I often have clients ask me if they should have a revocable living trust as part of their estate plan. A trust is a fiduciary relationship through...
Eldercare Lawyer Blog
What a Will Can — and Cannot — Do
Most people have a general idea of what a last will and testament is—a document that says who-gets-what from the estate of a decedent. Historically,...
A Holistic Approach to Long-Term Care
In my opinion, it’s important for a lawyer to specialize in a given field. When a client asks me about another area of the law (such as family law...
The Best Advice Money Can Buy
I think one of the biggest sources of trepidation that people have in seeing a lawyer is the perception that attorneys are expensive. When a family...
A Spendthrift Clause Can Protect More Than You Think
Last week, I wrote about the adoption of the Uniform Trust Code in New Jersey. I believe that New Jersey’s adaptation of this uniform law will be...
Uniform Trust Code
This past week the New Jersey Legislature passed and the Governor signed into law the Uniform Trust Code. The Uniform Trust Code, or UTC, is a...
Will Medicaid Pay for That?
A recently decided case gives some insight into the nitty-gritty workings of the Medicaid program and offers hope for the most vulnerable among us....
New Jersey ABLE Act: What You Need to Know
The ABLE Act gives individuals with disabilities a way to save money without jeopardizing important benefits like Medicaid and SSI. New Jersey...
Drafting Wills for a Married Couple
When drafting Wills for a husband and wife, each member of the couple has his or her own Will. In other words, the wife has a last will and...
Abandonment of the Child: Legal Considerations
When a person dies without a Will, he is said to have died intestate. When a person dies with a Will, he is said to have died testate. When a person...
Is the New Jersey Estate Tax Dead?
There is a story brewing that says the New Jersey Legislature is considering revising the New Jersey estate tax law. Over the past few years, there...
Is There a Federal Estate Tax? Understanding Today’s Estate Tax Exemption
A new year is upon us. Another year is passing. So I thought it was a good time to write about death. Well, more specifically, the tax associated...
How Much Can I Gift
Almost every week I get a client asking me how much he can gift before he has to pay gift tax or before the person to whom he gives the gift has to...
A Must-Read Book on Estate and Medicaid Planning
As those of you who read my column on a regular basis know, I wrote a book on elder law entitled, New Jersey Elder Law: A Resource and Planning...
Changing the Terms of a Trust
A case recently decided by a court in Massachusetts reminds me of an interesting issue affecting the Medicaid program here in New Jersey. In the...
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Recent Posts
Protecting the Home
If I had to list the most frequently discussed topics that I have with my clients, protecting a house from the ravages of long-term care costs would be very high on that list. I've written about this topic several times in the past, but with the recent changes in the...
Two-Pronged Attack
The state of New Jersey is at war with lawyers who engage in the practice of Medicaid planning. Medicaid is a medical assistance program for needy individuals. Unlike private health insurance programs, however, Medicaid will pay for the costs of long-term care, such...
Paving the Way To Federal Court
The other week, a federal judge made a ruling in one of the federal cases that I filed, paving the way for that lawsuit to proceed against the State and for many future federal lawsuits. The Medicaid Act is a federal law, so if a State fails to implement the law...
Making Your Federal Case
Those of you who read my column regularly (and I have to tell you, there are many of you) know that I have been engaged in a series of lawsuits against the state of New Jersey on various issues affecting the Medicaid program. For the most part, I have been rather...
Disability Planning 101
I read that 55% of people die without a last will and testament. That statistic doesn't surprise me at all. I think Wills are the subject of much procrastination or fear or both. People say I'll get a Will, then put it off and forget about it. Some people associate a...
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