Klitzman Law Group, PLLC

States Should Do More to Stop Elder Fraud

Financial crimes against the elderly are an increasing problem in the U.S. However, most states are not doing enough to fight it.

Every year elderly Americans lose billions of dollars to scams, exploitation and fraud. Criminals target the elderly because they are often an easier target, due to cognitive decline and loneliness.

As the population of the U.S. gets older, more criminals choose to target the elderly as well. This is a national problem that requires national attention to fix completely. However, state governments also need to do their part to protect elderly people in their jurisdictions.

Most are not doing enough. For example, very few states have state level investigative units that are dedicated to fighting elder financial abuse, as the Brookings Register points out in "S.D. a national leader in battling elder fraud."

A few years ago, South Dakota decided there was a problem and started a commission to make recommendations about how the problem should be addressed. One of the results was to create a special unit in their attorney general's office dedicated to investigating and prosecuting the financial abuse of the elderly. More states should do the same.

If your state does not have such a unit, talk to your state representative about it. In the meantime, if you suspect an elderly person is being exploited, an elder law attorney can be helpful.

Reference: Brookings Register (May 8, 2018) "S.D. a national leader in battling elder fraud."

Suggested Key Words: Elder Law, Elder Abuse

Medicaid Asset Protection

If you would like to have Medicaid pay for your stay in a nursing home, then it can be difficult to do if your spouse has a lot of assets.

Some married couples have agreements to keep their assets separate from each other. This can be beneficial for many reasons, especially if they are both on a second marriage and have independent sources of income. This can complicate things, if one of the spouses might need to go into a nursing home and have Medicaid pay for their care.

Sometimes the couple will jointly decide to just spend down the assets of the spouse needing long-term care and leave the other spouse with his or her assets. For Medicaid purposes, that will not work. Medicaid will ignore the spousal agreement and will consider the assets of each spouse, when determining eligibility as My San Antonio explains in "Protecting separate assets from Medicaid."

There are potentially a couple of ways around this problem. If the couple gets divorced, then the one spouse's assets will not count against the other spouse. Understandably, many people are reluctant to divorce even for getting coverage for a nursing home stay. There is also an income-based program that some people could qualify under, but the rules can be complicated.

If you think that you might need Medicaid to pay for your nursing home stay at some point, you should discuss how you can make yourself eligible with an elder law attorney without delay.

Reference: My San Antonio (May 4, 2018) "Protecting separate assets from Medicaid."

Suggested Key Words: Elder Law, Medicaid

Elder Needs Should Be Discussed

It is very important that elderly people talk to their younger family members about what their needs are and what they might be in the future. Too many people are not having those conversations.

Most people who live long enough, will at some point reach a stage in life when they are no longer able to adequately or safely care solely for themselves. Some people will face physical problems for which they will require help.  Others will face mental problems that make things difficult. Some people will face both physical and mental problems.

Most of the time it is up to younger family members to help their elderly loved ones who face these problems. However, if the younger people do not know what to do and what the elderly person wants done, then the best help is difficult to provide.

For younger people to know that, they need to have conversations with their elderly relatives long before any help is needed. Americans are not having those types of conversations, according to a new survey as WLNS reports in "Conversations About Elder Needs Aren't Happening, According to Wells Fargo Survey."

Conversations about what will happen when we get older and are no longer able to care for ourselves are not always comfortable, but these conversations are important. They do not have to be too difficult. Younger family members just need to know some basics about what their elderly relatives want, such as whether or not they would prefer to live at home as long as they can. Younger people also need to know where to find any important legal papers and what their responsibilities might be.

Contact a qualified estate planning attorney to help facilitate this important conversation.

Reference: WLNS (May 8, 2018) "Conversations About Elder Needs Aren't Happening, According to Wells Fargo Survey."

Suggested Key Words: Elder Issues, Elder Law

Reviewing Your Will

From time to time, you need to review your will to make sure that it is still a good one for your family.

After you meet with an estate planning attorney and the last will is drafted and executed, the attorney is likely to tell you to make sure that you review the will, when changes occur in your life.

Most people just take the attorney's statement at face value and leave it at that. Other people want to know what kind of things would make changing a last will necessary.

