Twice in the last few months, I’ve run across an amazing program that makes monthly payments to veterans who are disabled or having trouble living on their own. The name of the program is the VA Aid and Attendance Program. Here’s what it does: Pays $1744 per month to a veteran or $945 to a [...]
Estate planning and real estate in the Land of Lincoln
Category Archives: Elder Law
Major Medicaid Overhaul Coming
It is expected that on February 1, 2006, President Bush will sign a bill drastically changing medicaid planning. Many things will change including: 1. 36 month look-back period extended to 60 months;2. The start of the penalty period is no longer the date of the gift;3. Recordkeeping requirements for gifts;4. Homes over $500,000.00 in value [...]
Great Elder Law Blawg
A really well done blawg on elder law is the site of Texas attorney Jeanne Pi. Today there’s a story on how online access by senior citizens has increased by 47% in the last four years. That’s not groundbreaking, but to me, it’s interesting. There’s also a ton on medicaid and the dreaded HIPAA. (It [...]
How to Clean Up a Disorganized Estate
The Wall St. Journal had a good summary on how to get the estate of a deceased and highly disorganized relative “cleaned up.” There’s another good story on medicaid on the same page.
Medicaid for Those Between Home and a Nursing Home
There is a fairly new program called the Supportive Living Program. This is a program that “waives” the requirement of skilled nursing care normally required for medicaid. It allows low-income seniors to qualify for medicaid-paid “assisted living,” where they otherwise would not qualify because of lack of medical need (medicaid otherwise requires full-time nursing care). [...]
One of the Best Elder Law Sites on the Internet
In my opinion www.elderlawanswers.com is one of the best elder law site on the internet. It has general information on estate planning, medicaid planning, and an interactive section in which an elder law attorney answers questions for the public. There is a simple, but very useful, half-a-loaf calculator that I use frequently. (Half-a-loaf is a [...]
Truth about Annuities
Many clients buy annuities. I think it is fair to say that most clients do not understand the annuities and, in many cases, the annuity purchase was an inappropriate choice. In my opininion annuities are appropriate when: 1. The client wants to save more for retirement and already puts the maximum in his or her [...]
