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  Speaker 2: to zero five two two six three. We're gonna take
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  Speaker 2: a quick break, but when we come back, we're gonna
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  Speaker 2: get right to your questions with Todd. That phone number
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  Speaker 2: is eight eight eight to zero five two two six three.
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  Speaker 2: Again it is eight eight eight to zero five two
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  Speaker 2: two sixty three.
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  Speaker 1: Ask Todd with Todd Lutskey every Wednesday at ten thirty
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  Speaker 1: only here on the Financial Exchange Radio Network. You're listening
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  Speaker 1: to Ask Todd with Todd Lutsky on the Financial Exchange
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  Speaker 1: Radio Network.
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  Speaker 2: All right, we got a couple of calls for you,
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  Speaker 2: mister Latsky. First in the queue is Dan in Wellesley. Dan,
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  Speaker 2: you're on with Todd.
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  Speaker 5: Hey Todd, good morning, good morning, Ah question for you.
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  Speaker 5: My brother and I had our estates done by you.
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  Speaker 5: And your firm and twenty ten. Great job, We're very comfortable.
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  Speaker 4: Well, thank you.
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  Speaker 5: We need to do some sort of an update to
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  Speaker 5: take a look at what we have. Things really haven't
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  Speaker 5: changed too much. A little real estate appreciation, a little
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  Speaker 5: debt reduction, but pretty much overall. We got everything, the
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  Speaker 5: whole package from you, and I didn't know where we
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  Speaker 5: stood fifteen years later.
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  Speaker 4: Wow, fifteen years huh?
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  Speaker 5: Who yeah?
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  Speaker 3: Good? Good?
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  Speaker 4: Well still here? That's good. A couple of things, obviously,
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  Speaker 4: I would need to ask you just a couple of questions.
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  Speaker 4: But I think in general this is great for everybody
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  Speaker 4: listening because he's doing exactly what Dan's doing, exactly what
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  Speaker 4: I would think. You know, you as other people who
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  Speaker 4: have done your estate plan, you know, you might want
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  Speaker 4: to check in once in a while and see if
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  Speaker 4: anything needs to be changed. Might not, but a check
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  Speaker 4: in couldn't hurt. So in this case, you know, for you, Dan,
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  Speaker 4: I can at least speak to that. You know, I
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  Speaker 4: forget are you married?
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  Speaker 5: AHM married my brother and I he's married. You did
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  Speaker 5: both of our estates together, because a lot of the
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  Speaker 5: real estate is combined, and we did the insurance trust
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  Speaker 5: and the gifting and all that stuff.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, So you've got revocable trusts for you and your
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  Speaker 4: brother and for your families, and you've got irrevocable gifting
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  Speaker 4: trusts done.
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  Speaker 5: Correct everything you set up for us in twenty ten,
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  Speaker 5: right to the t. So I'm not positive one hundred percent,
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  Speaker 5: but yes.
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  Speaker 4: So in this regard, how much are you and your
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  Speaker 4: wife worth today?
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  Speaker 5: Round number probably right about now around ten million, eleven million,
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  Speaker 5: with all the real estate and our share and that
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  Speaker 5: type of thing.
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  Speaker 4: So the good news is, if we've done a revocable
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  Speaker 4: trust plan for you, with the exemption federally being now
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  Speaker 4: fifteen million dollars each, right you and your wife, that's
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  Speaker 4: thirty million, your plan can shelter thirty million. So I'm
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  Speaker 4: going to say, and if your brother's in a similar situation,
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  Speaker 4: I'm going to say that the revocable trust plan is
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  Speaker 4: working great from a estate tax standpoint. Federally, it also
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  Speaker 4: is drafted with a formula so it automatically adjusted for
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  Speaker 4: the new Massachusetts estate tax exemption, which is now two million,
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  Speaker 4: So you and your spouse can shelter four million with
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  Speaker 4: your estate from the state state tax. So whether you
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  Speaker 4: want to consider doing some I don't know. Residency changes.
