Trustee’s Liability for Contractor’s Work

On: By: Bill Gatesman

Whether you are a Trustee of a trust that owns real property, a Personal Representative of a decedent’s estate that holds real property, or simply a homeowner, it is important for you to know your potential liability when you engage a contractor to perform work on the property if an employee of the contractor gets hurt on the job.

Many home service contractors do not carry worker’s compensation insurance coverage for their employees.  This is especially notable with tree service contractors.  The same men who climb trees with powerful chain saws to cut limbs and tree trunks while hanging from a rope around their waists in one of the most dangerous home service professions often find it prohibitively expensive to pay the premiums for worker’s compensation insurance, and therefore do not obtain such coverage.

The problem with that is, if one of the workers is injured on the job, even if that person is an employee of the contractor, then the law may treat such injured worker as your employee for liability purposes.  And, unless you, as Trustee or homeowner, have worker’s compensation insurance to cover this particular type of worker – and obtaining such coverage for the once in a blue moon tree cutter or other home service contractor likely is not possible – then the potential liability is unlimited. Continue reading “Trustee’s Liability for Contractor’s Work” →

The Secret World of Medicaid Regulation

On: By: Bill Gatesman

Potential clients sometimes ask William Gatesman whether they can pursue their legal matters themselves.  Often, the advice in response to such an inquiry is that the client would obtain a more favorable outcome using the services of a knowledgeable lawyer.  A key component of that advice is that the lawyer should be knowledgeable.

Unfortunately for the general public, when it comes to applying for Medicaid benefits, there is a limited pool of lawyers in Maryland who can be viewed as being truly knowledgeable about all of the nuances in the Medicaid eligibility rules.

This should not be the case.  Maryland law, and in particular, the Maryland Administrative Procedures Act, mandates that the rules governing such matters as the Maryland Medicaid program be promulgated and implemented through a transparent public process.  Through that process, such rules are to be disclosed and maintained in a manner to make them easily accessible to the public.

Unfortunately, with respect to the Maryland Medicaid program, some of the rules are complex, hidden, and accessible by only a few who know where and when to look for them.  One of the problems arises because Medicaid is a joint Federal and State program.  Notwithstanding that, the rules as they apply in Maryland (Medicaid rules vary state by state) should be put in place in accordance with the Administrative Procedures Act, however, the Maryland Administrative Procedures Act routinely is disregarded.  Indeed, a senior Medicaid official recently advised William Gatesman that there is an administrative freeze by the Maryland Governor that prohibits any action toward implementing new regulations.

So, then, how do Medicaid lawyers in Maryland know what are the rules that apply to their clients?  Sadly, sometimes the answer to that question is that some of those lawyers don’t know. Continue reading “The Secret World of Medicaid Regulation” →

Don’t Let the Notary Public Skip a Step

On: By: Bill Gatesman

Many legal documents, such as deeds, trusts, powers of attorney, and contracts, either require, or are made more legitimate, by having a notary public sign the document. This is referred to as “notarizing” the document.

In Maryland, a person who is a Notary Public must obtain a license, must be sworn in by an officer of the Circuit Court, and must follow certain rules in the exercise of the Notary Public’s powers. A Notary Public must ensure that she knows the person who is signing the document. This usually is accomplished by the Notary Public reviewing that person’s driver’s license or passport.

Then, after witnessing the individual sign the document, the Notary Public will complete what is known as a Notary Jurat, which is a section of the legal document in which the Notary Public enters certain information, including the expiration date of the Notary Public’s license, signs the document, and affixes his or her seal to the document, which seal often takes the form of a special ink stamp on the document page.

In addition to those actions, the rules governing the actions of a Notary Public require that the Notary Public maintain a “fair register” of all of the acts undertaken by the Notary Public. This is one step that often is overlooked. There are lawyers who also are licensed Notary Publics who will witness a client’s signature to a document but might overlook recording the action in a Notary Public fair register. Indeed, I have encountered some lawyer-Notary Publics who were unaware of the requirement to maintain a contemporaneous fair register.

The fair register is an important record because, if a client ever requested it, the Notary Public has an obligation to provide such client with a certified copy of the record of the act that was notarized. For example, some years after a legal document is signed, if there is a question as to the legitimacy of the signature, a party to the legal document may seek out the Notary Public to request a certified copy of the fair register entry memorializing the execution of such legal document. If the notary public did not make an entry in a fair register and did not maintain that fair register as required under the law and regulations governing Notary Publics, then it would be impossible to obtain such a certified copy at some future time.

Knowing these rules, a client who signs a document requiring notarization could make an appropriate inquiry with the Notary Public if the Notary Public did not ask the client to sign Notary Public’s fair register.

William M. Gatesman is both a lawyer and a licensed Notary Public, and is available to assist clients in both capacities.

Locating Deceased Person’s Assets in a Digital Age

On: By: Bill Gatesman

More and more financial institutions are pushing their customers to forgo receiving paper account statements and instead receive all of their statements and account correspondence electronically. What happens, then, when the account holder dies?

In the age before digital communication, when someone died, if the identity and extent of the deceased person’s asset holdings was not apparent to the estate administrator, one simply had to wait a month or so to receive the decedent’s mail to discover most, if not all of the decedent’s financial accounts. Eventually, it would be apparent what accounts were owned by the deceased person.

All of that has changed for someone who does all of their financial business online, however. What happens, then, when a forward-looking, media-savvy loved one dies, and you discover that the deceased person received no paper financial statements, and kept all of her financial data on her computer rather than in paper files? Continue reading “Locating Deceased Person’s Assets in a Digital Age” →

The Steps to Selling Your House Quickly

On: By: Bill Gatesman

I often work with people who, in the administration of the estate of a deceased loved one, find themselves in the position of having to sell the deceased person’s house. Useful to such clients, and to anyone else who is selling a house, are these tips, the Steps to Selling Your House Quickly, which tips one of my mentors, who has much experience investing in and selling homes, shared with me.

