Providing asset protection, support and guidance to families, I realize that the cost of care is not usually understood. Our typical client is not aware that planning for care is similar to planning for a child's education; there is a need to plan ahead or you may not end up where you want to be or end up paying too much. The need for planning is becoming more important as our nation's demographics are evolving to a situation that has never been seen before. The nation's population of senior citizens is about to rise to historic levels. By year's end,…
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…
Learning to cope with Dementia, maintaining a loved one’s dignity as they become more dependent… most of us are not equipped to navigate these issues. Moreover, uninformed (even though well-intentioned) legal, financial and medical decisions can have negative and long-lasting impact. We help family members ensure the best care for their loved ones by: Eliminating confusion around medical, legal, and financial options Preventing a crisis and unnecessary hospitalizations Reducing miscommunications among family members, with the loved one, and with other professionals Creating a comprehensive life care plan that anticipates and addresses problems Acting as a liaison to families at a distance,…
A mistake in elder-law estate planning is failure to regularly review the plan. At a minimum, each client's estate plan should be reviewed every three years to determine whether changes in the client's personal life, such as health, assets or family history (births, deaths, marriages, divorces, etc.) might require changes to the plan. Similarly, changes in the law may lead to changes in the plan. It is unrealistic to expect a plan established today to be effective 10, 20, 30 or more years in the future. Over time, clients may want to change their backup trustees or plan of distribution….
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…
We have lately seen a rash of cases where the corporate veil was busted primarily for lack of adequate capitalization. Thus, business owners should take the time to analyze their O&O and make sure that they are now — and continue to be — adequately capitalized for whatever they are doing and whatever agreements they are entering. The corporate veil is not an unlimited defense… as yet another owner of a sole shareholder corporation has discovered in a recent case, Bogosian v. All American Concessions, 2011 WL 4460362 (E.D.N.Y., Slip Copy, Sept. 26, 2011). So, what did him in? As…
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…
Frederick, MD 
301-663-9230
