REDLANDS - Bill and Mary have $1 million in assets, including a $100,000 home, just as much in savings, a couple of cars, retirement accounts and jewelry.

When Mary is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, Bill tries to help her with managing her finances. But when he tries to make transactions with her retirement account, he discovers quickly that he is not recognized as the trustee on the account - and Mary's money remains where it is, unaccessible to her caregiver.

The scenario, portrayed by estate lawyer Dennis Sandoval of Norco, is something he and his firm, Riverside-based Dennis M. Sandoval Professional Law Corporation, hopes families can avoid with a little estate planning.

Thursday evening he presented a free seminar at Somerford Place, an assisted living facility for people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, about "Getting an Alzheimer's Patient's Estate and Finances in Order," or, as he lightly nicknamed it, "Planning for the forgetting."

A lot of couples and families, he said, don't have the energy or finances to go through putting their estates through probate, or the process of legally establishing the validity of a will or conservatorship through a court.

"It can take a minimum of seven months to go through probate," he told about 20 concerned audience members. "It costs money, it takes time, and it doesn't guarantee a convenient outcome."

He suggested filing for a living trust, so an individual or couple can manage their money as trustees of their estate while they're still living and capable of doing so.

Living estates usually provide instructions of who will handle a person's affairs if he or she should become incapacitated or die.

"Trusts should include language regarding the client's wishes regarding care and finances in the event they suffer from Alzheimer's, and it should state whether or not property should be sold off to qualify for government assistance like Medi-Cal," he said.

If it's not in the instructions, a court can't legally know what a person's intentions were before he or she got Alzheimer's, he said.

In order to qualify for government assistance, a couple's combined assets can't be more than $106,000 in California, he said - though the cost of medical care or assistance can be subtracted from the worth of one's assets.

To qualify, conservators usually need to sell a client's assets, but can't do that if there's no instructions allowing them to do so.

"They can still own homes and cars and have IRAs as long as they're withdrawing the required minimum amount," Sandoval said. "They can be on Medi-Cal or receive veteran's benefits and still protect their assets in order to pass along inheritance, but the property must be out of their name before they die so Medi-Cal can't recover their assets."

In order to do that, he recommended a living trust, in which a person, as the trustee, can put savings and pensions into a managed trust.

Jane Doe, for instance, would then deposit or withdraw savings from the Jane Doe Trust, and the trust would be designed so that when Jane Doe is no longer able to manage her own affairs, the trust has instructions of who takes over next.

Sandoval recommended not simply giving conservatorship automatically to their eldest child or spouse, for instance.

"You want to appoint someone to handle your affairs that has similar principles as you, who thinks like you do, and knows what you would want," she said. "You want to give it to someone who will not give in to others when they tell this person that's not what they should do."

Living trusts generally cost about $2,000 in California, he said, and are cheaper and less hassle than probates.

Probates tend to be involved when property such as homes and land is involved. Filing fees of a few hundred dollars at a time can add up, and courts are usually backlogged several weeks at a time.

A disadvantage that makes some people reluctant in filing a probate is that, like a will, all assets are listed in a court filing, which is a publicly assessible record.

All designees of the probate - and the amounts coming to them, right down the cent (and their addresses) - are available so that creditors can collect debts owed to them, but can also be accessed by "bad people," Sandoval said.

"Living trusts need to be funded," Sandoval advised. "You can't just open a trust and not put anything in it."

Everything has to be placed in the trust's name, not the individual's, otherwise, if the individual dies without having transferred anything over, nothing can be designated from it.

Sonia Estrada of Grand Terrace received a mailed invitation to the event. Her aunt and uncle are in various stages of Alzheimer's.

"I realized we don't have to go into probate," said a relieved Estrada. "It's an expensive, complicated and time-consuming process with little control over the assets."

Virginia Collins of Rialto wanted to stay up to date on the latest legal environment when it comes to Alzheimer's.

Her husband is a resident of Somerford Place.

"We already have a living trust - we've had one since 1992," she said. "I like to keep up with the changes. Laws change, so I want to be up on things. Every time I come to one of these, I learn something new - like having the power of attorney giving you the ability to sell a house. There's so much."

Somerford Place offers free seminars to the public once a month. The next one will be June 12, when Kris Woods, a registered nurse and naturopath from Thyme Out in Redlands, will discuss "A Holistic Approach to Elder Care," from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

On July 10, Redlands certified public accountant David Raff will talk about "How to Maximize Money in Assisted Living."

E-mail Staff Writer David James Heiss at [email protected]"

Mina N. Sirkin is a Family Wealth Lawyer in Los Angeles County, California.  Ms. Sirkin is a Board Certified Specialist in Estate Planning, Probate and Trust Law by the Board of Legal Specialization of the State Bar of California.  [email protected].  http://www.SirkinLaw.com.