The Law Offices of Brenton C. McWilliams

The Law Offices of Brenton C. McWilliams An estate planning, wills, trusts and probate law firm. The Law Offices of Brenton C. At the Law Offices of Brenton C.

McWilliams is a law firm concentrating its legal practice on estate planning, wills and trusts, elder law and probate estate administration. With offices in Orange Beach, Foley and Daphne, the firm serves clients throughout Baldwin and Mobile Counties. Through the firm's virtual estate planning offering, the firms serves clients throughout Alabama. McWilliams, the best interest of the client comes

first. Legal guidance is provided by an experienced attorney in a warm, hospitable atmosphere. The firm has glowing reviews from previous clients who describe the law firm staff as exceptionally friendly, professional and attentive to the needs of their clients. Brenton is described as a patient, down to earth person who is easy to talk to and has an ability to explain complicated legal concepts in a language that non-lawyers can understand. To find out more information, visit brentonmcwilliams.com. To schedule a consultation, please call (251) 215-9275.

09/03/2026

The $2,000 Mistake in Special Needs Planning:

There is a version of this problem that is harder to catch, because it is not in your documents at all.

A grandmother. An aunt. A godparent who has always intended to leave something to this child and has never heard there is a benefits question attached to it. Their will can create the exact same result yours would have.

Which means the conversation has to go wider than just you. Ask who else is planning to leave this child something, then tell them what you have learned. Most people are relieved to find out before they write it, not after.

Life insurance. Retirement accounts, the 401(k) and the IRA. Payable on death bank accounts. Anything else with a benefi...
09/03/2026

Life insurance. Retirement accounts, the 401(k) and the IRA. Payable on death bank accounts. Anything else with a beneficiary form attached to it.

Every one of those pays whoever is named on the form, not whoever is named in the will. So the trust you built to fund a good life for your child never receives a dollar, because the biggest asset in the estate went around it.

Go find each form. Then ask one question about each one. Does this end up in that person's name, directly? If the answer is yes even once, there is a gap worth closing.

09/03/2026

This one happens to families who did everything right. They came in, they planned carefully, they put special needs language in the documents. And the money still landed in the wrong place.

Here is why. A lot of assets never go through the will at all. Life insurance pays whoever is named on the beneficiary form. Retirement accounts pay whoever is named on the beneficiary form. Payable on death bank accounts do the same thing.

Those forms are older than your estate plan, they are sitting at a company you have not called in fifteen years, and they do not care what your will says.

If your child's name is typed on one of them, the money goes to your child. Directly. In their name.

Watch the FULL VIDEO here: https://youtu.be/ZAL1FT3zSes

09/02/2026

What that fifty thousand dollars could have bought:

Years of therapy that insurance was not covering. A wheelchair accessible vehicle. A better apartment, closer to family.

That is what a fifty thousand dollar inheritance could have paid for. Left outright to someone receiving SSI, it becomes a disqualifying number on a form instead, and the family ends up spending part of it sorting out a problem they created by being generous.

None of this is about hiding money from anyone. It is about making sure there is money available for the things benefits were never designed to pay for.

Picture a normal estate plan. A couple, three children, everything divided equally.The moment that money passes to a chi...
09/02/2026

Picture a normal estate plan. A couple, three children, everything divided equally.

The moment that money passes to a child who receives SSI, it is hers. In her name. A countable resource. Fifty thousand dollars sitting against a two thousand dollar limit.

It does not wait in some neutral holding area for a good decision to be made. That is the part families do not expect.

Same generosity, same sentence, and one of the three ends up worse off than she was before.

One sentence in a will: divide everything equally among our three children.For two of those kids, that sentence does exa...
09/02/2026

One sentence in a will: divide everything equally among our three children.

For two of those kids, that sentence does exactly what the parents intended. Money arrives, life gets a little easier.

The third child receives SSI, and the same sentence produces a completely different result for her.

The question was never just how much do I want to leave my child. It is how should I leave it.

09/01/2026

A lot of families tell me their son or daughter gets disability. That phrase feels like it means one thing. It can mean two, and they follow different rules.

SSI, Supplemental Security Income, is needs based. To stay eligible, the recipient has to stay under limits on income and resources.

SSDI, Social Security Disability Insurance, works differently. It is based primarily on a worker's earnings record, and it does not use that same two thousand dollar resource test.

The mistake runs both directions. Some families plan around a limit that never applied to them. Others assume it does not apply when it absolutely does. Before you plan anything, find out exactly which benefits that person receives today, and which ones they may need later.

$2,000...That is the countable resource limit for an individual receiving SSI in 2026. ($3,000 for a couple.)Most famili...
09/01/2026

$2,000...That is the countable resource limit for an individual receiving SSI in 2026. ($3,000 for a couple.)

Most families hear that number and assume it has to be a typo. It isn't. It is the line that decides whether the benefits keep coming.

If you are planning to leave anything to someone who receives SSI, that number is what your plan has to work around. There are good ways to do it. They just have to be in place before the money arrives.

Figures like this reset on a schedule, so confirm the current limit when you plan.

09/01/2026

For our next series, we're going to discuss the $2,000 mistake when it comes to special needs planning:

A fifty thousand dollar inheritance can do the exact opposite of what a parent intended.

For someone receiving SSI, the countable resource limit in 2026 is $2,000.

Not $200,000.

$2,000.

Money that arrives in that person's own name doesn't sit in some neutral holding area waiting for a good decision to be made. It's theirs, and it counts.

Her parents had no idea when they sat down and wrote a perfectly ordinary will.

The new video walks through the five mistakes that cause this, and what to do instead.

To recap, here's the whole series in one list. If you're an unmarried couple in Alabama, the default laws were never bui...
08/31/2026

To recap, here's the whole series in one list. If you're an unmarried couple in Alabama, the default laws were never built for you, so protection has to be deliberate.

The five-part fix:
1. A cohabitation agreement stating plainly you are not married, signed while both of you can sign it.
2. A properly funded revocable living trust, so assets can pass outside probate.
3. A check on how your home is titled, because living there is not the same as inheriting it.
4. Coordinated beneficiary designations on retirement accounts and life insurance.
5. A financial power of attorney and an advance directive, since an unmarried partner may have no authority otherwise.

If you hesitated on any of these, that's worth a conversation. There's no pressure and no obligation. Give us a call or visit our website to schedule a consultation, and we'll walk through your situation together.

Address

25814 Canal Road, Ste #5
Orange Beach, AL
36561

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+12512159275

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