Continue reading “The Steps to Selling Your House Quickly” →

The Fox is Guarding the Hen House in a Maryland Guardianship

On: By: Bill Gatesman

In Maryland, if one asks a Court to appoint a guardian for a person who is alleged to be disabled (the “alleged disabled person”) where such alleged disabled person is believed to be unable to manage his or her own affairs, the Court will appoint a lawyer to represent the alleged disabled person (the “court appointed counsel”). Sometimes, if there is a need to take immediate action to protect the alleged disabled person, the Court might, on the strength of a petition alone, appoint a temporary guardian for the alleged disabled person, which temporary guardian often is a lawyer chosen by the court.

In theory, the court appointed counsel and the temporary guardian are fiduciaries whose job it is to protect the interests of the alleged disabled person. Sometimes, however, it appears that such court appointed fiduciaries do not fulfill that responsibility.

Consider the following circumstance.

A health care facility is caring for Husband. Wife is unhappy with the facility’s treatment and wants husband to come home, and for the moment is withholding payment. Wife holds a financial power of attorney and a medical power of attorney for her husband, meaning that she has authority to manage his personal, medical, and financial affairs.

Continue reading “The Fox is Guarding the Hen House in a Maryland Guardianship” →

Medicaid Updates Transfer Penalty Rule

On: By: Bill Gatesman

If one applies for Medicaid to pay for long term care in a nursing home, the state will look to see if the applicant made any gifts in the five years preceding the Medicaid application. If so, then (with some exceptions addressed in various articles on this website) a period of Medicaid ineligibility will be imposed.

For many years before 2014, the period of ineligibility was determined by dividing the amount of the gift by $6,800, which amount was supposed to be the average monthly cost of care in a nursing home. In July, 2014, that number was changed to $7,940. Medicaid has again updated the divisor to take into account Nursing Home care cost inflation.

Effective July 1, 2016, the divisor to determine the number of months of Medicaid ineligibility for gift transfers is $8,684, which means that one would be ineligible for one month for every $8,684 in gifts made during the five years preceding the Medicaid application. Please be aware that this number is revised from time to time. Please contact us to find out the current divisor amount.

Bear in mind that the term “gift” means any transfer of resources with respect to which the transferor did not receive full value. Thus, if a person sold her house for less than it’s fair market value (Medicaid uses assessed value or an appraisal to determine fair market value), then Medicaid will treat the difference between the sales price and the deemed fair market value to be a gift transfer even if such sale was made to a third party in a bona fide arms length transaction.

We at the Gatesman Law Office endeavor to stay at the cutting edge of new developments in Medicaid law and policy.

Should you have any questions as to how this new policy might affect you or a loved one, please contact us by clicking the Contact link on this website.

Bill Gatesman

A People’s Lawyer

On: By: Bill Gatesman

A client recently posted a review of my services on AVVO, the independent legal resource website. You may CLICK HERE to read the review.

This client referred to me as “A People’s Lawyer,” and wrote the following:

William Gatesman assisted me in having my father’s trust terminated and the trust assets distributed to me and the other beneficiaries of the trust before the time that those assets were supposed to be distributed. We did this with a petition to the circuit court and the court allowed the distribution without holding a hearing based upon Mr. Gatesman’s written petition. And, while I engaged Mr. Gatesman to obtain this result, he went a step further and negotiated with the Trustee’s attorney to get the trustee to reimburse me for expenses I had paid relating to my father’s death, something I had been trying to do without success. Finally, Mr. Gatesman proposed and worked out an arrangement whereby the other trust beneficiaries agreed to reimburse me for a portion of my legal fees.

I am very pleased with Mr. Gatesman’s representation. He was easy to work with, he got me the result I had requested, and he made suggestions for other ways I could benefit from the representation and succeeded in obtaining those results. I highly recommend William M. Gatesman.

When a Parent Dies Owning a House with a Mortgage, May the Children Inherit the House Without Getting a New Mortgage?

On: By: Bill Gatesman

When a parent dies owning a house that is subject to a mortgage, the question arises whether a child or other beneficiary of the parent’s estate can inherit the real property without obtaining a new mortgage by simply continuing to make the payments on the existing mortgage.

In general, mortgages are subject to a “due on sale clause,” which is a term in the mortgage agreement that allows the lender to accelerate the loan (that is, immediately collect the balance due) upon the transfer, or retitling of the real property to another person. However, under Federal law, there are a number of transfers that may be made without triggering a due on sale clause, including a transfer of the property to a relative of the deceased owner as a consequence of the owner’s death.

That Federal law is known as the “Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act of 1982”, which is codified at 12 USC 1701j-3.

Continue reading “When a Parent Dies Owning a House with a Mortgage, May the Children Inherit the House Without Getting a New Mortgage?” →

Beware the Revocable Trust Creditor Trap

On: By: Bill Gatesman

In Maryland, creditors may not make a claim against a deceased person’s estate once six months have passed since the person’s death. What that means is that a creditor seeking to assert a claim six months or more following someone’s death will not be allowed to collect the debt.

One exception to this rule is that a creditor who has a secured interest, for example, a bank that holds a mortgage on the deceased person’s real property, will still be able to collect against the proceeds of the sale of such real property, and retains the right to foreclose on the real property if the mortgage payments are not being made. However, such bank would be precluded from collecting more than the sales proceeds if the house sells for less than the mortgage loan balance if the bank did not make a claim in the estate of the deceased person within six months following that person’s death.

Continue reading “Beware the Revocable Trust Creditor Trap” →