Our primary practice focuses on creating custom-tailored estate plans. For each client, we discuss planning options that include revocable trusts, irrevocable trusts, a will, a durable power of attorney, a health care proxy, and documents to address HIPAA concerns. Every client’s needs are different, so the focus of our planning is creating a web of documents that cover as many potential issues as we can, while maintaining for the client the maximum amount of flexibility possible.

A good estate plan provides peace of mind that during life you can maintain control of your assets as long as you are able. When you are no longer able to manage your own affairs, you should have the ability to choose who will take over, and how they will use those assets to help care for you and your loved ones. After you pass away, a good plan ensures that, to the extent possible, you can minimize the impact of both Federal and Massachusetts Estate Taxes, probate costs, and estate administration expenses, and pass your assets to those individuals you believe need them most.

In Massachusetts, nursing home costs can average more than $100,000 per year, and almost half of us will need long-term care at some point in our lives. We want to ensure that your estate plan accounts for the possibility that you or your spouse may need nursing home care, and provide a way to manage the costs associated with that care.

One of the most common methods of managing the costs of a nursing home is by using the Massachusetts Medicaid program, MassHealth, to pay for some or all of your care. However, the financial requirements for Masshealth are very strict, and the program offers innumerable ways to jeopardize eligibility. At Fay & Eberly, we can help you navigate the minefield that is the MassHealth application process and put you in the best position possible to qualify for Medicaid.

If a loved one passes away and you need assistance navigating the probate process, we are here to help. We regularly assist the Personal Representatives of an estate with the filing of probate documents, obtaining appraisals for the deceased’s assets, and filing the necessary accounting paperwork.

Not everyone who has been chosen as a Personal Representative has the time or experience necessary to devote to the task, and we are here to ease the burden by using our experience and skill to provide guidance, coordinate with financial institutions, and file the myriad documents required by the Massachusetts Probate Courts in order to settle your loved one’s estate.

While trust administration is generally an easier and more streamlined process than probate, it still requires that the Trustee work to settle the deceased’s estate. Just as we can assist a Personal Representative through a probate, we can help a Trustee administer the trust he or she manages. We can perform the “legwork” necessary to complete the duties spelled out in the trust document, including arranging appraisals of the trust estate, determining whether the estate is taxable, arranging for estate tax returns to be filed if necessary, and completing inventories of the trust assets.