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  Speaker 4: That's up to you, because you know from Massachusetts, to
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  Speaker 4: the extent you're over four million, you are going to
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  Speaker 4: have a Massachusetts a state tax bite there Now, mass
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  Speaker 4: cannot tax out of state property, so if some of
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  Speaker 4: that ten million is out of state, it would not
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  Speaker 4: be taxable here in mass So keep that in mind.
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  Speaker 4: And to the extent we've taken assets and put them
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  Speaker 4: in an irrevocable trust, they should not be included in
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  Speaker 4: this ten million dollar number. Did you do that when
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  Speaker 4: you gave me that number?
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  Speaker 5: I did everything you said in twenty ten to be honest.
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  Speaker 5: Whether you haven't looked at it too much since. One
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  Speaker 5: of my last quick questions was if I did move
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  Speaker 5: to a Hampshire, would that make any difference? Because all
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  Speaker 5: these properties are in Massachusetts and in their own trusts.
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  Speaker 4: I think if you could spend six months in a
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  Speaker 4: day outside of the state, yes, you can make New
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  Speaker 4: Hampshire your residency. You don't have to be there six
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  Speaker 4: months in a day unless they require that for their residency,
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  Speaker 4: which I don't think they do. So as long as
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  Speaker 4: you're not six months in a day in this state,
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  Speaker 4: you could be anywhere else. You don't have to be there,
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  Speaker 4: but change your residency might be a great idea if
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  Speaker 4: in fact you're still worth ten million, and that doesn't
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  Speaker 4: include what we gave away, right, that's the way I
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  Speaker 4: want it. Whatever's not in your state, I shouldn't be
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  Speaker 4: in that ten million dollar number. But assuming that's the
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  Speaker 4: case and that's what you're worth, yeah, you have ten
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  Speaker 4: minus four six figure, six hundred thousand reasons to move.
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  Speaker 4: So that's a lot of reasons to become a resident.
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  Speaker 4: And if you want to do that of New Hampshire,
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  Speaker 4: please come in, sit down. I can explain to you
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  Speaker 4: all the things you have to do to accomplish that,
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  Speaker 4: including setting up LLCs if you don't for Massachusetts real
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  Speaker 4: estate so it's not taxed in mass even though you're
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  Speaker 4: a non resident. I actually did a seminar once called
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  Speaker 4: So you think you changed your residency, get it. It's
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  Speaker 4: not so easy, but I can explain to you exactly
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  Speaker 4: how to do it. So sounds like you're probably in
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  Speaker 4: pretty good shape. So is your brother. So going forward,
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  Speaker 4: except for maybe moving, that's an option. If you want
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  Speaker 4: to explore some more state estate tax reductions, we could
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  Speaker 4: sit down and talk. Or if you want to leave
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  Speaker 4: your assets differently to your children. We can sit down
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  Speaker 4: and talk about that. Otherwise, I think it's in good shape.
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  Speaker 4: Thanks for to call. I hope that was helpful, And
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  Speaker 4: folks like Dan call get this guide Balancing asset protection
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  Speaker 4: and avoiding the state taxes. Right. It explains what this
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  Speaker 4: trust that Dan has works, talks about portability, talks about
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  Speaker 4: marital shares and remainder shares folks better than we can
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  Speaker 4: ever talk about it on the radio. Right, It's it's
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  Speaker 4: a little more complex than that. The guide gives you,
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  Speaker 4: the answers, gives you, the charts, tells you how to
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  Speaker 4: calculate your own estate tax liability and does it also
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  Speaker 4: for irrevocable trusts. Little something for everyone in this guide.
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  Speaker 4: See which trust is right for you. Call and get
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  Speaker 4: it eight six six eight four eight five six nine
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  Speaker 4: nine or Legal Exchange show dot Com again eight six
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  Speaker 4: six eight four eight five six nine to nine.
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  Speaker 2: Todd got another one for you here. Let's go to
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  Speaker 2: Rita in Shrewsbury, Rita. What's your question for Todd?
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  Speaker 6: Oh, good morning. My question is does the recent increase
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  Speaker 6: and support and access to home healthcare have any impact
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  Speaker 6: on the need for nursing home care hmm.
