Spring Cleaning Time
IT’S SPRING CLEANING TIME! DUST OFF YOUR OLD ESTATE PLAN
Spring time is when people often take a look around and start freshening things up. Home repairs, paint jobs, new furniture, new clothes, maybe a different haircut…… there’s something about seeing the new buds on trees and the blooming daffodils that gets us thinking this way.
It’s the perfect time to pull out your old estate plan...
Do you know where your Estate Plan is?
The building blocks of an estate plan are the Last Will & Testament, financial power of attorney, medical power of attorney, and various kinds of Trusts. Based on a client’s instructions, the attorney typically creates drafts for the client’s review and approval. Once the client and attorney are in sync about all of the provisions...
Good Reasons to Hire an Elder Law Attorney before a Nursing Home Placement is Made
The following story will illustrate why you should call an elder law attorney before a nursing home placement is made to try and avoid what happened to my client who I will call “Mary.”
Careful Consideration Should Go into Making Decisions Regarding Nursing Home Placement
If you need to select a nursing home for a loved one, there are several factors you should take into consideration.
Ways to Show that you Love your Family
A few years ago, my husband and I sat down with all of our children and their spouses for a family meeting. I started with, “Our plan is to live forever. But just in case ………” and we proceeded to tell them about our new estate plan, who would have which responsibility, where important data is kept, who takes care of things for us, who our doctors are, and who to...
What to do when a Medicaid Application is wrongfully denied
The process to apply for MLTSS/Medicaid to pay for in-home care, nursing home care and assisted living is grueling. There’s no denying that. Producing all the records to the County Board of Social Services, and explaining every single financial transaction that occurred during the 60 month look-back period, can be brutally difficult, if not downright impossible. As you can imagine,...
Tips for Legal Agents (Representatives) Under Power of Attorney
So, you’ve been named as someone’s attorney-in-fact (“Agent”)… now what? To make a long answer short- it depends.
The first question any Agent must ask herself is whether the Power of Attorney document (“POA”) grants her the authority to act on the Principal’s behalf immediately (known as a durable power of attorney), or if the Power of Attorney only comes into effect upon a...
Tips on Selecting Legal Agents (Representatives) under a Power of Attorney, and the Duties Imposed on Them by Virtue of the Appointment
When you sign a Power of Attorney, the person you name to be your “attorney-in-fact” or “agent” is entrusted with certain legal obligations known as fiduciary duties to you. This is known as the Principal-Agent relationship.
Fingerprinting and other Personal Background Disclosures to be Required in Guardianship Applications
A guardianship action is a court case that is filed to ask a Judge to appoint a Guardian for an incapacitated adult. The court rules are specific about all of the procedures that must be followed when filing this kind of case. It is filed by an interested party in the Superior Court of the County where the alleged incapacitated person resides. Usually, the person who wants to be the Guardian...
Estate Planning Documents Play a Vital Role in the Life (and Death) of an Unmarried Couple
If you are in a non-traditional relationship — i.e., the unmarried couple living together for years, whether gay, straight or anyone in between — don’t you want to be the one who decides who takes care of you or manages your decisions if some catastrophe occurs? Of course you do. But if you don’t set up a plan, and you just “leave it up to the law,” the exact opposite of your...