Quick answer: A revocable trust can be changed or cancelled while you are alive, avoids probate, and keeps your affairs private, but offers no protection from your creditors or estate taxes. An irrevocable trust generally cannot be changed, removes the assets from your estate, and can protect them from creditors and qualify you for benefits,…
Quick answer: Every Kentucky adult needs a durable power of attorney because once you turn 18 no one, including your parents or spouse, can automatically handle your finances or medical decisions if you are incapacitated. Without one, your family’s only option is a court guardianship under KRS Chapter 387. A power of attorney under KRS…
Quick answer: Kentucky Medicaid pays for nursing home care only after the applicant’s countable assets are spent down to the program limit, and transfers made within the five-year look-back period trigger a penalty. Legitimate planning includes spousal protections, exempt asset conversions, irrevocable trusts funded more than five years in advance, and personal care agreements. Estate…
Quick answer: A year-end estate plan review for a Kentucky resident means rereading your will, checking every beneficiary designation, confirming your financial and health care powers of attorney are current under KRS Chapter 386A, deciding whether a trust now makes sense, reviewing life insurance, organizing records for your executor, and making any annual-exclusion gifts before…
Quick answer: A special needs trust holds assets for a person with a disability without disqualifying them from SSI and Medicaid, because the trustee, not the beneficiary, controls distributions. A third-party trust funded by family has no Medicaid payback; a first-party trust funded with the beneficiary’s own money must repay Medicaid at death. Leaving an…
Quick answer: A payable-on-death designation passes a Kentucky bank account directly to the named beneficiary at death, outside probate, under KRS 391.300 and following. The beneficiary has no rights while you are alive. POD accounts bypass your will, can unintentionally disinherit other children, remain subject to Kentucky inheritance tax, and may be reached by estate…
Quick answer: In a Kentucky blended family, dying without a plan lets intestacy under KRS 391.010 and the spouse’s statutory share under KRS 392.080 decide who inherits, often leaving children from a first marriage with less than intended or nothing. A will alone cannot cut off the spouse’s elective share; trusts, a marital agreement under…
Quick answer: A durable power of attorney in Kentucky takes effect when signed and continues through incapacity; a springing power takes effect only when a doctor certifies incapacity. Under KRS 386A.104 a Kentucky power of attorney is durable unless it says otherwise. Most planners recommend the durable form with a trusted agent, because the springing…
Quick answer: Kentucky has no state gift tax; lifetime gifts are taxed, if at all, only under the federal gift tax, and most gifts fall within the annual exclusion or the large lifetime exemption. Kentucky does impose an inheritance tax at death on transfers to non-exempt beneficiaries, and gifts made in contemplation of death can…
Quick answer: Legal asset protection in Kentucky means planning before any claim exists: keeping business assets in properly maintained LLCs or corporations, holding the marital home as tenants by the entireties, using exemptions such as the KRS 427.060 homestead and protected retirement accounts, carrying adequate liability and umbrella insurance, and in some cases irrevocable trusts….