Guides

Understand the rules before you sign anything

Plain-language guides to Medicaid planning, probate, and property transfer, written by our legal team and reviewed by licensed attorneys.

Medicaid Trusts

Medicaid Look Back Period: How the 5-Year Rule Really Works

Give away assets in the five years before applying for long-term care Medicaid and the state can impose months of ineligibility. Here is exactly how the window and the penalty work.

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Medicaid Trusts

Medicaid Spend Down: The Rules, and the Smart Way to Do It

Most families spend down the hard way, writing checks to the nursing home until almost nothing is left. The rules allow a much smarter version, if you know which purchases count.

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Medicaid Trusts

Medicaid Estate Recovery: How States Take It Back, and How Families Keep It

Medicaid pays for the nursing home, then sends the estate a bill after death. The house is the usual target, and whether the family keeps it is decided years earlier.

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Medicaid Trusts

How to Protect Assets From Nursing Home Costs: Every Option, Honestly Compared

Nursing home care consumes a middle-class life's savings in two to three years. The law provides real defenses, and the right one depends mostly on your state and your timeline.

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Deeds

Lady Bird Deed vs Transfer on Death Deed: Which One Protects Your Home

Both deeds pass the house to your heirs without probate while you keep full control for life. Your state, and what happens after death, decide which one to record.

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Deeds

Quitclaim Deed: What It Does, What It Risks, and When to Use One

The fastest deed in American property law, and the one with the least protection. Used well it cleans up title between people who trust each other; used badly it creates Medicaid penalties and tax bills.

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Probate Paperwork

Probate Lawyer Cost: Fees, Percentages, and the Cheaper Routes Around Them

How probate attorneys bill, what a typical estate really pays end to end, why the process takes a year or more, and the planning documents that make most of the expense optional.

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Estate Planning

Revocable vs Irrevocable Trust: Which One Protects What You Own

One trust you can change at will but it protects nothing. The other locks assets away and shields them. Here is how to choose, situation by situation.

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Estate Planning

Trust vs Will: What Each Actually Does, and Which You Need

A will speaks only at death and goes through court. A trust works the day you sign it and skips probate. Most families need to understand both before choosing.

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Estate Planning

Cost of a Trust in 2026: Real Numbers, What They Buy, and What They Avoid

From bargain online templates to five-figure Medicaid trusts, trust pricing follows the work involved. Here is what each tier buys, and what going without one costs.

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Family & Care Planning

Nursing Home Costs in 2026: What Families Actually Pay, and Who Pays It

The real numbers behind long-term care: monthly rates by care type and region, how long families pay them, why Medicare barely helps, and the planning moves that decide who ends up with the bill.

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Family & Care Planning

Filial Responsibility Laws: When Adult Children Owe a Parent's Care Bill

Statutes in roughly half the states can, in theory, send a parent's unpaid nursing home bill to the children. Here is where enforcement has actually happened, and the moves that take the risk off the table.

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Family & Care Planning

Estate Planning Attorney Cost: What Lawyers Charge in 2026

The honest market ranges for wills, trusts, and elder law work, what actually drives an attorney's price up or down, and how to compare quotes so you are comparing the same thing.

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Deeds

Warranty Deed vs Quitclaim Deed: Which One Your Transfer Needs

A warranty deed promises the buyer clean title and backs it with the seller's liability. A quitclaim promises nothing. The right choice depends on who is on each side of the transfer.

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Probate Paperwork

How to Transfer a Deed After Death: The Route Depends on How the Property Was Titled

The house cannot be sold, refinanced, or properly insured while the deed still names someone who has died. The right paperwork depends entirely on how the property was titled, and the wrong choice costs months.

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Medicaid Trusts

Medicaid Compliant Annuity: How It Converts Assets Into Income, and When It Fails

The annuity is the fastest lawful way to move a married couple's excess savings out of the countable column in a crisis. It only works when every one of five federal requirements is met, and for a single applicant the arithmetic looks very different.

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