Mills Legal Planning PLLC

08/24/2026

The most consequential 72 hours in elder law usually happen before anybody calls a lawyer.

The window looks like this. A client's father falls, the hospital says he can't go home, and a nursing home has a bed if the family signs today. Over the next three days, somebody signs a thirty page admission packet. Federal law bars the facility from requiring a personal guarantee, but the responsible party provisions carry real duties, apply Dad's money to Dad's care and see the Medicaid application through, and a signer who takes those duties on in her own name and falls short of them can be sued for the shortfall. Somebody digs out the power of attorney, and if it's a cheap form, it won't grant the gifting and trust powers a Medicaid plan requires, and Dad no longer has the capacity to sign a better one. And the family starts writing checks from Dad's account with no plan at all, spending money the rules would have let them keep.

I spent years representing nursing homes in Medicaid matters before I opened my firm. I've seen the file after a family made all three mistakes in one afternoon, with nobody in the room to warn them.

The lawyer usually gets called in month four, after the damage is done.

If you're the advisor, the CPA, or the pastor who gets the first phone call, the most useful thing you can know is that this window exists. Whoever the family trusts, get them in front of an elder law attorney before anything gets signed.

The first week decides the next year.

08/13/2026

A lot of the hardest calls we get start the same way.

Somebody's husband had a stroke, or Dad's memory finally got to where the family can't pretend anymore, and now there's business that has to be handled and nobody has the legal authority to handle it.

She may be able to make his medical decisions, but she can't touch his 401(k), and she can't sell or refinance the house they own together, because that takes his signature and he can't give one.

The only way through at that point is guardianship court, which means paying a lawyer to ask a judge to declare your own husband disabled, then evaluations, months of waiting, and filing reports with the court from then on.

A power of attorney is the document that keeps all of that from happening. But having one isn't the same thing as having one that works.

Families come in with a power of attorney printed off the internet, or one that got tacked onto a will twenty years ago, and it won't do the job. Dad's headed to the nursing home, there's a legal way to protect the house, and the document doesn't grant the power to do it. Under Kentucky law an agent can't make gifts, set up a trust, or change beneficiary designations unless the document spells those powers out. Cheap forms leave that out. Many cap gifts at amounts so small they're useless for long term care planning. And when the document falls short, you're back in front of a judge asking permission, and judges don't always give it.

If you wrecked your truck you wouldn't call a divorce lawyer. Long term care is its own area of law, and a power of attorney drafted by an elder law attorney is drafted for the day a nursing home enters the picture. That's the day it gets used.

So if yours came off the internet, or you couldn't tell me what it says, bring it by the office. It takes one meeting to tell you whether it'll hold up. And if you don't have one at all, that's an easier fix than you'd think.

Call us at (606) 294-6093.

08/08/2026

We hit 54 straight five star Google reviews this week.

Those reviews aren't really for us. They're for the people who haven't called yet. Somewhere in Corbin tonight there's a daughter lying awake over her dad's nursing home bill. There's a couple in Somerset who've put off their estate plan for 20 years, a family in Manchester that just got hard news and doesn't know who to call first, a widow in Middlesboro with a farm deed nobody's touched since the 80s. And there's a son up in Lexington or Richmond trying to look after Mom from the other end of I-75.

This work runs on trust. Before I can fix anything, you have to tell me what you own, what you owe, and what's going on in your family. Most people would rather not do that with a stranger. That's what the reviews are for. 54 families already sat in that chair and told you how it went.

So if you're in one of those situations, go read them. They'll tell you more than any ad I could run.

And to the folks who wrote them, thank you.

05/08/2026

Most people think estate planning is about the documents.

It isn't.

The documents are the easy part. What actually determines whether a plan works is everything that happens around them. How your house is titled. Who's listed as beneficiary on your accounts. Whether your trust actually owns what it's supposed to own. Whether your power of attorney is broad enough to handle long term care decisions if you can't.

A trust that was never funded is just paper. A will that contradicts your beneficiary designations doesn't control those accounts, the designation does. A power of attorney that's too narrow can leave your family stuck applying for guardianship at the worst possible time.

None of this shows up at signing. It shows up years later, when someone is in a nursing home, or has passed, or can't make decisions anymore.

If you've got a plan sitting in a drawer and you're not sure it still works, that's worth a conversation.

Schedule your Peace of Mind Planning Session here:

Ready to get a Will or Trust in place? Our Peace of Mind Planning Session is for you! This is a planning session with Jacob M. Mills, Esq. so you can learn more about how to protect your family and assets with an estate plan. Here's what will happen: You'll share your goals and objectives Jacob

04/23/2026

Things I say in consults often enough that I finally wrote them on a whiteboard. And before you ask, no, they do not grade handwriting in law school.

A will does NOT avoid probate court.

Telling your kids what you want does NOT avoid probate.

Hiding the deed in a coffee can does NOT avoid probate.

Hope is NOT a plan.

The coffee can one happens more than you'd think.

If your estate plan is on this board, we should talk.

(606) 294-6093

04/15/2026

04/15/2026

The Bluegrass Baker is our go to for sweet treats!