Many parents suddenly find themselves considering estate planning because they want to ensure the care of their children. Some new clients of mine, John and Anna, a couple from Madison, Mississippi, recently adopted a newborn baby. Even though they are in their late twenties, they’re concerned about who would care for their son if something […]

Medicare Part A covers up to 100 days of "skilled nursing" care per spell of illness. However, the conditions for obtaining Medicare coverage of a nursing home stay are quite stringent. Here are the main requirements:  The Medicare recipient must enter the nursing home no more than 30 days after a hospital stay that itself […]

Most married men claim Social Security benefits at age 62 or 63, well short of Social Security’s Full Retirement Age or the age at which they would get the most value from their benefits. The economic sacrifice isn’t great for the men — their benefit is less than 4 percent less than what it could […]

A Florida appeals court finds that long-term care insurance payments that do not reimburse actual medical expenses must be counted as income when determining Medicaid eligibility. Rosenshein v. Florida Department of Children (Fla. Ct. App., 3rd Dist., No. 3D07-989, Oct. 24, 2007).

 Trusts are Separate Taxpayers All trusts are separate taxpayers. Unless disregarded under the exception for grantor trusts discussed below, each trust has its own tax year and tax accounting method. Trusts also receive income and pay expenses. Net income is taxed either to the trust or to the beneficiaries, depending upon the trust terms, local […]

It’s likely that you’ve heard of the Power of Attorney (POA). Most people have. We generally assume it’s a way for someone else to take control of our assets if we become incapacitated or, as we often see in the movies, we are ""declared incompetent."" This can be true, but there’s a lot more to […]

One of the retirement account reform provisions contained in the Pension Protection Act of 2006 permitted non-spouse beneficiaries to transfer their 401k funds into an inherited IRA and take advantage of "stretch" distributions over their lifetimes instead of being subject to 5 year payout rules.  Unfortunately, the IRS issued a Notice which provided that this […]

Nobody likes to face the prospect that they may one day become unable to handle their own affairs, but with people living longer than ever before, many people are simply outliving the ability to care for themselves.  Without proper planning, that care will fall on the shoulders of family members, who may not be equipped […]

This article addresses a topic that is important to clients and all wealth planning professionals – trusts. When used properly, trusts can provide significant advantages to clients and to the advisors who recommend them. Given the numerous types of trusts, this newsletter explores the general advantages of trusts as well as some of the most […]

Senior centers sometimes host presentations by sales agents offering free seminars or lunches that purportedly provide attendees with valuable information relating to estate planning. But these presentations often turn out to be unscrupulous efforts to persuade the elderly to purchase financial products they don’t need. For example, the presenters may be operating an annuity mill […]