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  Speaker 4: That's an interesting question. So when you say the increase
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  Speaker 4: in home healthcare, are you talking about insurance premiums or something.
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  Speaker 6: No, I'm talking about services that you can you know,
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  Speaker 6: get or staying in your home when you're when you're sick.
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  Speaker 4: Okay, So these are what they call, uh, you know,
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  Speaker 4: community based medicaid. I will try to answer it. I'm
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  Speaker 4: not an expert when it comes to community based medicaid.
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  Speaker 4: There are certain programs a lot offered by individual communities, right,
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  Speaker 4: You've got to find out if it's available, like elder
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  Speaker 4: frail elder care is one. There's different programs that are
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  Speaker 4: available for your community. You got to find out how
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  Speaker 4: much money is available. Generally is not a ton, but
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  Speaker 4: there could be some and so certainly look into that
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  Speaker 4: and see if you can get community based you know,
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  Speaker 4: medicaid services for staying at the home. I agree with
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  Speaker 4: you that the programs themselves have expanded, which I think
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  Speaker 4: is wonderful. The idea of keeping people at home is
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  Speaker 4: exactly what we all want to do, and even the
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  Speaker 4: planning that we do for people is not designed to
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  Speaker 4: say go to a nursing home, do everything you can
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  Speaker 4: to stay at home. Now that said does that change
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  Speaker 4: I think your question is does that change the need
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  Speaker 4: to protect assets from the cost of long term care
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  Speaker 4: if you cannot stay at home. I would say no,
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  Speaker 4: It really has no difference as to whether I would
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  Speaker 4: do that planning or not. If if your goal is
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  Speaker 4: to say I want to make sure this particular house
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  Speaker 4: gets to my family, or this vacation home gets to
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  Speaker 4: my family, if that's your goal, or I just want
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  Speaker 4: more of my assets available to my family, well you
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  Speaker 4: can't really rely on community based in home care for
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  Speaker 4: That doesn't mean you can't apply for it, try to
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  Speaker 4: get it, and by the way, getting it if you
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  Speaker 4: have assets in these irrevocable trusts that you need to
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  Speaker 4: do to ensure those goals are met, might also help
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  Speaker 4: you become eligible for in home services. I don't know
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  Speaker 4: what their asset limits are, but clearly if it's in
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  Speaker 4: the trust, it's not your asset, and so it should
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  Speaker 4: help you, you know, get those assets those community based services.
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  Speaker 4: So long winded answer, but I think at the end
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  Speaker 4: of the day, the idea is I'm doing my planning
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  Speaker 4: because I want to protect assets from my family. This
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  Speaker 4: will do it, but also you might need to do
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  Speaker 4: it to reduce a state taxes. If you're married and
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  Speaker 4: you want to double your exemption, these irrevocable trusts will do.
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  Speaker 4: The guide explains that. And lastly, I'm doing it not
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  Speaker 4: just to protect and avoid probate and reduce taxes, but
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  Speaker 4: also i want a nice, easy streamline of my assets
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  Speaker 4: to my family so they can get it the way
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  Speaker 4: and when and how they should get it. So hopefully
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  Speaker 4: that helps.
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  Speaker 3: Mister Lutsky, thank you so much for joining us today.
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  Speaker 4: Always a pleasure. Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: This has been asked Todd on the Financial Exchange Radio network.
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  Speaker 1: Askedd with Todd Lutsky has been presented by Cushing and Dolan,
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: serving Massachusetts and New England for more than thirty years,
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  Speaker 1: helping families with the state and tax planning, Medicaid planning,
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  Speaker 1: and probate law. Call eight hundred three nine three four
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  Speaker 1: thousand and one or visit Cushingdolan dot com. The views
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  Speaker 1: expressed in this segment are solely those of Cushing and
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  Speaker 1: Dolan Armstrong advisor. He does not provide any legal or
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  Speaker 1: tax advice. Please consult with your illegal or tax advisor
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  Speaker 1: on such matters. Cushing and Armstrong do not endorse each
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  Speaker 1: other and are not affiliated,