Tag: Elder Law
“Probate and trust administration are not the same. There are important differences and similarities between administering a decedent’s probate estate and administering a decedent’s trust estate.” Many people get these two things confused. A recent article, “Appreciating the differences between probate and trust administration” from Lake County News clarifies the distinctions. Let’s start with probate, […]
“Orlando Cepeda wants to know where his money went. He also wants to learn what happened to all of his baseball memorabilia, including his 1967 National League Most Valuable Player Award, and wants to be made whole.” Eighty-two-year-old Giants great Orlando Cepeda filed a lawsuit against his daughter-in-law Camille Cepeda alleging elder financial abuse, fraud […]
Special Needs Trust Pitfalls: Planning for Parents “Both the state and federal government, administered through the Social Security Administration (SSA) and Medicaid provide disabled individuals with a variety of life enhancing, and sometimes life sustaining, public benefits.” Public benefits for disabled individuals include health care, supplemental income, and resources, like day programs and other vital […]
“Each year, senior citizens lose billions of dollars to financial fraud, with the loss to individual victims averaging tens of thousands of dollars.” The extended isolation and loneliness during the coronavirus pandemic is creating the perfect storm for financial exploitation of seniors, who are unable to visit with family members and friends, reports Fredericksburg Today […]
“Seniors are especially at risk during the coronavirus pandemic. The numbers are shocking.” The numbers are frightening, especially for those over 80. By the time seniors with COVID-19 are admitted to the hospital, it’s usually too late to do anything about their legacy. This topic was taken up recently in the article “Tips for protecting […]
“Parents may delay creating an elder law estate plan, because of the in-law issue. Some parents are unfortunately estranged from an adult child, only because of the problematic son-in-law or daughter-in-law.” Let’s say you want to leave everything you own to your children, but you can’t stand and don’t trust their spouses. That might make […]
“Unfortunately, over a decade, the number of observation stays has increased exponentially and is being used even when patients have a diagnosis and have been admitted by their own physicians.” There’s a troubling quirk in the Medicare system that occurs when older patients are hospitalized and instead of being officially admitted, they are placed on […]
“Take, for example, the sad and sordid tax case of Mary Ellen Cranmer Nice vs. United States of America, which would not have existed if an attentive financial advisor hadn’t noticed the large IRA distributions that were allegedly stolen right from under a matriarch’s nose.” The case of Nice vs. U.S. is a dramatic example […]
“Without a proper elder law estate plan, the children’s responsibilities are even more exhausting, stressful and sad.” It is the adult children who oversee aging parents when they need long-term care. They are also the ones who settle estates when parents die. Even if they can’t always come out and tell you, the recent article, […]
“When parents start the planning process for a child with special needs, they usually work under the perception that if they create a special needs trust (SNT), the child will be taken care of and the needs will be met.” Funding a Special Needs Trust is just the start of the planning process for families […]