There are a few common things that can happen. They can be listed as the Huntsville Item does in "When should you review your will?" The problem with making specific lists, is that people take them as exclusive, instead of as examples. People think only those things listed would require changing a will, when those things are just some of the common examples.

A last will should be reviewed and changed, anytime there is a significant change in your life that would make you want to dispose of your estate differently. You do not need to think too hard about what counts as a significant change. It just needs to be something you find significant.

One way you can avoid having to think about when to review your last will, is to just go ahead and review it every few years. Read through it and if it no longer does what you want the way you want, then schedule another appointment with the estate planning attorney, so changes can be made.

Reference: The Huntsville Item (May 7, 2018) "When should you review your will?"

Suggested Key Words: Wills, Estate Planning

Digital Asset Complications

You need to make sure that no one else can access your digital accounts now.  However, you also need to plan, so that someone else can have access to them, after you pass away.

If someone else gains access to one of your digital accounts, it can cause severe problems. The account does not even need to be a financial account. Someone hacking into a social media account can also cause a lot of damage. For this reason, people often go to great lengths to secure their accounts as well as they can from anyone else gaining access to them.

After we pass away, we may want someone to have access to those accounts, so they can wind them down or preserve any information in them. This creates a conflict that can be difficult to resolve.

There are three basic complications when it comes to planning for someone else to access your digital accounts after you pass away, as the New York Law Journal discusses in "Protecting Digital Assets in a Digital Age," including:

• Passwords -- You probably do not want to give anyone else the passwords to your accounts now. However, someone else will need them, after you pass away. This requires having a secure plan.
• Encryption -- Increasingly, many digital accounts have heavy encryption. Someone who knows how to work with encryption is, therefore, required to handle your accounts, after you pass away.
• Criminal Law -- It is a federal crime (and a state level crime in most places) to obtain unauthorized access to someone's digital accounts. What often counts as “authorized”, is determined by the terms of use of a website. In the absence of state laws that grant certain people access after you pass away, someone who accesses your accounts could be breaking the law. For this reason, it is important to talk to an estate planning attorney to make sure that does not happen.

Work with a qualified estate planning attorney to make sure you cover all the bases.

Reference: New York Law Journal (May 4, 2018) "Protecting Digital Assets in a Digital Age."

Suggested Key Words: Estate Planning, Digital Assets

Plan for the End

It might not be the most comfortable thing to do, but seniors who plan for the last years of their lives often are comforted by doing so.

We spend our lives making and following plans. Even the most spontaneous people cannot help  making plans from time to time. We all must make plans for work, as well as for our personal lives.

People who retire must make plans, too. The last thing many retirees want to do now, is to keep making and following plans. They would like to be done with it. That is understandable, but it is not a good idea.

Even those in retirement need to make plans and, unfortunately, the plans seniors need to make are some of the least comfortable plans for people at any age to make. They are plans for their very final years, as the Dothan Eagle discusses in "Seniors need to plan for their final years."

Seniors need to plan for where they would like to live in their final years. If the answer is at home, arrangements need to be made to make sure that home is safe. If people would prefer to live in a nursing home, they should see an elder law attorney as soon as possible to discuss how they are going to pay for the nursing home.

An elder law attorney can also help them with other plans, such as creating powers of attorney and a living will. These are essential documents to have, in case seniors are not able to care for themselves in their final years.

Reference: Dothan Eagle (April 28, 2018) "Seniors need to plan for their final years."

Suggested Key Words: Elder Law, Elder Issues

Lost Retirement Accounts

Many elderly Americans are entitled to a lot of money that they may have forgotten about or do not know how to locate, because they have lost track of old retirement and pension plan information.

It makes sense when you retire to ensure access to all funds to which you are entitled. Unfortunately, too many people are not aware of retirement funds to which they are entitled.

It is quite common for people to have a retirement account through an old employer that they have forgotten about. When you leave a job that had a 401(k) plan, for example, you are still entitled to your funds through that plan. This is true, even if you never did anything with the retirement funds after you left that job.

Even when people do remember these old accounts, they have trouble locating any information about them. Why? Because their old employers have closed, changed names or merged with some other company.

In total, this problem costs Americans some $150 billion that they are owed as Kiplinger reports in "Missing Retirement Accounts Cost Retirees Billions."

