Get ready for a wild ride when filing a NJ Medicaid application
Growing old doesn’t mean that people stop taking care of their family members and think only about themselves. Families expand. Children may enter second marriages. The grandchildren get married. A child may run into financial trouble, lose their job or become medically disabled. Loving families support each other and that often means that people will share their home with the next...
Justice in Aging’s 2015 Resource Manual educates consumers about nursing home practices
Justice in Aging is a national nonprofit agency which advocates for seniors and pursues litigation involving unlawful practices that affect large classes of the population who are aged or have disabilities. I have previously written about nursing home practices in this space and am glad to tell you that the 2015 updated guidebook 20 Common Nursing Home Problems and How to Resolve Them...
Techniques of Behavioral Analysis can be useful in avoiding threatened discharge from a nursing home
If you are the advocate for a loved one in a nursing home, whether that’s your spouse, parent or other person, you might encounter this problem. Your loved one suffers from dementia, confusion, and limited ability to express themselves in a coherent manner. You visit them frequently and you find that the staff are beginning to complain to you that they are developing “behavioral...
Bank had no duty to protect aged customer against suspected scam
New Jersey enacted a statute in 1998 that enables banks to release certain information to law enforcement concerning their customers’ accounts when they suspect that the customer may be the victim of illegal schemes such as scams, fraud or elder abuse. It was deemed important to provide immunity from liability for such a release, in cases where the information was relevant to actual or...
Bank may owe no duty to third parties unhappy with an IRA’s beneficiary designation
As discussed in previous posts, the beneficiary designation on an asset presumptively controls its disposition if the account-owner dies. Beneficiary designations are typically used on IRAs, 401Ks, annuities and life insurance policies, but sometimes people choose to place beneficiary designations on their bank accounts, CDs or brokerage accounts. Disputes may arise when the decedent’s...
NJ Medicaid raises spousal maintenance allowance; options still exist to increase the share of resources
Effective July 1, the State of New Jersey Division of Medical Assistance and health Services (DMAHS) has raised the Minimum Monthly Maintenance Allowance (MMMNA) for the spouse of a person who is on Medicaid. For residents of nursing homes, the general rule is that all of the resident’s income must be turned over to the facility as a cost-share, except for authorized deductions which...
For some Workers’ Compensation settlements, a Special Needs trust may be needed
A Special Needs Trust is a type of first-party trust that is often used to preserve a lump sum benefit for a low income disabled person under age 65, who needs the support of Medicaid and Supplemental Security income (SSI). Often one thinks of the these trusts in connection with someone who is on SSI because they are disabled and have not worked, such as a person with developmental...
Cost basis adjusts at death so save the proofs
“Cost basis” in its simplest sense is the amount you paid for an asset whose value changes over time. A dollar is a dollar, but a share of stock might be purchased for $19 and later be worth $5 or may be worth $100. When assets are bought and sold, there may be capital gains tax on the difference (gain) between the cost basis and the sale price, subject to various exclusions that...
Time marches on and the Trust in your Will may no longer be needed
Estate planning can be thought of as a life-long process. A young person may not have much in the way of worldly posessions, but may have particular opinions about who should make the medical and financial decisions for them if they become incapacitated. So a power of Attorney, health Care Directive and basic Will can be signed anytime starting at age 18. Later, you get into a relationship or...
Social Security Administration halts SSI overpayment notices concerning certain same sex couples
If a disabled or elderly person receives Supplemental Security Income (SSI), there are income and resource restrictions as a condition for eligibility. When two SSI recipients are married, the monthly benefit is lower than it would be to two unmarried individuals. Until the Defense of Marriage Act (D.O.M.A.) was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in U.S. v. Windsor in 2013, a same sex...