I think that "avoiding probate" has been *far* oversold as a benefit of living trusts. Living trust proponents, IME, usually overstate how expensive, difficult and lengthy the probate of a simple estate is. I'm a lawyer, I prepare living trusts when requested, and I still think that the vast majority of living trusts do nothing but make more money for lawyers. (I'm happy to take the money, of course, though I nearly always advise against it.) Honestly, if $800 is what's standing between you and a professionally-prepared living trust, I can't imagine that the estate is big enough that probate is a real concern. Living trusts were created as a way for the rich to keep their financial affairs private, because probate records are open to the public. As far as whether a DIY trust will hold up, it may well, simply because the only ones who might contest it are creditors or other beneficiaries. (Though Jim24 is correct that estates are often contested.) If you pay the bills and your entire family (including the children of deceased siblings) agrees with what you're doing, there's no one to contest the trust. Unfortunately, the usual sort of living trust (a revocable trust, where your mother would maintain control over her assets and have the right to change the terms of the trust) won't protect her estate from Medicaid estate recovery. (There is another sort of trust, an irrevocable trust, where your mother would give up the assets and the right to change the terms of the trust, but that has exactly the same effect as giving your assets away. Then you get the stepped-up basis on the house and you have the five-year lookback period for Medicaid.) The bottom line is, many (most?) people are trying to do what you're trying to do - impoverish the parent so that the state will pay for long-term care, while still keeping the assets in the family. The government, not unreasonably, is trying to make sure that individuals use their own money to pay for their own care, as much as possible. I think Chisue's suggestion of speaking with someone at a senior center for advice is a great start. This is a ridiculously complicated area of law, and even lawyers who know far more than I have a tough time keeping up.

Hmmmmm..... So your agent sent you that info, but did not provide the name of the attorney....This is information that should be provided to you immediately. Call her and ask again. If she does not provide the name and contact info call her broker. I was previously an agent and not providing you with this info is beyond ridiculous. I suspect there is another piece to this that has not yet been told to you. My guess is that is has to do with when you will receive the proceeds from the sale. Sorry... This maybe a requirement of the lender. The lender has a stake in seeing that the property is transferred correctly. I have run into that scenario in the past, but it would be very unusual that a lender would demand you close with an attorney. The only other thing I can think of is some sort of title insurance requirement. Is the closing attorney doing the title work? Even if there is some specific requirement by the title insurance company on how the closing will occur, title insurance companies typically provide several means of meeting those requirements. They do need to make sure everything is properly signed and notarized. The other thing might be this: perhaps the closing attorney wants to send your check in the same set of documents, but wants it held by another attorney until he/she gets the okay to release the funds to you. The way around that is to have him/her wire the funds to your account after closing or to simply send the check later.

I guess I am really getting depressed about not being able to retire because for several years I planned to retire this Oct. 31 and now that time is less than 2 weeks away, and I am afraid I will never get to retire. I have worked for 46 years and I want out. I worked hard for 6 years to get my credit cards paid off and they finally are, but I have a whole new set of problems. I am now faced with the prospect of my land not selling if it is not engineered. I will have to do the engineering and I have an estimate for $9,500 from an engineer. The town is putting in a sewer line by that property and I will have to pay for 2 sewer taps that could run anywhere from $3,000 to $6,000 a piece, my car needs $2,000 urgent repairs, my house needs repairs, the roof leakes, the plumbing needs lots of work and I just don't know what to do. I could very easily end up $15,000 in debt, and I just found out that I need another major dental procedure that could cost up to $2,000. There is just no way I can see my way to retire and that is what I want so much.

Hi, qshopper and gadgets, Guess I forgot to say that I DO fund my Roth IRA faithfully, for the full amount, annually. Thankfully, someone wiser than I set me up with a TSA person years ago. Of course, after a while, that person's quote of "they don't put teachers in jail" made me wonder just what kinds of monkey business he was doing with my money, so I got a new TSA person. I'm always telling new teachers to pay themselves first by getting a TSA. I'm still trying to get my sister to set one up, but oh, she is soooo busy! Well, now she's 48 and maybe she thinks she's gonna win the lottery, but really, that's not likely! I was wondering about dollar cost averaging and investing in no-load funds--stuff I can do myself, and wondered if anyone else had some advice about things like that...I just learning and one of my cyberpals is talking me thru it...just wondered what everyone else may know... Thanks!