Second marriages require thoughtful planning if you want to make sure your assets and loved ones are protected as you arrange your estate. In Columbia, MD, an estate planning lawyer with local knowledge and experience can guide couples effectively through this process. 

What Planning Considerations Matter Most in a Second Marriage?

Asset Protection and Financial Clarity

Couples entering a second marriage are often bringing separate assets, debts, or obligations from prior relationships into a new one, so some open talks about finances are the strong foundation for your estate planning. Each partner should list what they own, what they owe, and any ongoing support payments they have to make from a previous marriage.

Property acquired during this second marriage is considered marital property belonging to both partners, but premarital holdings are distinct unless you actually mix them. Make sure your records are clear and you keep up separate accounts to maintain those boundaries if you need to.

Prenuptial Agreements

A prenuptial agreement spells out how assets get divided if the marriage ends. In Maryland, these contracts must be made in writing and have the signatures of both parties. These agreements can cover anything and everything from property division to inheritance rights and even alimony. Many second-marriage couples use them to shield assets that are meant to go to children from an earlier union. 

Social Security and Retirement Benefits

Social Security Administration rules end your eligibility for survivor benefits from a former spouse if you remarry before age 60. But if you get remarried after age 60, those benefits are still yours. However, at 62 or older, the new spouse’s record may actually offer higher payments, and you can only get one. It’s important to calculate both options before deciding. Also, consider how your combined incomes will influence your Medicare premiums or tax brackets. 

Planning for Incapacity and Long-Term Care

Durable powers of attorney name someone to handle your finances if you become incapacitated, while health care proxies appoint decision-makers for your medical choices if you’re not able to make those decisions yourself. In a second marriage, it’s important to make sure you set these up if you don’t have them and change them if you do so an old spouse doesn’t have unexpected authority over your estate or health in the event of a tragedy. 

Special Benefits to Working with an Estate Planning Lawyer in Columbia, MD

In addition to ​getting help in ​setting up everything covered above, working with a lawyer offers some other tangibles:

Help in Communication with Adult Children

Blended families get along best when all expectations are transparent, and adult children from prior marriages always appreciate knowing how the estate plan works. Your lawyer can help with the communication here if that would ease any potential family tension.

Information About Tax Implications

There can be a huge cost to any oversight you make in this area, and one of the benefits of working with a lawyer is having someone on board who can help you minimize your tax burden. 

Planning ahead makes all the difference when you’re arranging your estate after a second marriage. Contact Elville and Associates in Columbia, MD today for help with your estate planning. We also serve clients in Rockville and Annapolis.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

If you’re worried about how nursing home costs could affect your family’s financial security, there are practical steps you can take now to protect yourself from nursing home spend-down. A Medicaid planning attorney in Columbia, MD, can help you protect what matters most while ensuring you’re prepared for the future.

Strategies to Protect Assets From Nursing Home Spend-Down

Medicaid Rules

Medicaid rules include some built-in safeguards that can prevent someone from losing everything when their spouse needs extended nursing home care. These are known as spousal impoverishment protections.

The community spouse, which is the spouse still living at home, can keep a set amount of the couple’s combined countable resources. If the community spouse’s own income falls below the minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance (which is around $2,600 to $4,000 for 2026), then a portion of their spouse’s income is protected from Medicaid and nursing home expenses and can be used for the community spouse’s needs.

Preserving Exempt Assets and Making Allowable Expenditures

Not every asset you have counts toward Medicaid’s limit, so another strategy is to move assets around so that as much as possible is protected. You can keep your primary home so long as its value is below the limit and your spouse or a dependent lives there. You can also keep one vehicle, household goods, personal belongings, and a small burial fund.

One effective strategy is converting countable assets into exempt ones through allowable spending. There are a number of areas where you can spend, such as funeral pre-planning, buying a car, or improving your home ​in certain ways. ​Our team of lawyers, CPAs, and financial advisors can help you design a plan that meets your needs.

