Blog: News & Insights

The law allows a Court to appoint a legal guardian for a person who is incapacitated. An Incapacitated Person is defined in NJ as someone who by reason of mental illness, intellectual disability, physical illness, physical disability, chronic drug or alcohol use, or other cause, “lacks sufficient capacity to govern himself and manage his affairs.” Since we are dealing with the...

A few weeks ago, I took my kids to see The Secret Life of Pets. It was cute, fun and the kids loved it. Of course, when I take my kids to the movies, my elder law brain has to go with me. So, spoiler alert, there was a pet in the movie who had an older owner who had died. This put the pet in a vulnerable position.  Wacky hi-jinks ensue, and all is well at the end.  But my brain goes to, wow,...

On September 9, 2016, the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) proposed regulation governing the presumption of service connection for veterans stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, between August 1, 1953 and December 31, 1987. A link to the PDF copy of the proposed regulation can be located at https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2016-09-09/pdf/2016-21455.pdf The DVA set a thirty (30) day...

If you are caring for a person with Alzheimers’ dementia, you are probably seeing a number of behavioral changes that are difficult to understand and challenging to respond to. These are sometimes called “neuropsychiatric symptoms,” and they span the spectrum from apathy and depression to wandering, disinhibition, irritable verbal onslaughts, agitated pacing, and...

Followers of this blog know that if a person applies for Medicaid to pay for nursing home care (or assisted living or home care), they have to provide five years’ of financial records and prove to the agency just what they spent every dollar on during the five year look-back period which immediately precedes the application. If the applicant can’t  prove that the dollars were spent...

In our legal practice, we advise  many family caregivers who are managing and supporting the lives of their frail loved ones, and  we also advise executors in the administration of estates. Very often, the person who was our client in their role of caregiver is now the client in the role of executor. It’s a very tender time when that transition occurs. They  may have spent years involved...

When a person applies for Medicaid benefits, a five-year look back is done by the county board of social services  to see if the applicant had given away any assets that they owned or to which they were entitled. If that occurred, it’s referred to as a “transfer of assets” or “uncompensated transfer of assets,” and the result will be a penalty period in which the...

Tha AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving report that there are 40 million Americans taking care of family members with dementia such as Alzheimer’s Disease, cancer, and other debilitating chronic diseases, or physical disabilities, and that 25% of the caregivers are under 35 years old. The medical issues can be complex. There can be myriad medications to manage and the side...

The Executor of an Estate (named under the Last Will and Testament) or Administrator of an Estate (appointed by the Court because there was no Will or the Executor couldn’t serve) has an obligation to take care of all of the bona fide creditors of the estate before distributing the rest and remainder to the beneficiaries or heirs according to what the Will specifies or the law requires....

“No matter what, please keep me out of a nursing home!” How often do people hear their parents say this, as the parents enter their most senior years. The reality is that aging in place is a complex but achievable endeavor for most people. Whether you are the person who hopes to “age in place,” or you are the person who will have responsibility to make it happen, you...