The Plain English Attorney Blog

Far too many attorneys overcomplicate things, making topics convoluted and difficult to understand to the average person. This blog is committed to explaining legal planning topics in an easy to understand format, in plain English. Enjoy the blogs, and please let us know if there is a topic you would like covered.

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Why Prenups Blow Up: Seven Ways Premarital Agreements Fail premarital agreement prenup Apr 24, 2023

“Prenups don’t work!” the YouTuber practically screamed into the microphone, lamenting the downfall of men everywhere whose fortunes were being stolen from their gold digging exes. [Insert eyeroll here.] “A man works for years, decides to marry a woman, and insists on a...

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Breaking Down Asset Protection assets organizing legal documents Apr 17, 2023

Good asset protection planning isn’t as complicated as it may seem. If thought about the right way, it can actually be pretty simple to follow. Unfortunately, there is no magic wand you can waive over a pile of assets and it is instantly protected from lawsuits, divorcing spouses, the...

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A Divorce Shield? The Domestic Asset Protection Trust asset protection trust pre-marital agreement Apr 10, 2023

Recently, I've seen a trend of people wanting to protect their assets from a potential divorce as part of their life planning before getting married. While premarital agreements have a place, there are some ways to get around some or all of the terms in an agreement, and people want to be sure....

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Little Girl's Pet Seized By Police and Murdered? legal news personal property Apr 03, 2023

Apparently, pets are a touchy subject for me. Having long-term pets like our cat Monty (for almost 20 years now) makes me particularly enraged when I read stories of pets being taken away. In this video, I review an article about police seizing a little girl's pet goat to enforce a contract that...

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The Ten Medicaid Planning Myths You Need to Know #medicaid long term care planning medicare mythbusters Mar 27, 2023

It has been some time since I've covered Medicaid Myths in this blog, and some of these myths can be deadly to qualifying for Medicaid if followed through. Rather than start a list from scratch, I went straight to the source in my own book The Long Term Care Solution. Here is an excerpt from...

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Gifts, Advances, and Loans: Balancing an Estate Plan When the Kids Need Money NOW trustee trustee gifts Mar 20, 2023

Estate Planning distributions aren’t always clean and even. Sometimes the kids and grandkids need money during life, and providing it to them can raise questions. (This can also be true when using a Will, but now the probate court is involved.) But whether something is classified as a gift,...

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Trust Funding is Critical trust funding trust funds trust planning Mar 13, 2023

Sometimes, messages need to be repeated to make sure they stick. Unfortunately, this often happens with ongoing maintenance with a revocable living trust to make sure that assets line up correctly with the overall estate plan, including the revocable living trust. Unfortunately, the "correctly"...

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Seven Living Trust Mistakes common mistakes diy estate planning trust planning Mar 06, 2023

A revocable living trust can be a great estate planning vehicle that keeps your assets out of probate and minimizes settlement costs. However, there are (at least) seven big mistakes that I has seen when it comes to putting together a revocable trust. While other attorneys may have different...

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Planning for Divorce Before Marriage? in-law protection planning pre-marital agreement retirement accounts Feb 27, 2023

Over the last few months, several people have approached me about planning to protect them from a marriage that could go wrong. After watching videos and the course on In-Law Protection Planning, they asked about how they could guard against the negatives of a...

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What is a Testamentary Trust? beginner estate planning revocable trusts testamentary trust wills Feb 20, 2023

A testamentary trust is basically language written into a Last Will and Testament that holds and manages estate assets for a beneficiary over a period of time beyond the probate estate being initially settled. Unfortunately, this has a lot of drawbacks depending on state law.

A testamentary trust...

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Welcome Hazel to the Team! company news Feb 13, 2023

The Law Offices of Jeffrey G. Marsocci, PLLC is pleased to welcome Hazel Ann D. Mejia to the team! After an exhaustive search and several failed attempts to find someone to work physically in the office, we came to the reluctant conclusion that we had to expand our search and be open to...

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What are the Medicaid Spend Down Priorities? certified medicaid planner cheat sheets medicaid Feb 06, 2023

One of the most crippling situations for families is when a loved one needs long term care, they start to look at prices for nursing homes, and realize that it is just not possible to keep paying over the long haul without losing everything. Medicaid becomes a path to take to finance your...

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