When clients come to my office asking about living trusts, they often arrive with the assumption that a trust is a trust. That any trust will...
Eldercare Lawyer Blog
Eldercare
When Financial Incentives Start to Influence Care Decisions
This week, I came across three separate articles on nursing homes. While each offered a unique perspective, together they painted a troubling...
One Lawyer, One Client
When I first opened my law practice twenty-five years ago, I knew that I would concentrate in one area—elder law. There are many benefits to...
Mom’s Journey to the Nursing Home, Part II
The last article I wrote began mom’s journey to the nursing home. Mom had fallen at home and broken her hip. After a brief stay in the hospital in...
Can the Nursing Home Send Mom Home?
When a family member needs long-term care in a nursing home, her family is often distraught—distraught because mom is failing mentally and...
Nursing Homes Have Opened Their Doors
The global COVID-19 pandemic has been hard on many people. One group of people who have suffered greatly are residents of long-term care...
Marriage Is a Partnership
Recently, the Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, issued an interesting decision concerning New Jersey’s Medicaid program. Medicaid...
Medicaid Handlers Aren’t There To Help You
In the past five years, I have seen a dramatic increase in the number of non-attorney Medicaid Application Handlers (“Handlers”). As the name...
What Did You Do for Your Parents?
What did you do for your parents? This is a question that some people ask me during a consultation appointment. I think it’s a smart question...
How Much Tax Do I Owe?
“How much tax do I have to pay on my inheritance?” the client asked. The lawyer said, “It depends on what you inherited.” When a person, called the...
Can You Refuse an Inheritance
When a person dies, he leaves his property—called his “Estate”—behind to be distributed to certain people. Who those people are depends on various...
Meeting Me in the Age of Covid
Lately, you may have been thinking about your mortality and deciding that you definitely need to have your last will and testament drafted—the one...
Looking for the Magic Pill
LOOKING FOR THE MAGIC PILL, AT A GOOD PRICE Older people must be on drugs. Expensive ones. Congress is debating whether or not to add a prescription...
Keri Supreme Court
THE ELDERLY SCORE BIG-TIME IN COURT I barely want to say it out loud, but if you've noticed, my recent columns have been about court victories for...
Income First
WHOSE INCOME IS IT ANYWAY? The United State Supreme Court will soon decide one of the hottest issues in Medicaid planning. Must the community spouse...
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Recent Posts
The Step Up in Basis Myth
After more than 26 years practicing elder law in New Jersey, I have noticed that misconceptions tend to arrive in waves. The same misunderstanding will surface from multiple clients in a short span of time, often with near-identical wording. Recently, a new wave has...
The Medicaid Spend Down
When a family faces the staggering cost of long-term care, Medicaid often becomes the only realistic way to pay for nursing home, assisted living, or in-home care. But qualifying for Medicaid requires meeting strict financial limits, and that is where the Medicaid...
Not All Trusts Protect Assets the Same Way
When clients come to my office asking about living trusts, they often arrive with the assumption that a trust is a trust. That any trust will protect their assets, simplify their estate, and spare their family from the headaches of probate. The reality is more...
A Trust Isn’t Always the Default Answer
When people begin the estate planning process, they often hear that they “need a trust.” The truth is more nuanced. Trusts can be extremely useful, but the right kind of trust depends entirely on your goals, your assets, and your family circumstances. For most people,...
Understanding the Medicaid Five-Year Lookback Period
When someone applies for long-term care Medicaid, one of the most important rules is the five-year lookback period. This rule determines whether the applicant made any gifts or transfers of assets that could delay eligibility for benefits. Despite frequent...
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