COVID19 Legal Issues for the Horse Community

Click HERE for the free e-book. Are you concerned about the legal issues surrounding COVID19 and your horse business or personal horses? I have written an e-book entitled “Horse People, Don’t Panic: COVID19 Legal Issues for the Horse Community.” It’s a free PDF download, and you are encouraged to share it in its entirety and let others know they can download it here. You will learn about legal issues concerning liability, horse care if you get sick, equine estate planning, and contracts during these difficult times. This is an educational service of Windhorse Legal, PLLC, and does not constitute legal Read More

Contesting a Will

I often get asked why I favor a trust over a will when drafting estate plans. Sometimes a will works well for someone, particularly if the estate is very small and simple. One of the big reasons I don’t favor wills is that they are easier to challenge in court than a trust. Challenging or contesting a will can just add more chaos and pain to an already difficult time when someone dies. A will, unlike a trust, has to go through probate. That means the will is filed in the court and becomes a part of the public record. Read More

Animal Trusts

Recently, I have seen posts on Facebook horse groups that ask if people have plans for the care of their horse if they are incapacitated or die. Many people say they have talked to a friend or they have written some informal agreement. Unfortunately, neither or those options are ones that will hold up if the person decides not to take care of the horse.  Luckily, there is a legal vehicle that allows you to plan for your horse’s future in the event you are incapacitated or die. That document is called an animal trust, and you can have one Read More

The Importance of a Medicaid Trust

The October 2019 issue of The Atlantic contains an article that highlights the importance of an Irrevocable Medicaid Trust. In the article, the author discusses how older individuals may lose their homes if they need go into a nursing home and need Medicaid (also known as MassHealth in Massachusetts) to pay for it. She asserts that it is a little-known fact that most people don’t know to address unless they have a lot of assets and are doing estate planning. I am here to tell you that you need to protect your home if you think you will need to Read More

What is Intestate?

Let’s back up a minute. What happens if you die without any estate planning at all? No will, no trust, nothing. If this happens, then you die intestate. Several things happen if you die intestate. Your estate must go through probate if you die intestate. This means the court must get involved to rule on the distribution of your assets because whatever possessions and property you have must, by law, be distributed. If you die without a will or trust, then Massachusetts law dictates how your assets will be distributed. You will not have any say in the matter. The Read More