Trusts and Advance Planning Tools

Irrevocable trusts are a great way to shield your assets, but timing matters a lot here. If you transfer assets into a Medicaid asset protection trust, you must do so at least five years before you apply for benefits. Transfers made too close to the time of your application will trigger a penalty period of ineligibility equal to the transferred amount divided by the state’s average monthly nursing home cost. However, when you set up these trusts correctly and early, they remove assets from your countable estate while allowing you to retain some control over distributions.

Another option is a Medicaid-compliant annuity. This annuity names Maryland as the first beneficiary of any remaining benefit at the death of the community spouse. The annuity has to be irrevocable so that the spouse can’t borrow against it or accelerate payments. If Maryland puts a Medicaid lien on your estate, the remaining funds in the annuity once both spouses have passed away are payable to Maryland Medicaid.

Talk to a Medicaid Planning Attorney in Columbia, MD

These are just some of the available strategies, and Medicaid rules are notoriously complicated. We can help you come up with a plan that will protect you and your loved ones. Contact Elville and Associates in Columbia, MD today, or reach out to our Annapolis or Rockville offices to schedule a free consultation.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Beneficiary designations can be a great way to make sure that certain assets go straight to a loved one or charitable organization without the need to go through probate. However, your designations need to be carefully coordinated with your will and any trusts you set up, and a Columbia, MD estate planning attorney can help you make sure this is done correctly.

How Beneficiary Designations Coordinate With Your Will or Trust

To properly understand how this works, you need to grasp:

• What a beneficiary designation is
• Why you would set one up
• How designations coordinate with a will
• Rules for choosing beneficiaries

What Is a Beneficiary Designation?

There are certain assets where you can designate a beneficiary who will immediately receive that asset upon your death. The most common of these is a life insurance policy. Whoever is the designated beneficiary of your life insurance receives the payment , and that money does not go into your estate and is not figured as part of your will. This means it does not go through probate.

Why Would You Set One Up?

You might wonder why you would set these up if your will already designates family members as beneficiaries to your estate. You certainly can choose to designate your own estate as the beneficiary of your account accounts, but one of the key reasons to set individual designated beneficiaries is to allow your family to avoid the probate process, which in Maryland can be very long and expensive.

How Do Designations Coordinate With a Will?

This is where things can get tricky and why it’s important to have an estate planning lawyer help you set everything up. Generally speaking, your designated beneficiaries will take precedence over the terms of your will. You want to make sure that there are no instructions in your will that conflict with your designations so that there’s no confusion in the probate process or personal conflict among your family members.

Even worse, that interference could actually prevent your will from being executed according to your wishes. This is why some designations go directly to the estate.

Who Can Be a Designated Beneficiary?

It depends on the type of account. For life insurance, nearly anyone over 18 can be designated, and if you wish to designate a minor, the money would go to their guardian or into a trust until they turn 18.
You can also designate charities, churches, or other entities, like your business.

With retirement accounts, things are trickier. Under the SECURE Act, only surviving spouses, minor children, disabled or chronically ill individuals, and those who are less than 10 years younger than you can be designated.

Get Help from a Columbia, MD Estate Planning Attorney

The best way to be sure your designations and your will are coordinated is to work with an experienced attorney from the start. Set up a consultation with us at Elville and Associates at our offices in Columbia, Rockville, or Annapolis today, and we’ll guide you through the process.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

A proposed tax on the net worth of California billionaires is sending shockwaves across the country.  The controversial state law introduced on October 21, 2025, would impose a one-time, five percent tax during the lifetime of its residents.  This type of tax on an individual’s “net worth” is similar to an estate tax, which taxes a decedent’s estate at death, and should now be part of estate planning and asset protection conversations in Maryland, the District of Columbia, and beyond.

What Is the California Billionaire Tax?

Initially, the law was proposed by a healthcare justice union as a way to pay for healthcare costs for the state’s low-income residents who will lose Medicaid coverage in the wake of federal funding cuts in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (“OBBBA”); one estimate suggests the tax could generate $100 billion in revenue over five years.  Supporters of the proposal argue that it is unfair that many billionaires shield their primary assets – such as corporate stock, investments, and real estate – from being taxed during life and at death.  Proponents believe the tax is fair because billionaires benefited the most from OBBBA.  The proposal will be on November’s ballot if enough residents sign the initiative.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Justin M. Ginsburg | No Comments »

At Elville and Associates, delivering consistent, high-quality service to our clients depends on strong leadership and coordination behind the scenes.

