Even if you’ve created an estate plan, are you sure you included everything you need to? There are certain provisions that people often forget to put in in a will or estate plan that can have a big impact on your family. 1. Alternate Beneficiaries One of the most important things your estate plan should…
All hospitals must now give Medicare recipients notice when they are in the hospital under observation status. The notice requirement is part of a law enacted in 2015 but that just took effect. Signed by President Obama in August 2015, the law was intended to prevent surprises after a Medicare beneficiary spends days in a…
Philip Moeller. Get What’s Yours for Medicare: Maximize Your Coverage, Minimize Your Costs. Simon & Schuster. New York, N.Y. 2016. 291 pages. Medicare is a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it provides guaranteed coverage for Americans over age 65 or who are disabled, and the program has improved the health of millions since it…
For better or for worse, our current culture is very car-dependant; in many places, cars are the only convenient link to the outside world. Unfortunately, as people age, driving can become more difficult and more dangerous. The elderly drive less, but have more crashes per mile than younger drivers. This is partially because elderly individuals…
Many attorneys create trusts, and some even create special needs trusts, often using pre-written templates. So why, you may ask, do you really need an attorney whose practice focuses on special needs planning? It is important that special needs trusts not be unnecessarily inflexible and generic, which is what can happen with a “one size…
ABLE accounts are a relatively new planning tool available to individuals with disabilities. The Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act, signed by President Obama in 2014, allows individuals who meet certain criteria to open and hold assets in an account that will not be counted as a resource for the purposes of public benefits. …
Say you or a loved one with special needs just won a multi-million dollar lawsuit award or settlement. While the case was pending Medicaid was paying the medical bills. By setting up a special needs trust, you can preserve the beneficiary’s eligibility for Medicaid and other government benefits. But many newly “wealthy” clients ask what…
Parents of children with special needs must be concerned with ensuring that medical and financial decisions will continue to be made in the child’s best interest once the child reaches age 18 — the age of legal capacity. In most states, once a child reaches age 18, he is presumed to have decision-making capacity and…
When leaving a home to your children, you can avoid probate by using either joint ownership or a revocable trust, but which is the better method? If you add your child as a joint tenant on your house, you will each have an equal ownership interest in the property. If one joint tenant dies, his…
A couple who are both age 60 and who purchase new long-term care insurance coverage can expect to pay between 6 and 9 percent more compared to a year ago according to the 2017 Long Term Care Insurance Price Index, an annual report from the American Association for Long-Term Care Insurance, an industry group. But rates…
