Last week, we discussed your options when you are married and only one of you is in a nursing home. Medicaid rules are very different when you are both in a nursing home or you are single and in a …
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Divestment Penalties
As we have discussed in prior columns (6/13/10 and 6/20/10), you have to spend down your excess assets before Medicaid will pay for your nursing home expenses. In order to spend down excess assets and qualify for Medicaid, I often …
Medicaid and Nursing Home Spend Down
You have probably heard that you have to spend down all of your assets on nursing home costs to a mere $2,000 before Medicaid will pay for your nursing home care. Often what you are not told is those assets …
Titling of Assets
So you have your trust based estate plan. In addition to your trust, your trust based estate plan should also include, at a minimum, your financial and healthcare powers of attorney and your pour-over will. Your financial and healthcare powers …
Medical Decision Making for Young Adult Children
It is the high school graduation season and now time for my annual column for young adults. If you have any adult high school or college aged children, they are responsible for making their own medical and mental health care …
The Court Can’t Stop Stupid
You may have read Dear Abby’s column last week from Conflicted Sis In Maryland, in which Grandmother left some money to her grandson who was a life-long drug addict. Grandmother named grandson’s sister as executor (personal representative in Michigan.) Sister …
Converting Traditional IRAs to Roth IRAs
As you have likely heard many times by now, changes in federal law under the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 (“TIPRA”) went into effect on January 1, 2010, easing the qualification limits for you to convert your …
Repeal of Federal Estate Tax
In 2001, the Federal Government passed the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001 (“EGTRRA”). This tax bill provided for the gradual increase of your federal estate tax exemption amount from $675,000 in 2001 to $3.5 million in …
Social Security Question
When it comes to learning about Social Security, there is a lot to know — so you may find yourself full of questions. If you have a question, visit Social Security’s frequently asked questions page at HYPERLINK “http://www.socialsecurity.gov” www.socialsecurity.gov. Just …
If There Is No Will, There Is A Way
If you are like the majority of people in America, you do not have a signed will. Just because you do not have a signed will, does not mean you do not have a “will”. In the absence of a …