Our new brochure, Estate Planning for Parents of Children with Special Needs is now available. Click here to view it online or email us at Info@ElderLawAssociates.com to request copies.
Please indicate how many you would like; they are a great resource to distribute to clients and patients.
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 Attention professionals who serve seniors: Save the date of November 12, 2009 for Elder Law Associates PA's 2nd Annual Elder Law Forum, "The Tidal Wave is Coming: Preparing to Meet the Needs of Seniors and Aging Baby Boomers."
The Forum will be held from 8:30 AM to 12:00 PM at Stratford Court at Boca Pointe and feature a unique array of presenters from health care, care management, law and consumer advocacy who will address critical questions facing seniors living in Florida. We will focus on the burgeoning demographic of seniors and aging baby boomers and how existing government benefits programs will need to evolve in order to meet the tidal wave of increased care needs.
We provide The Elder Law Update to our clients and our colleagues who make up a wide range of service providers for seniors and people with disabilities to facilitate the dissemination of helpful and accurate information. We thank you for letting us share our knowledge with you. We continue to welcome your comments and questions. You may send them to Info@ElderLawAssociates.com. |
Long-Term Care Hybrid Products Give Buyers More Options
 With many people unwilling to purchase long-term care insurance policies due to the cost, insurers are rolling out new products that combine long-term care insurance with either a life insurance policy or an annuity. These new products have been on the market for awhile, but they are gaining in popularity due to a law that goes into effect Jan. 1, 2010, making distributions from life insurance and annuities tax free when used to pay nursing home costs.
Even though long-term care costs continue to rise, long-term care insurance has not become widespread. Long-term care insurance is expensive and many people do not want to pay premiums for something they might not need. A hybrid product has the benefit of combining two products into one. If you don't use the long-term care insurance, you can still benefit from the life insurance or the annuity.
The products vary in the details, but the general idea of a hybrid life insurance policy is to allow a buyer to purchase a cash-value life insurance policy and to use a portion of that policy for long-term care benefits, if necessary, and keep the rest as a death benefit that will be paid to the purchaser's beneficiary. If long-term care benefits are used, the death benefit may be reduced.
Hybrid annuity products also vary significantly, but in general they allow a buyer to purchase a fixed deferred annuity with a long-term-care rider attached. The annuity may pay out for a specific number of years or for life. For example, a purchaser could deposit $150,000 into an annuity. The annuity would provide approximately $4,700 a month of long-term care benefits for 36 months. For an additional cost, the purchaser could get the $4,700 monthly benefit for life.
While a two-for-one product may seem attractive, these products are not for everyone. For one thing, you may have less flexibility with a combined product than you would with a stand-alone product. Hybrid products may not cover home care or include inflation protection, for example. In addition, hybrid products may not offer enough long-term care coverage for what you need. It is impossible to predict exact coverage needs, but click here for more information on how to figure out how much insurance to purchase. A hybrid product is likely less expensive than purchasing two separate products, but it is often more expensive than purchasing a stand-alone long-term care insurance policy.
As with any major purchase, you need to evaluate it carefully before purchasing. Before deciding what to buy, get advice from an impartial investment advisor, not a sales agent who makes a commission off the sale of policies.
For more information on long-term care insurance, click here.
For an article on hybrid long-term care insurance policies from MarketWatch, click here. |
New Web Site Promotes Senior Volunteer Opportunities
 Seniors who want to remain active and engaged often turn to volunteering. A new government Web site sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service is promoting volunteerism for seniors. The site, www.getinvolved.gov, makes it easier for seniors to find volunteer opportunities around the country.
Those age 55 and older can use the Web site's search engine to locate volunteer opportunities by interest and location. They can search in interest areas such as animals, homelessness, politics, and sports, among others. Most of the opportunities are flexible so seniors can volunteer when and where their schedule allows.
In addition, through the Web site, seniors can sign up for one of the following Senior Corps' National Service Programs, which connect seniors to service opportunities in their communities:
- RSVP offers volunteers 55 and over a variety of service opportunities in their local communities.
- The Foster Grandparent Program connects volunteers age 60 and over with children and young people with exceptional needs.
- The Senior Companion Program brings together volunteers age 60 and over with adults who have difficulty with the simple tasks of day-to-day living.
To learn more about Get Involved, visit www.getinvolved.gov. |
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SSA Agrees to Stop Suspending Benefits Based on Existence of Arrest Warrant
 A U.S. district court has approved a settlement agreement between the Social Security Administration (SSA) and a group of individuals who had their benefits automatically withheld because of outstanding arrest warrants against them. The SSA has agreed to repay more than $500 million in benefits that were withheld since Jan. 1, 2007.
The settlement resolves a class action lawsuit that challenged the implementation of a law that sought to prevent people from using government resources to flee from arrest. Instead of figuring out which Social Security recipients were actually fleeing prosecution, the SSA suspended benefits by using a computer matching system to match names in warrant databases to those at the SSA. However, many of the matches involved false or unproven allegations, minor infractions, or long-dormant arrest warrants.
Under the agreement, the SSA stopped suspending or denying benefits solely on the basis of an outstanding warrant as of April 1, 2009. Benefits will still be withheld if the warrant was issued in a criminal proceeding on a charge such as flight or escape. According to the National Senior Citizens Law Center, more than 200,000 people may see their benefits reinstated or receive back payments due to the settlement.
