Although most of the coverage expansion under the Patient Protection and Affordability Act will come from adding to the Medicaid rolls, state governments will not have to spend much more on the program thanks to funding from the federal government, according to analysis from the Urban Institute for the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the […]

Recent estate tax negotiations led by Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-AZ) and Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) broke down on May 18 due to objections from several Democratic Senators who learned details of the proposal.  The collapse of these negotiations reduces prospects for action on the estate tax this year. 

The following post comes from the NAELA eBulletin:  Marriage is more beneficial for men than for women – at least for those who want a long life. Previous studies have shown that men with younger wives live longer. While it had long been assumed that women with younger husbands also live longer, in a new […]

With the passage of recent legislation, limited Medicaid funds will now be available to provide assistance for home care and assisted living care.  Link.  This is great news for both seniors, their children, and taxpayers.  While the program may, at first blush, appear to be simply another government welfare give-away, the fact is that many […]

In a recent case decided by the Mississippi Court of Appeals, a Will in which the testator apparently changed her mind and made handwritten changes was held to be a partial revocation, but her handwritten additions to the Will were ignored. In the case of in The Matter of the Estate of Laura Foster Carpenter, […]

The temporary repeal of the federal estate and GST taxes in 2010 has raised issues about how formula clauses in wills and trusts will operate for deaths in 2010. Such clauses generally fund the marital trust portion of the estate, which receives an unlimited marital deduction and is therefore tax-free on the death of the […]

The Clarion Ledger reports that Gov. Haley Barbour on Friday joined the multi-state lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the nation's new health care law. "The health care law passed earlier this year is an unprecedented expansion of federal power," Barbour said in a statement. "The Constitution does not give Congress or the federal government the […]

Pennsylvania estate planning attorney Patti Spencer recounts in a recent blog entry about the various estate planning lessons to be learned from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."  Since Big Daddy was a Mississippi planter, I thought her post would be especially of interest to readers of this blog:  "Big Daddy… What is it that […]

The Medicaid office in Yazoo City was one of the buildings damaged in Saturday's deadly tornado.  One wonders how many records of ongoing claims for benefits were lost as a result.  Medicaid already has a  reputation for inefficiency in handling claims for initial benefits.  Clients frequently pay us to handle the claims process out of […]

A recent Sun Herald article points out that thorough estate planning will prevent feuds among family members over sometimes trivial issues like who gets what when a family member dies.  Comprehensive planning will incorporate issues like family heirlooms in addition to the larger financial assets that a family has to divide.  Addressing such issues on […]