Alzheimer's Widow in serious trouble

[pmsctt322]

What is the name of your state? Georgia

My grandmother has Alzheimer's Disease. Her husband, my grandfather, passed and his will provides as follows:

1) The maximum that will pass estate tax free will go to his daughter X. At the time of drafting the tax free amount was $675,000.00. Nowadays, $1,500,000.00 can pass estate tax free.

2) The rest of the estate, that is left after the $675,000.00 passes to daughter X, is to take care of my grandmother in the nursing home.

The only portion of his will that explicity mentions his intentions is related to my grandmother. It states that it is his intention that she is taken care of for her life and whatever is left over, after her dealth, passes to daughter.

His will states that while 675,000.00 is the amount at the time of drafting, the amount at the time of his dealth is the applicable amount. The estate is right at 1,000,000. so no money to take care of grandmother in the hospital.


So, my question follows: what happens when my grandfather's explicit intentions are cut off by Congressional action?

Please help me. Oh yeah, daughter X is not my mom; we got totally cut out of the will. We don't care, we just want grand ma to be taken care of. We also know about the one year spousal support, but what if she lives beyond a year? We cannot afford to cover the difference between the home and Medicaid.

I am a first year law student and my family's attorney is acting like our hands are tied and now they are kinda relying on me to bounce something back.

Thanks so much for your response!

 

[hexeliebe]

There are only two things I can offer at this time.

1. Is your family attorney a PROBATE attorney? If not, contact one immediately.

2. I will keep your post near the top so that Jet or IAAL or others knowledgable in this venue can offer advice.

 

[hexeliebe]

Bump !

 

[pmsctt322]

the attorney is not a probate attorney. can anyone help?

 

[Dandy Don]

A definite decision can not be made just by your posting because we can't see the language of the will.

(1) Was grandfather's will prepared with the assistance of a probate attorney or was it a do-it-yourself job?

(2) What specific provision did he make in the will for his wife--does grandmother get the $675,000 or does grandma get the $1,000,000? The way you wrote your posting makes it look like there is no money there to take care of grandmother, so we don't know if that is acually the case or whether you are misintepreting the way it is written.

(3) Have you actually taken the time to find out how much the actual spousal support will be?

You all need to be consulting with a local probate attorney to get your questions answered and perhaps the probate attorney can also contact an expert on Medicaid who can give guidelines as to what Medicaid's official rules are on how a Medicaid recipient's care affects their income/assets, or if your family attorney was really on the ball he should know some other people to contact to get professional opinions about this, or look at the Medicaid website yourself or call the local Medicaid office to ask questions.