Ladimer Law Blog

What will happen to your home if the day comes when you need to move to a nursing home? If MassHealth covers your long-term care, it won’t take your home and force you out, but the program may take profits from its sale – profits that your beneficiaries are counting on. The best way to […]

Residents of long-term-care facilities rarely need cash. Room and board, housekeeping and activities are all included in the monthly cost of a nursing home. But what’s a resident to do when she runs out of her favorite perfume, or when he wants to give a birthday gift to a grandchild? If MassHealth is covering the […]

They’re both legal documents, and they can both be used to protect your assets and provide for your loved ones. Wills and trusts are equally important tools for estate planning, but many people are vague on the differences between them. The first thing to know? Wills and trusts aren’t mutually exclusive. You might need both.

MassHealth coverage is, quite literally, a lifesaver. It allows Massachusetts residents to get the medical coverage and long-term nursing care that they need but can’t afford. But like most government-run programs, MassHealth applications require members to navigate a complicated process before they get covered. Here are just a few of the most common pitfalls to […]

Ladimer Law is pleased to announce that Julie McQuade Ladimer and Jessica Pesce have been recognized as two of the top young attorneys in Massachusetts. Julie and Jessica have both been selected as Rising Stars for 2018 – 2019. Honorees are named by Super Lawyers, part of Thomson Reuters. Only the top 2.5% of attorneys […]

On a difficulty scale from “applying for a library card” to “applying for citizenship,” applying for MassHealth falls somewhere in the middle. It’s a straightforward process that requires a dauntingly long application and a bit of a wait. The MassHealth application process often takes a few months from start to finish. For Massachusetts residents who […]

Estate Planning: Essential Documents for Young Adults At 18 we feel invincible, and like our life is just beginning, so planning for seemingly impossible what-ifs might seem unnecessary. But life is nothing if not unpredictable. 18 is an age when we want to feel in control but often also feel secure under the parent-child relationship, […]

Buying life insurance is supposed to be a way to provide financial security for the people you leave behind. If that expensive policy actually triggers an estate tax to be levied against your estate, is there any point in buying life insurance at all? The answer is yes, but only if you know how to […]

They put food on the table, a roof over your head and bandages on your skinned knees. Now that your aging parents need your help, do you know what to do? Have you thought about preparing for their MassHealth application?

Some parts of modern adult life, like root canals and IRS audits, are both miserable and hard to avoid. Going through probate might not be quite as torturous as having teeth pulled, but it’s not something anyone does for fun. Avoiding probate is generally a goal of estate planning for good reason.

Want to Protect Your Assets? You Need More Than a Will Would you be comfortable leaving town knowing that your home was locked up, but your garage door was wide open? Probably not. So why would you create a will that protects some of your assets and not take further action to protect the rest?

If only he had saved more. If only she had invested in this fund instead of that one. If only he had picked the right lottery numbers. As attorneys specializing in long-term care planning, we see clients grapple with those “if-onlys” all the time. They’ve reached a point at which they need long-term care, but […]

Yachts, ski chalets, chartered jets, trusts: one of these things is not like the others. Contrary to popular belief, establishing a trust isn’t a luxury reserved for the ultra-rich. Yes, trusts are often used by the wealthy to shield assets and pass money from one generation to the next. That’s just one way that trusts […]

Becoming eligible for MassHealth, the Massachusetts version of Medicaid, requires walking a financial tightrope. An applicant with too much money must get rid of it in order to become eligible – but once she’s approved, she may not have enough to cover basic needs, let alone incidentals. For people in that situation, maintaining the financial […]

Do you remember how much money you had five years ago? Do you know how much you’ll have in five years? Unless you keep meticulous financial records and have a crystal ball, you probably can’t say yes to both questions. Here in Massachusetts, five years is a significant time period. That’s the length of the […]

The only thing that’s certain about death is that we’ll all face it eventually. But the hows, whens, wheres, what happens next – for most people, those are all uncertainties. While those existential questions have no answers, sorting out the financial consequences of your death is doable in the here and now.

Giving a perfect, generous gift feels great. But giving a gift that’s too generous could backfire in a way that has lasting and expensive repercussions, if it disqualifies you from getting the nursing home care you need.

Could your loved ones use an extra $100,000? Creating a credit shelter trust could be one way to keep more money in your estate rather than losing it to estate taxes. Credit shelter trusts are related to marital deduction and estate tax laws. Here in Massachusetts, an estate worth less than $1 million is not […]

Ladimer Law is pleased to announce that Julie McQuade Ladimer has recently been honored as the recipient of two awards for her work in estate planning and elder law.

In some contexts, $2,000 seems like a lot of money. Winning $2,000 on a lottery ticket or earning an unexpected bonus would be enough to finance a dream trip or pay off a major bill. But if you’re 65 and thinking about your end-of-life needs, having only $2,000 in the bank would be terrifying. Looking […]