Graber & Johnson Law Group LLC Blog: April 2018
A Faster Way to Stop Elder Abuse
One of the many challenges in fighting elder abuse is that even when it is discovered, it can be difficult to stop it quickly.
Elder abuse can occur in several different ways. However, one of the most pernicious ways is when a person entrusted to help an elderly person uses that trust to gain access to financial account information. The “trusted” person then commits abuse by managing an elderly person's accounts for his or her own benefit.
When this financial abuse of the elderly is discovered or suspected, it is not always easy to put a quick end to it through the legal system. Therefore, the abuse continues for longer than it should.
To fix this problem, some New Hampshire legislators think they have come up with a solution as Seacoast Online reports in "House bill would help elder victims of financial abuse."
The idea is to create a fast track for disabled people and the elderly to get legal relief, similar to how victims of domestic violence can get protective orders. Some elderly victims do currently qualify for domestic violence protective orders but not all.
The process varies from state to state. However, all states have some sort of process, whereby a domestic violence victim can get a quick protective order from a judge for immediate relief. Giving the same level of protection to victims of elder abuse would speed up the process greatly.
Talk to an elder law attorney if you have questions about what to do in your state to help victims of elder abuse.
Reference: Seacoast Online (March 17, 2018) "House bill would help elder victims of financial abuse."
Planning After You Retire
After you retire, you should continue to make plans so that you will be ready in case anything happens.
Everyone knows that it takes a lot of planning to retire properly. You must make sure that all of your finances are in order. You also should make sure that you have completed everything you need to receive Social Security benefits, when you want to start them and to enroll for Medicare.
It might be tempting to stop planning after retirement. However, there is still some planning left to do, as the Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog explained in "Post-Retirement Planning: A Checklist for Seniors."
Retirees need to plan for emergencies and the possibility of no longer being able to handle their own affairs. They need a general durable power of attorney, a health care power of attorney and a living will.
Fortunately, those documents are easy to get from elder law attorneys. However, just getting those documents is not quite enough.
If something happens to a retired person, the people designated to help immediately need to be able to step into their roles. That means all the information necessary for them needs to be gathered into one place. This information includes a list of financial, investment and digital accounts. It also means that the legal documents need to be stored in the same place. Finally, a trusted friend or family member should be told where to find everything, if needed.
Talk to an elder law attorney, if you have questions about what you need to do to plan after you retire.
Reference: Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog (March 20, 2018) "Post-Retirement Planning: A Checklist for Seniors."
There are two types of people who like tax season. One is accountants and the other is tax attorneys. For everyone else, it is the worst time of the year. Even accountants and tax attorneys are probably relieved when tax season is finally over, because no one likes doing their taxes.
To complete your estate plan, you should hire an experienced estate planning attorney. When the attorney has your financial information and knows who you want to receive what is in your plan, the attorney can help you determine the best way to write a plan to accomplish your specific objectives.
If Medicaid ends up needing to pay for your nursing home care, the government will seek to take any assets that you have to pay for its costs. You might be able to create a trust to get around that problem.
One of the realities of aging in America, is that people who need to stay in long-term nursing home care cannot pay for their stays without losing all of their assets. There is nothing left for their children to inherit. They spend everything they have left, and only then will the government pay for their care through Medicaid.
If the elderly person has a home, the government will even seek to claim that and sell it after no one else is living there. That creates an awful feeling for many elderly parents, because they have nothing to leave their families.
There are some ways around this problem, including using a certain type of trust as the Times Herald-Record discussed in "Benefits of Medicaid Asset Protection Trust."
A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust is a trust that set up specifically to protect assets from Medicaid, while still qualifying an elderly person for Medicaid assistance with long-term care. These are irrevocable trusts and any assets put into them at least five full years before applying for Medicaid are protected. The trusts are not perfect, since the trust settlors cannot use any of the principal in the trusts. However, income can be used.
If you are interested in a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust, talk to an elder law attorney about one and other options you might have.
If you were to survey people about who most needs an estate plan, the most popular answer would likely be incorrect. People think that the wealthy need estate plans the most. However, that is not true. Parents with minor children need them more.
Reference: Volume One (March 7, 2018) "When There's a Will."
Estate planning for farmers is different than it is for other people, since the focus must be on who will inherit the farm.
When farmers get older, they start worrying about what will happen to the farm, after they pass away. Many would like to keep the farm in the family.
Sometimes farmers only have one child and that child would like to take over the farm. However, most of the time, farmers have multiple children. One, all or none of the children may have any interest in the farm. That makes planning seem difficult, but there are many options available to structure an estate plan that can both treat your family fairly and ensure the succession of the farm the way you envision. For an example see the following three steps to consider, as Agriculture.com discusses in "3 Steps To Succession Planning."
Communicate with family members about what you want to happen to your farm after you pass away and figure out what your family expects to happen. This is especially important when children are not interested in farming, so their inheritance expectations can be known and taken into account.
Try to determine what tools are available to meet your goals. If you can modify a lease agreement to help meet your goals, then that may be an available tool.
The last thing to do is to determine your legal options. This is where a good estate planning attorney comes into play.
Having an estate and business planning attorney that has worked with families that farm is crucial, as they can listen to your goals discuss options on how best to meet them. What that will look like will vary because every family farm is different.
Reference: Agriculture.com (March 8, 2018) "3 Steps To Succession Planning."
Advice for Widows and Widowers
It is not easy losing a spouse. However, widows and widowers do not have to let dealing with financial issues overwhelm them.
When people anticipate that their spouse will pass away, they often have a very difficult time handling everything afterwards. The grief that comes with the loss can make other things seem overwhelming, even for those people who have thought ahead and made careful plans. Things are also much worse when a spouse passes away unexpectedly.
If the deceased spouse was the one who handled most of the financial issues for the couple, things can get even more difficult. However, widows and widowers should not let financial issues bother them too much, as the Green Bay Press Gazette explains in "Financial planning tips for navigating loss of a loved one."
The truth is that most financial decisions are not nearly as urgent or important as they are often made out to be. Widows and widowers do not have to make any financial decisions, until they are forced to do so. They should not make those decisions before. They should put off as much as they can, until they have had a chance to properly mourn the loss of a spouse.
Things do go much better for widows and widowers, when the deceased spouse has made proper estate planning arrangements. Having an estate plan will greatly help your spouse, if something happens to you.
Posted by Graber & Johnson Law Group LLC on 04/03/2018 at 12:03 PM in Estate Planning | Permalink | Comments (0)