Elder Law

The Housing Issue and The Elderly

Published on: August 18, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

There are many factors that go into maintaining a budget in a family while also trying to save for the future. For Americans, the cost of maintaining a household has gotten continuously more expensive; the average cost of raising a child born in 2013 now costs roughly $245,000 for a middle income family in the United States, with housing for the child accounting for about 30% of those costs. This is compared to a study done in 1960 by the United States Department of Agriculture that stated middle income families could expect the average cost of raising a child to be a little more than $25,000 until age 18. Interestingly in both studies, housing accounted for the largest expense for the families surveyed. The children once focused on in these 1960s studies have now become the focus of our article, and one thing remains the same, housing is still the biggest expense they must account for.

As the aging population refocuses their priorities for housing, they must consider factors such as accessibility to stores, services, transportation, medical care if they experience chronic conditions, as well as access to social settings and connections. The worry of many aging people is that they will be forced to leave their home and instead reside in an assisted living or nursing home in order to retain government assistance with healthcare. There will also need to be a refocus on the ability to provide for a more diverse population of elderly people; with the thousands of individuals turning 65 years old daily over the next two decades will come a much more diverse population that has had drastically different housing situations.

Possible Solutions

Common Estate Planning Mistakes

Published on: August 15, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Planning how your assets are going to be distributed and for your health care needs is an important tool all adults, not just elders should utilize. However, over 60% of Americans have not made a basic will. There are many misconceptions about estate planning and the reasons for it, which has led many Americans to shy away from the process.

Common Mistakes & Misconceptions

Estate planning is for the elderly or the wealthy. Determining how you want your property distributed or what you would like to happen to you in the event you can no longer speak for yourself are tasks everyone needs to think about. Even the most simple finances can become complicated when there are multiple parties involved.

Divorce: It’s Influence on Your Estate Planning

Published on: August 11, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Making a will can be a time consuming process that involves the interest of a potentially large amount of people. One of these interests is that of the testator’s spouse. A surviving spouse is generally presumed to be the first heir to which asset distribution goes to in the event property or assets are not accounted for in the will. However, not all marriages work out and when this happens, the terms of distribution in your will can be greatly affected, depending on the state you live in.

New York Law For Wills

There are three scenarios for will distribution to a former spouse in the event of divorce: the divorce automatically revokes the entire will, it only revokes the testamentary provisions making gifts to your former spouse, or it does not affect your will at all. In New York, upon the final divorce decree, all provisions or bequests to your former spouse are revoked, if the will is still valid. If you are still legally married but your spouse has abandoned you up until the time of your passing, the court will also view this the same way as divorce, and disinherit the spouse.

Technology Aiding the Aging Population

Published on: August 3, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

As the older population continues aging, we are constantly trying to find new tools to help this population manage their lifestyle with more ease. Assistive technology is any service or tool that aids the aging population in performing their otherwise increasingly difficult or impossible daily activities. This technology ranges from a smartphone, to a walker to GPS tracker, many of which allow the individual to continue living independently or without care, while also allowing their loved ones to check on them.

Paying for Technology

As with any other medical assistance, insurance coverage is always a concern. Although there is no universal plan covering assistive technology for the aging population, some plans do cover a portion of the costs. Medicare Part B will cover up to 80% of the cost of technology that can be considered medical equipment. Also if you are eligible with the Department of Veteran’s Affairs for assistance, they will pay for a portion of the cost and will also help train those who are using the device.

MOLST Forms Gaining Attention

Published on: July 31, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

MOLST Forms, What Are They?

Easily identifiable by its bright pink color, another advance directive has been approved for use in New York medical treatment and healthcare administration. Medical Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment are medical forms similar to a DNR Order, being that they both provide for life of end care preferences. However, Medical Orders for Life Sustaining Treatment (MOLST) not only allows a patient to refuse resuscitation in the event it is needed, but it also allows for a patient to state when they would allow or request it. Once the form was approved in 2008, EMT agencies now may use the MOLST form without needing a non-hospital DNR order, however, they must honor the DNR bracelet if worn by the patient or a non-hospital DNR form if it is on file.

How it Differs from DNR Orders

Palliative Care: Know Your Rights To It

Published on: July 24, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

New York Statute

In February 2011, New York amended the Palliative Care Information Act, requiring doctors and nurse practitioners to inform terminally-ill patients about end of life options and counseling regarding palliative care. To receive palliative care information under the New York statute, the patient must reasonably be expected to be within the last six months of his or her life, a standard that is commonly associated with hospice care. The information provided to the terminally ill patients includes their diagnosis and the likely course of the disease, the options that would be available to treat the disease, risks and benefits of those options, and their legal rights to pain and symptom management during their final months. If the patient lacks decision making capacity, their appointed proxy or representative must be provided with the information.

