With so many of our older clients suffering from the dementia and the early stages of Alzheimer's, as well as younger clients who may have developmental difficulties, estate practitioners are sometimes at a loss to determine whether a client has the capacity to...
Year: 2010
Estate Taxes in 2010 and Beyond – What’s Going On?
One of the questions clients and colleagues have asked most frequently this year is what is going on with the estate tax? Well, New York's estate tax isn't going anywhere. The first $1 million of assets is exempt, as is anything passing to a surviving spouse (with a...
Adults with Dementia Wander from Home in Increasing Numbers
Kirk Johnson's article in today's New York Times states that "More with Dementia Wander from Home" and for the first time, searches for lost adults outnumber those for lost children and adolescents in Virginia. Statistics show that "at least 6 in 10 dementia victims...
Nursing Home Sues Son-In-Law for Sloppy Medicaid Application
When counseling our clients regarding Medicaid planning and uncompensated transfers, we often say that nursing homes are unlikely to sue residents' adult children or others to recover gifts that were made. However, we should also be advising our clients to review any...
Raising Medicare Copays Increases Cost of Care Overall
One option for lowering Medicare costs has been to raise the copays that Medicare recipients must pay in order to receive treatment. However, a study recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine reports that raising copays led Medicare recipients to delay...
Good news for those trusts that don’t get funded right away
As practicing estate planning attorneys, we come across clients who have set up various types of Trusts, whether with our office or with other attorneys. The problem is that many of these Trusts are unfunded - either there are no assets titled in the name of the Trust...