Mississippi's Medicaid program faces a significant shortfall that the legislature must address this legislative session. A recent article details the problem. Another attempt at raising the tobacco tax is one option being considered. Approximately 75% of all Mississippi Medicaid funding comes from the federal government.
Before 2007, a non-spouse beneficiary of aqualified plan was stuck taking distributionsunder the terms of the plan, which typicallyrequired full distribution within five orfewer years of the participant's death. ThePension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA 2006)authorized non-spouse beneficiaries (beforeit was only surviving spouses) to roll overto an Inherited IRA. This issue of my newsletter looks [...]
Billionaire Warren Buffett urged Congress to preserve the estate tax, saying that plans to repeal it would benefit a handful of the richest American families and turn the country into a "plutocracy." Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway and the second-richest man in America after Bill Gates, according to Forbes magazine, testified before the Senate [...]
You had a loving relationship with your mother and she always said she would leave everything to you and your siblings, but after she died, you discover she had recently written a new will, leaving everything to her housekeeper. Is there anything you can do? If you believe a loved one's will is not valid, [...]
A Mississippi a man who transferred oil interests on his property to his girlfriend in order to conceal them from Medicaid is not entitled to get the interests back, a state appeals court has ruled. Following his father's death, Rickey Ellzey inherited some property. In 1994, Mr. Ellzey had a heart transplant and he qualified [...]
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). Nursing home resident Sara Rosenshein received Medicaid benefits. She also received a monthly [...]
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 [...]
