Second to the house, an individual retirement account (“IRA”) is usually the largest asset when looking into someone’s financial portfolio. The tax and Medicaid rules dealing with IRAs are very different yet related, quite complex and often misinterpreted or misapplied. It is important to have a general understanding of these rules in order to avoid…
If you are reading this article, it is likely that at some point in your lifetime you may have worked through the placement of a loved one in a nursing home. If not, there is a high probability you know of someone who has. With the cost of nursing home care exceeding $150,000.00 per year…
If there is one unavoidable consequence of life and relationships, it is that our loved ones may fall ill at some point, whether it be a parent, grandparent, child, aunt or uncle. Sometimes it could be a tragic accident or disease that affects them, and other times it is simply part of the aging process….
I recently entered the world of beekeeping. When contemplating this new hobby, I obviously vetted my ideas with friends and family (not the neighbors). Their responses were comical and in all cases, far from the truth. Sitting down to write this piece I thought, this is no different than the practice of elder law. So…
In Yorktown, NY and the surrounding community, I often see the homestead as the single most valuable asset of an estate. The “American Dream” is to own a home, create memories there, and one day, leave it to your children. However, without proper planning, the dream can soon turn into a nightmare if nursing home…
In a perfect world, everyone would craft an estate and elder care plan well in advance of having to implement it˗ but the world isn’t perfect! I have had the opportunity to work on a fair amount of cases where clients, who had no estate or elder can plan, fell ill or became disabled. In…
Over the years, I have found that one of the biggest obstacles preventing clients from pulling the trigger on a Medicaid Trust is the perception that all control is lost over the assets being transferred to the trust. While it is true that legal title to the assets must be transferred to the trustee, a…