We are proud to announce that Vonda Dubard has been promoted to Practice Group Manager at Elville and Associates.

In this role, Vonda helps lead and coordinate the firm’s core practice groups—ensuring attorneys and staff work seamlessly together, workflows are efficient, and every client receives thoughtful, organized estate planning and elder law services. Practice groups play a critical role in supporting complex planning, maintaining quality standards, and guiding matters smoothly from start to finish.

Vonda’s deep knowledge of the firm, steady leadership, and commitment to exceptional client service make her exceptionally well suited for this position. Her promotion reflects both her professional skill and the trust she has earned from colleagues and clients alike.

Please join us in congratulating Vonda on this well-deserved achievement!

Posted in News | No Comments »

A life estate can be a useful planning tool for some Maryland families who want to protect a home, avoid probate, and plan ahead for the future. At the same time, life estates create permanent legal and financial consequences that are often misunderstood. Knowing when a life estate works well and when it creates long-term problems is essential before moving forward.

This article explains how life estates function in Maryland, common risks families encounter, how life estates interact with Medicaid planning, and alternatives that may offer greater flexibility.

What Is a Life Estate?

A life estate allows more than one person to hold ownership interests in the same property at different times. In Maryland, this typically allows a parent to live in and control a home for life while naming children or other individuals to receive the property automatically after death.

The person living in the home is called the life tenant. The individuals who will receive the property later are known as remaindermen. While remaindermen cannot take possession during the life tenant’s lifetime, they hold a present ownership interest in the property.

Life estate deeds are often used to avoid probate, support long-term planning goals, and simplify the transfer of a home. These benefits must be balanced against the legal limitations created by the deed.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Blog | No Comments »

A life estate can be a helpful tool for Maryland families looking to protect their homes, avoid probate, and plan for Medicaid. It is important to understand the risks involved. This article explains common life estate issues and why careful legal planning matters before deciding if this approach fits your situation.

What Is a Life Estate?

A life estate allows multiple people to hold interests in the same property at different times. In Maryland, this often means a parent keeps possession and use of their home while ensuring it passes to their children without going through probate.

By creating a life estate deed, families may avoid probate, reduce Medicaid exposure, and receive a step up in tax basis.

The person living in the home is known as the life tenant and retains control during their lifetime. The individuals who inherit the property are the remaindermen. Although they cannot take possession until the life tenant passes away, they hold a current ownership interest.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Blog | Comments Off on Life Estates in Maryland: Benefits, Risks, and Better Planning Options

There are many types of trusts that can protect your estate, but choosing the right trust for your needs requires experience and extensive knowledge of the law, related tax issues, and more. Talk to a trusts and estates lawyer here in Columbia, MD to get details on all the trust options and decide what will work best with your goals.

From a Trusts and Estates Lawyer in Columbia, MD: Meeting Your Goals With Revocable and Irrevocable Trusts 

A revocable trust is often the best choice if you want to keep full control of your assets and are just looking for a simple way to avoid probate and ensure that things smoothly transfer upon your death. You can make updates to this trust as your life circumstances change. These trusts are particularly useful if flexibility is one of your primary goals.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Wills and Trusts | No Comments »

Families often take comfort in knowing that a Special Needs Trust is in place. It represents foresight, care, and a long-term commitment to protecting a loved one with disabilities. What many families do not realize is that creating the trust is only the first step. Over time, changes in law, finances, benefits programs, and family circumstances can quietly undermine even a well-drafted trust if it is not reviewed and updated.

Understanding when a Special Needs Trust should be revisited can help ensure it continues to do what it was designed to do: preserve benefits, provide supplemental support, and protect your loved one’s quality of life.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Wills and Trusts | No Comments »

Authored by: Jeffrey D. Stauffer – Community Relations Director 

It was announced on Friday, December 19^th that Managing Principal Stephen Elville, Principal Attorneys Shannon Goodwin and Shannon Ladner, and Associate Attorney Sara von Stein Echeverria were honored on the 2026 Maryland Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Lists.  

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: news
Posted in Blog | No Comments »