Hospice versus Palliative Care

Back to the Basics – What is a Bequest?

Published on: July 5, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

When writing a will, many people seek to ensure that certain people in their lives get specific things, such as a family heirloom necklace, property, or an allotted amount of money. The gifting of property or assets to a certain person through the provisions of your will is called a bequest. There are few types of bequests and different situations in which to use them.

(1) Specific Bequest: It is the gifting of a specified property or asset to an identified person or entity, distinguished from the property in the estate. For example, a specific bequest would be gifting your home to your son, or gifting your diamond earrings to your niece. The main issue faced by the estate is when, upon death, the specific gift that is to be given, i.e. the property or the diamond earrings, are no longer owned by the testator. In this situation, the intended beneficiary then gets nothing, because there is nothing to satisfy or substitute from the estate.

(2) General Bequest: A general bequest is what most people think of when they think of gifts in a will. This bequest is a gift that is payable from the assets of the estate. Most commonly seen are provisions gifting a specified amount of money to a certain person, for example, $10,000 to my nephew, or a stock or securities bond. Unlike specific bequests, these type of bequests are not for a specified item, so other assets in the estate may be sold to satisfy the gift if it is not available when distribution comes.

Two Wills, Two Different Countries

Published on: June 25, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

International Will Issues

As our world continues to grow and technology allows us to move places once never thought imagined, many individuals have the opportunity to live abroad throughout the course of their lives. After spending time in a specific area, whether it is for the majority of your life or for a shorter time, you may acquire property in that new place. However, when it comes to estate planning, issues may arise for a citizen who has acquired property in another country and has executed multiple wills for their multiple properties.

If you have property in another country, having a will in that jurisdiction disposing of that property generally will make it easier than if the property’s disposition is listed in a will in a different country, since it will increase the efficiency of estate administration for the property in that jurisdiction. However, if the testator has multiple wills in multiple countries, covering multiple pieces of land, he must write the most recent will in a way as to not revoke the previous foreign wills and subject the land to differing dispositions.

Elders Right to Live in the Community

Published on: June 16, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

In 1999, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Olmstead v. L.C. that, consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act, individuals with mental disabilities have a right to live within their community as opposed to an institution, if professionals have determined that the patient’s ability to adapt and live in their community is appropriate, the patient can be reasonably accommodated and the move to community living offers a less restrictive setting. Following this ruling, President Clinton then directed all states to evaluate individuals in mental hospitals, as well as nursing homes and state institutions to determine whether they could too be acclimated back into their communities. Due not only to the major expenses facing Medicaid and maintaining nursing homes, this was thought to be a possible solution to overcrowding and retaining civil rights for those affected individuals.

However, in the decade and a half since the Supreme Court ruling and the President’s policy statement, the government has done little comparatively to remedy the problem. This has resulted in too many disabled and handicapped people remaining in institutions against their will and left without a method of recourse. While the federal government can control state spending for nursing homes and how Medicaid is spent, the community based care programs that so many disabled and handicapped people are seeking care from are optional.

Yet, Medicaid only pays for about 40% of all long term care services, thus, major bills are still piling up on patients, and in states such as South Dakota, the state with the highest percentage of individuals in nursing homes that have a low need or no need at all the services provided for the institution, they are forced to remain in the institution to receive any kind of care. With over 1.4 million individuals in nursing homes throughout the United States, some states are taking active steps to address the issue by allocating a portion of Medicaid funds to in-home care.

NON-PROFIT REPRESENTATIVE PAYEES FOR DISABLED

Published on: May 19, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

GROWING NEED

More ten million elderly Americans rely exclusively on their Social Security pension as their sole means of support. Approximately 90 percent of senior citizens receive some sort of income from Social Security and approximately half of those relied on Social Security for at least half of their monthly income. It keeps approximately 35 percent of elderly Americans from dipping below the federal poverty line. To say that Social Security is vital to this population is an understatement. Included within that population are a subset of individuals who do not directly receive their income from the Social Security Administration but instead rely on a representative payee to manage their money and pay their bills.

The incidence of Alzheimer’s disease and other related cognitive impairments increases with age and with people living longer, there will naturally be an increase in such conditions and thus a greater need for more Social Security representative payees. The Social Security Administration’s own Inspector General estimated in 2010 that at least one million elderly Americans over the age of 85 need a representative payee but did not have one. Within this group there is concern that there are de facto representative payee who were not formally approved or vetted by the Social Security Administration and could be perpetuating financial abuse of the beneficiary. Of the existing pool of representative payees, approximately three out of four are family members.