For more information about the lawsuit and settlement, click here. |
Book Review: Nasty, Brutish & Long: Adventures in Old Age and the World of Eldercare
 Ira Rosofsky. Nasty, Brutish & Long: Adventures in Old Age and the World of Eldercare. Avery. New York, N.Y. 2009. 214 pages.
$18.25 from Amazon (click on book to order)
If our bodies or minds fail us at the end of our lives, we're likely to end up in a nursing home. What is life like in these institutions and what does the experience tell us about our society's way of managing the ravages of old age? In this important and engaging book, a psychologist with years of experience treating residents of various nursing homes reveals the bureaucratic, medicalized and sometimes heartless world behind the cosmetic facades of places with names like "Pleasant Manor," and reflects on how care at the end of life could be made more humane.
Ira Rosofsky is a congenial and wryly humorous guide as he brings readers into the rooms of nursing home residents (their identities well concealed) and contemplates the meaning of what he sees and hears. Along the way, he interweaves his own encounters with end-of-life care brought on by the protracted decline of his father. We learn the differences between posh and scruffy nursing homes, and how in the end they are essentially the same cages, gilded or not. We are initiated into the mysteries of the patient chart and other paperwork required by Medicare and Medicaid. We gain an insider's view of the various Medicare-reimbursable professionals who minister to the aged and infirm in these institutions.
Rosofsky is not a didactic writer who hits readers over the head with his conclusions, but he raises a great many crucial questions in his physical and cerebral ramblings. He wonders why the final home for so many of us needs to look like a hospital, with most residents afforded only a curtain for privacy. He peers behind the veil of claims for the effectiveness of Alzheimer's drugs like Aricept and Namenda and finds them wanting. "These drugs put cut flowers in water -- prolonging the agony," he concludes, while noting that narcotics for pain medication are often scandalously underused. In the final chapter -- aptly titled "The Final Chapter" -- Rosofsky ruminates on the ethics of euthanasia and our willingness to spend the equivalent of an Ivy League education to prolong a doomed life for a few months.
A philosophy major in college, Rosofsky borrows his title from Thomas Hobbes, and within the book's pages he finds occasion to casually reference Hegel, Kant, Locke, and William James, among others. Although it's a lively read, in the end his account of life among the elderly is a deeply philosophical work that forces us to rethink the meaning of, and our response to, physical decline and mortality. |
A Final Resting Place - Florida Style
 Located 3.25 miles east of Key Biscayne in Miami, Florida, Neptune Memorial Reef™ is the largest man-made reef ever conceived and, when complete, will have transformed over 16 acres of barren ocean floor. The Neptune Memorial Reef project is environmentally sound and meets the strict guidelines and permitting of the EPA, DERM, NOAA, Florida Fish and Wildlife and the Army Corps of Engineers. And the Neptune Memorial Reef is also a member of the Green Burial Council.
The completed first phase is a classical re-creation of the Lost City, 40 feet under the sea. These structures have produced a marine habitat to promote coral and marine organism's growth while creating the ultimate 'Green Burial' opportunity. A recent marine study conducted by the Department of Environmental Resource Management concluded that marine life around the Reef has gone from the zero to thousands in two years.
In addition to providing a permanent legacy for those who loved the ocean, the Neptune Memorial Reef is attracting recreational scuba divers, marine biologists, students, researchers and ecologists from all over the world. The Reef is free and accessible to all visitors, presenting a new tradition of visiting loved ones.
Boat activity at the site is brisk, with families chartering boats or taking their own to snorkel or simply be at the site. Some family members actually become dive certified, enabling them to visit the site, to see their loved ones and monitor the Reef's growth.
For more information, contact Lynn Robins Reakes,
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Elder Law Associates PA is a boutique elder law firm that practices exclusively in Medicaid and long term care planning including long term care insurance, Medicaid applications, home and community-based Medicaid waiver services, diversion program benefits, nursing home benefits, spousal refusal applications, and Medicaid fair hearings and appeals; nursing home and assisted living facility residents' rights litigation; asset preservation planning with a special focus on planning in light of the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, including personal service agreements, the purchase of life estates, income producing real estate and spenddown planning; disability planning, including special needs trusts and guardianship; estate planning, including wills and trusts and advance directives; and probate, which encompasses estate and trust administration as well as litigation.
We assist clients in planning for the possibility of disability, incapacity, home health care, assisted living and/or nursing home placement. Our firm enables clients to avoid impoverishment caused by the escalating cost of long term care, to maintain their right to make health care decisions and to avoid unnecessary medical treatment.
We hope you have enjoyed The Elder Law Update. If you have questions about something you read, elder law matters or issues concerning persons with disabilities, we would be delighted to hear from you. We serve as an elder law resource to many professionals and organizations and want to become your elder law resource as well. You can reach us at Info@ElderLawAssociates.com.
Warm regards,
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Ellen S. Morris, Esq. & Howard S. Krooks, Esq., CELA, CAP
Elder Law Associates PA
phone: (561) 750-3850 / (800) 353-3752
fax: (561) 750-4069
This publication is intended for general information purposes only. It is not intended to constitute individual legal advice to any specific client. |
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