Author: Linda Ershow-Levenberg

I wrote this piece in 2003 as a letter to the editor of the NJ Jewish News, at the death of my friends’ father, who was a charming man I’d really enjoyed knowing in his last twenty years. Something reminded me of him recently, so I thought I’d republish it here. “Last week, I attended the funeral of the father of my close friends. He was 86 years old and died of...

Perhaps you’ve heard friends talking about a “legacy trust” or a “family trust ” or a “bloodline trust.”  These are all names for the same basic concept. You may be at a point in your life that you feel that you do not need to retain the ownership of all of your assets because you feel that you really “have enough.” You feel that you want...

The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, which licenses certified home health aides and provides a wide array of consumer protection programs, has announced a new program for individuals receiving home health care services. The Division will provide a micro-surveillance camera for thirty days at no cost to the consumer. The free service is not available to residents of health care...

From time to time we get questions from clients who are having trouble maintaining access to their grandchild after the grandchild’s parent has gotten divorced or has died. In cases where the parent of a minor child resists visitation by a grandparent, the grandparent may need to seek relief through the courts. There is a state statute on this issue. Mediation towards a consent order is...

The need to place a beloved family member in a nursing home may be one of the most harrowing and heartbreaking decisions a person has to make. Not only is there a terrible sense of guilt and failure, but the sheer cost of a single month in a nursing home is staggering, and leaves the family with a bleak view of their future security. They feel vulnerable, because they are at the mercy of...

The federal  Nursing Home Residents’ Rights Act protects residents against arbitrary, involuntary discharge by specifying only 6 grounds for discharge..And above all,  even when one of those 6 bases exists, a nursing home also has the duty to make a safe discharge.   A nursing home cannot involuntarily transfer a Medicaid resident unless there is another placement available which is...

“Business succession planning” sounds like a concept for multi-millionaires, but if you have worked your whole life to create and sustain a small business which is loved by your community, you may feel worried at the prospect of what will happen to the brand you’ve built up through all your hard work. As a senior business owner, your business may be a delicatessen, or a...

Today is a good-news day for people with disabilities who want to set up a Special Needs Trust to preserve their eligibility for critical benefits: the President has signed the Special Needs Fairness Act — S349 — into law. . Since 1993, an applicant or recipient of Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Medicaid (now MLTSS in New Jersey) has been able to shelter their excess...

If medical catastrophe strikes and someone in your family needs nursing home care, they may want to apply for Medicaid to pick up those costs.  The regulations are complex, but there are lots of legal strategies that we use to help a person become eligible and to protect the rest of the family at the same time. The process doesn’t stop there, though. The applicant has to prepare and file...

Has this happened to you? There is often a point in a person’s life when he looks at his children and grandchildren, starts thinking about how hard he worked to build his house or his business or his savings and investments, and wonders as he ages whether he will be able to still provide a financial legacy for his children. In particular, he may be worried that if he ever develops...