Is working 4 hours per day too much to ask? If you ask a probate judge in Connecticut to do it, maybe it is…

The CT legislature enacted a requirement this last session that Connecticut Probate Courts remain open at least 20 hours each week. The legislature did not address how to accommodate the 20 hour requirement. So, who decides when the courts should be open to satisfy this new requirement?

In July Connecticut’s Probate Court Administrator, James Lawlor, notified the probate judges that their courts should be open 4 hours each day. Judge Lawlor also provided that a court could ask for a waiver from the daily requirement if they had good cause.

The Probate Judge’s Association was not happy with being told to show up for work every day even if it is only for 4 hours. The President of the Association, Brookfield’s Judge Joseph Secola, has threatened legal action to avoid this draconian work order from the Probate Court Administrator. One of his more amusing comments is [Lawlor's] “position is not king. The judges aren’t serfs that have to go to him on their knees to request a waiver from a standard that the law does not require.”

Hey Probate Judges, this is not the way to improve your image and enhance the respectability of a court system that has been under regular attack for the last five or so years. Go to work, serve the public, and stop the grand-standing over someone expecting you to show up to your job for 4 hours every day. If it is really that horrible, you can find another job. Oh wait, you might have to work 8 hours a day somewhere else.

A lot of people have to show up for work at a lot tougher jobs than yours for 8 or more hours ever day, remember that.

Well this is something you don’t see every day.

The Coventry Funeral Home was the subject of a search warrant on Tuesday. The home’s former owner, Kevin Riley, has been under investigation by the Health Department and the state probate court. Riley is accused of entering homes of the deceased and disposing of items without the family’s permission. The probate court is investigating that complaint as well as 12 other cases while the health department decides whether to revoke Riley’s embalmer’s license.

You can read the full story from WFSB here.

I don’t really have anything to add to this. All I can say is “wow.”

Until 1993, as a parent with a disabled child or the spouse of someone in a nursing home, you faced a difficult decision: if you left a legacy for your disabled child or spouse, you might make them ineligible for government assistance.

When the federal government enacted the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1993, however, it made it possible for you to 1) provide funds to support your special-needs child and 2) retain your child’s eligibility for federal, state and private charitable benefit programs such as SSI and Title 19 Medicaid.

The Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1993 excluded from benefit program eligibility requirements the legacy left to special-needs children in a properly created Special Needs Trust. A Special Needs Trust may provide no advantage if it is not properly established.

How to Secure the Future with a Special Needs Trust

The Special Needs Trust is simple to establish, and it not only provides immeasurable peace of mind, it also gives you complete control over your child’s care.

You work with your estate planning attorney to appoint Trustees for your child’s Special Needs Trust. The Trustees oversee your child’s well-being and manage the estate you or anyone else leave for his or her benefit. So there is no need for a probate court to determine your child’s fate.

Unlike the guardian or conservator a probate court might appoint, these Trustees are people you know and trust. Relatives or close family friends can be appointed to supervise your child’s personal care.

To work with financial institutions and manage the estate, you may want to appoint a professional financial advisor, as a Co-Trustee.

As part of setting up your child’s Special Needs Trust, you provide detailed written instructions in the trust to direct the Trustee’s activities. By law, Trustees must follow these instructions to the letter. So you have a tremendous degree of control over your child’s education, housing, and other needs.

Best of all, the Special Needs Trust preserves your child’s eligibility for federal, state and charitable benefit programs such as SSI and Title 19 Medicaid. The only requirement is that the funds withdrawn from the Special Needs Trust must be for purposes other than those covered under the governmental and private benefit programs. The concept is fairly simple, but the execution is technical and complex. Special Needs Trusts are carefully scrutinized by government benefits agencies and one error in the language of the trust can undo everything it is designed to accomplish.

Our Probate Courts are involved in some of the most intimate details of our lives. They primarily get involved in cases of death or disability. Probate records are also public, which can lead to distribution of personal and financial information you would rather not be “out there.”

Privacy concerns in Probate are nothing new. Attorneys have spread the word about these privacy concerns to the public over the years. Many families recognize the disadvantage of having their information in the public domain and have implemented an estate plan to protect their privacy. Some continue to be skeptical and do nothing. I understand the initial reaction of: “who could possibly be interested in my family’s probate records in small town Connecticut which contain nothing valuable other than a house?” One person that may be interested is that real estate investor down the street…

For those of you that think “it won’t happen to me”, consider the following. First, Diamond Farming Probate Real Estate Kit. This is a real estate investing program for sale throughout the United States that, in the words of its creator, “… explains in detail how you can make bargain, and even super-bargain buys, of real estate property going through probate.” Do you still think nobody is going through the Probate Court records to identify desperate sellers in order to make a low bid?

Second, take a look at Court Records Online. This is a company gathering up court records, including Probate records, to have available for retrieval on its website to anyone that is curious. Do you still think your records are going to stay relatively unknown and anonymous in the basement of the Town Hall?

Today’s topic is your information is valuable to someone. It can be someone you never imagined and someone with no personal agenda other than profit. Whether it is someone trying to make a low bid on your real estate for personal gain or a company just collecting public information for curious people someone is watching.

Are you committed to an estate plan that protects your privacy? I can show you proven techniques to preserve your privacy during disability and death. You can reserve your consultation by calling (860) 593-0404.