As a dedicated Georgia small business lawyer, I can help you negotiate and write effective contracts to protect your business. Additionally, I work with my clients on necessary documents for corporate governance, bylaws, shareholder agreements and buy-sell agreements.
Last is “Medicaid planning†to cover the cost of nursing home care. Medicaid is a welfare program for the poor. There are very low limits on how much a single person can have in assets so as to qualify for Medicaid, roughly $2,000. For a married couple it is different because a “community spouse†is not required to be totally impoverished so that the infirm spouse can qualify for assistance. The number changes from year to year, but a good approximation is about $100,000 of assets belonging to the married couple at the time of the application for benefits. However it does not include assets that are exempt from the eligibility calculation. Exempt assets include: a home, rental real estate, vehicles, small life insurance policies, personal effects, burial contracts and plots and certain types of loans. There are also income limits for Medicaid eligibility which are too complicated to discuss here.
Give yourself and your loved one's peace of mind as you head into the future. For assistance with wills, probate, trusts, advanced directives, and all of your other estate planning needs in the Roswell and North Atlanta, Georgia area, contact me — Patrick J. Gibbs, P.C. Attorney at Law — for a consultation to start the process.
Wills
Only one-third of the people in this country who need a last will and testament have one. This article is written for those people. Once you have a will, the next task is to store it properly. Read More
Trusts
If you have a child who was born with a disability or who now suffers from a long-term or permanent disability, you may have concerns about what will happen if and when you are no longer able to care for him or her. A special needs trust can give you peace of mind, setting forth provisions for a child's care and welfare in any contingency, without disqualifying the child from important government benefits. An experienced lawyer can help you put measures in place that meet the individualized needs of your family.
Power of Attorney
An estate plan is likely to include: wills (possibly with a testamentary trust or a separate trust), Advance Directives for Health Care and General Powers of Attorney. Additionally we will address the subject of your beneficiary designations for life insurance and retirement accounts. Those are non-probate assets that are often not distributed through the will.
Probate
At the firm of Patrick J. Gibbs, P.C., Attorney at Law, I have been in practice for more than 35 years, focusing the last 20 years of my professional career mainly on estate planning and probate law issues. I have personally handled more than 1,500 estate plans. I emphasize solutions, looking for ways to get the outcome you want in an efficient and cost-effective way.