Long term care in nursing homes is expensive. More and more often adult children end up paying the expense of nursing home care. If the parent is not eligible for MassHealth or Medicaid paid nursing home costs then they will be paying privately out of pocket for their care. Average nursing home costs are now
When an elderly man required immediate placement in a nursing home due to a stroke, his wife was faced with multiple issues including the payment of approximately $13,000 a month for his care. The elderly couple was not prepared for such a catastrophe. They did not have an Estate Plan to address issues such as:
Did you know that if you die without a Last Will and Testament the Commonwealth of Massachusetts decides how to divide up your estate? If you die without a Last Will and Testament, Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 190 dictates the distribution of your estate. The distribution of your estate differs if you die survived by
Although advance planning is needed to help accumulate the biggest possible nest egg in your traditional IRAs (including SEP-IRAs and SIMPLE-IRAs), it is even more critical that you get help in planning for distributions from these tax-deferred retirement planning vehicles. There are four areas where knowing the ins and outs of the IRA distribution rules
Did you know that a Nursing Home in Massachusetts could cost you over $11,000 per month? How fast would that use up your lifetime savings or the assets you were planning on leaving to your children? With proper planning you may be able to save all that money for your spouse and your heirs! With
A commonly overlooked benefit for many seniors is a Veteran’s Pension. People over 65 who served our country during a time of war may be eligible for a Veteran’s Pension. Those Veterans who need assistance with daily living may qualify for an additional benefit called Aid and Attendance Benefits. The current maximum pension benefit with
If you or a loved one should be involved in a contested estate, the result may be that there will not be an Executor to take care of important matters quickly causing a substantial loss of money. In one such case involving a multimillion dollar estate the Judge needed to appoint a probate attorney with
In January 2009, Governor Deval L. Patrick signed into law probate reforms that have been debated in the Commonwealth for nearly 20 years which is known as the Uniform Probate Code (“UPC”). The UPC comes into full effect on July 1, 2011, with the exception of the guardianship provisions which become effective on July 1,
For most people, receiving an inheritance is something good, but not for a nursing home resident on Medicaid. Medicaid has strict income and resource limits, so an inheritance can cause a Medicaid recipient to be ineligible for benefits. At the present time a single individual is limited to $2,000.00 in countable assets and all income
As history has shown, Medicaid expenditures are becoming a larger share of the budget each year. In response to this issue Congress signed the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, which was enacted on February 8, 2006. It has been more than three years since the enactment and now is an appropriate time to review the