There is a bipartisan piece of legislation in the Senate that would make things easier for people to find the money they are owed. It would require the creation of a central database, so people could search for their own accounts.

However, this legislation is being opposed by the industry, since it would increase their costs. It might be a good idea to let your Senator know your opinion, so you can determine whether you are owed money that you do not know about.

Reference: Kiplinger (April 27, 2018) "Missing Retirement Accounts Cost Retirees Billions."

Suggested Key Words: Elder Issues, Elder Law

What Kind of Trust Is Best?

There are many different types of trusts that can do different things. No type of trust is absolutely better than any other type, so the best type of trust depends on individual circumstances.

You can read all sorts of articles on the Internet about different types of trusts. Many types of trusts exist and there are many articles for each type. These articles are designed to advise people concerning the type of trust they need.

Many of these trusts have impressive sounding names and seem like they could be exactly what you need. People can get confused by this, if they are not sure which type of trust is the best one.

However, which type of trust is the absolute best one, is not the right way to think about trusts, as Kiplinger discusses in "What Type of Trust Solution is Best for You?"

The best way to think about trusts is to first determine why you want a trust. What do you want the trust to do? For example, do you want a trust primarily for tax reasons, or do you want a trust primarily to make sure your minor children are financially secure, if something happens to you?

Tell an estate planning attorney the reason you want a trust. The attorney can design a trust that accomplishes your goals.

Reference: Kiplinger (April 30, 2018) "What Type of Trust Solution is Best for You?"

Suggested Key Words: Estate Planning, Trusts

Mistaken Beliefs about Wills and Trusts

While it is not possible to dispel everything that people mistakenly believe about wills and trusts, a few things come up often enough that it is important to make sure you do not hold these mistaken beliefs.

It is not clear where some beliefs about estate planning get started, let alone how they continue to spread despite not being true. There are certain myths people believe that just continue to pass from one person to another, like wildfire. Perhaps it is the Internet where things that are not true can exist and be found over and over again for years.

In any event, some basic estate planning myths are so common that it is worth taking some time to correct them as TC Palm discusses in "Common misconceptions about wills and trusts."

These myths include:

• If you have created a will, it is likely that your family will still need to go through probate court after you pass away. A will does not protect your estate from probate, as many people mistakenly believe. A fully funded revocable living trust is the most appropriate estate planning tool for probate avoidance.
• Even if you do not have enough assets for your estate to pay the federal estate tax, an estate plan is still needed. Many people think that estate planning is only for the wealthy. It is not.
• People think they should not put property into a revocable trust because that will limit what they can do with the property. This is not true either. If the trust is written properly, it can be amended and revoked easily by you as its creator.
• Another common mistaken belief concerns the administration of a revocable living trust ,while its creator is alive and managing it. Many believe that by creating a revocable living trust, they will need to file a second income tax return for the trust. This is also false.

Reference: TC Palm (May 1, 2018) "Common misconceptions about wills and trusts."

Suggested Key Words: Estate Planning, Will, Trust, Probate

Flexibility can Create a Better Legacy

Estate planning does not need to be just about property and money. It can also create a lasting legacy, if you can be flexible enough to consider your options.

Sometimes when people go to an estate planning attorney, they already have a good idea regarding what they want to accomplish with their estate plans. That is often a good thing.

However, if people are too rigid and not willing to reconsider some of their options, they might not get the best estate plan for themselves and their families. This is especially true, if people are set in the workings of their plans, instead of its end results, as Financial Advisor discusses in "All You Can't Leave Behind."

When people are willing to consider different methods of distributing their estate,, they have an opportunity to change their legacy. A legacy is more than what people give to others in their estate. It is also how others remember them.

Different methods of estate planning can change how people are remembered. Even something as simple as using a trust can create the opportunity for a much different legacy. Trusts can be constructed with all kinds of different legacy changing provisions.

The key when you sit down with an estate planning attorney is to let the attorney know where you want the items in your estate to go, while keeping an open mind on the legal means to get the assets to your beneficiaries. Your attorney can advise you on your options.

Reference: Financial Advisor (May 1, 2018) "All You Can't Leave Behind."

Suggested Key Words: Estate Planning, Will, Trust