LTCI protects your assets and income from the costs of care, as pays for a caregiver in your home or helps pay for the assisted living facility. The MAPT protects assets, like your home and your life savings, but it does not protect your income (pensions, social security, interest, dividends, etc.). The MAPT has no positive effect in terms of providing care. However, in the event LTCI is unavailable to you for medical or financial reasons, the MAPT is a wonderful tool. With the MAPT in place five years before you go into a nursing home your assets are protected….
More than 65 million Americans provide more than $350 billion a year in uncompensated care to friends and family members. Now, with older populations growing rapidly, the need for caregiving is rising, just as a brutal economic downturn is making money increasingly tight. In response, some family caregivers are being paid for their work, usually by an aging parent. And while authoritative numbers aren't available, David Wingate, elder care attorney states” they're seeing more families creating caregiver agreements.” However, he cautions that agreements need to be extensively documented and must stand up as arm's length contracts. Furthermore, family members involved…
Some people do, but we can simplify the process of caring for your elderly loved one by creating a customized, easy to follow life care plan. We are a one stop shop for all of your needs regarding the care of mature adults. We are well acquainted with a wide variety of local services, knowing the quality and cost of each. We can save you time and, truly, a lot of frustration. We provide two major “umbrella” services; a Life Care Plan for families to follow based on a comprehensive assessment and on-going Care Coordination and Management. The other service …
Whenever making loans — to anyone — there should be a written promissory note that spells out the amount borrowed, whether interest is being charged and how repayments are to be made. It’s fine if it’s merely a demand loan and there’s no repayment schedule. But parents should also specify, in their wills or trusts, how the loan should be handled after they die. Require it to be repaid? Forgive the loan? Offset it with interest? Without interest? A loan is not a gift; if you’ve spoken with a bank representative or a particularly pennywise relative. We talk a lot…
A caregiver cotract is angreement between an aging parent and child, a relative or anyone else that sets forth the length of time and rate of pay for caregiving services, and the tasks to be performed. However, most children don’t want to be paid for services provided to their parents. But, the children are providing a valuable service, and may be suffering a financial loss by taking time away from a job to do so, or other activities. Also, by spending down assets to pay for caregiving, aging parents can utilize this asset protection tool to qualify for Medicaid if…
Proper estate planning for your assets depends, in large part, on what those assets are. Common assets in an estate include the obvious, such as real estate, collections, cash, brokerage accounts, retirement funds and stock portfolios. However, there can be less obvious assets requiring special attention. A recent article through Forbes points this out with a fairly common example that is all too easily forgotten: the special estate planning problem of guns. Guns are as natural to own for some as any other asset is. Indeed, to some, their firearms collection is really more akin to an art collection. That…
As some of you may know, the guidelines surrounding eligibility for Medicare or Medicaid can be fairly rigid. They exist to ensure people aren’t gaming the program, but sometimes even who aren’t gaming the program (and have legitimate need) can unintentionally run afoul of the rules. For another example of what not to do, the case of Jackson v. Director of Office of Medicaid (Mass. App. Ct., No. 10P706, July 19, 2011). When Raymond Duclos was entering a nursing home, his wife was making transfers to their children: $176,000 to their daughter, Susan; $11,787.83 to their son, Raymond, Jr.; and…
We tend to think of the law as a rigid structure, unless of course it’s bending to help us. On the other hand, the law also might bend against us… and that can be rather unsettling, especially when you are a debtor attempting to protect your assets. Unfortunately, it seems creditors win most of the asset protection cases brought to court. In fact, a review of such cases suggests that courts have a bias in favor of creditors over debtors. Jay Atkinson at Forbes recently weighed in on why that is so and offers a glimpse into the politics and…
Estate planning can be daunting. Once you get past the fact that your very mortality (and morbidity) is the triggering event, estate planning means taking stock of all you own and, what is often more important, how you own it. Yes, there are many degrees of ownership and each can make for some difficult wrinkles. One common phenomenon is joint ownership between generations. Not only is it common, but it can make for some unintended problems. Forbes recently ran a piece on some of these problems and the five reasons to avoid such ownership form. Let’s review some of the…
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