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New York law allows for a creditor to attach a debt collection order to an estate with a claim of lien. A judgment lien is a court ordered sale of real and personal property part of an estate such as antiques, art, jewelry, and other tangible valuables. A licensed attorney at law specializing in estate law and advise an executor or trustee of New York statutory rules of “Estates, Powers, and Trusts” pertaining to an estate that has been attached with a lien.

Notice of Lien Procedure

New York Laws CVP – Civil Practice Law & Rules, Article 52: Enforcement of Money Judgements §5202 and §5203 outlines statutory rules to lien procedure. A Claim of Lien must be filed with the Office of the Clerk in the county where the property is located four months after the work is completed or the materials supplied.

Federal regulators recently issue a warning health care providers accepting federal funding to be on the lookout for inappropriate prescriptions of a powerful antipsychotic drug commonly used in nursing homes to treat a host of disruptive behaviors. The memo comes from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Studies and applies to providers accepting Medicare Part D,  including nursing homes and pharmaceutical distributors.

The drug in question is called Nuedexta and is commonly used to treat a rare condition marked by uncontrollable laughing and crying, called pseudobulbar affect (PBA) but is suspected to also be overprescribed for so-called “off label” uses. In the past year, several media reports have indicated that doctors at nursing homes have been overprescribing Nuedexta in order to control not only the symptoms of those struggling with dementia but also generally unruly behavior in residents without dementia.

While Neudexta’s maker, Avanir Pharmaceuticals, claims many dementia patients suffer from PBA and benefit from the drug, the company has also generated millions of dollars in annual sales in nursing homes since the drug launched in 2011. In most cases, the federal government picked up the costs for those bills when it reimbursed nursing homes through Medicare’s Part D program.

In New York, the admirable and highly instrumental private foundation is well-recognized means to venerable ends. Indeed, in 2017, the U.S. federal Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) reported that New York’s private foundations donated $10,716,118,775 in funds to nonprofit charities, the highest in the nation. Rules to private foundations, otherwise known as tax-exempt “trust” within federal and New York statute, guide the formation and administration of those entities during the life of a benefactor and in to the future after they are gone.  

Definition

Defined as a form of “trust” in subparagraph (a)(1) of Section 8-1-4 of New York Consolidated Laws, Estates, Powers and Trusts Law – EPT § 8-1.8, “Private foundations: administration of certain trusts as defined in the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1954,” and more specifically in section 509 of the United States Internal Revenue Code of 1986, the private foundation is a tax-exempt entity formed to avoid liability of tax imposition on undistributed income.

What happens when a Facebook account holder dies and leaves valuable assets such as family photo albums and digital wallet details, including bank card information on the site? The Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (RUFADAA) of 2015 amended federal guidelines to family member, executor, attorney-in-fact, or trustee access to digital assets transferred to an estate, trust, or will. The statute specifies express authorization must be obtained by the owner before a family member or fiduciary can access a digital asset for any purpose.

Why arrange family and fiduciary access to an account?

The widespread use of digital assets in the form of a personal “account” are now characterized by a range of designated access user identities linking individuals to everything from Bitcoin accounts used for cryptocurrency trading, to social media accounts like Facebook and their ever-expanding platform of services. A fiduciary’s ability to access a decedent’s online accounts requires designation of control for disposition of digital assets by the account holder before death.

When Michael Jackson’s estate filed suit against ABC Inc. and the Walt Disney Company in May 2018, the world viewed the consequences to unauthorized use of the late celebrity musician’s intellectual property (IP). The estate currently holds all copyright to Jackson’s songs and music video work. The thirty works which the estate owns full rights to were included as part of a two-hour made for television documentary about the artist. Attorney representation in the lawsuit argues that the estate was never approached about license of Jackson’s material for use. The defending parties in the case maintain infringement of the estate’s rights to the property never took place; countering “fair use” of material already in circulation within the media.

Copyright, Control, Contestation

According to New York law, rights to copyright ownership continue as estate rights after a decedent has passed. A gift or bequest provides an executor or trustee explicit instructions for copyright(s) licensing, use, and distribution. Intellectual property transferred to an estate or trust after registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) entitles a registrant continued rights to that work seventy (70) to one hundred twenty (120) years after death depending on type of work, and existing distribution or installation in the public domain.

Depending on the terms and conditions of a defined contribution plan, a participant may elect to extend the tax-deductible life of those assets by transferring them to an estate or trust prior to death. A key incentive for extending the distribution period of defined contribution plan assets is transfer of tax-deductible eligibility to beneficiaries of an estate or trust. Surviving spouses can consider a Spousal Rollover Independent Retirement Account (“IRA”) to shelter beneficiary distribution of those assets after the death of a defined contribution plan participant.

Required Minimum Distributions

The ratio of required minimum distributions (“RMDs”) from a defined contribution plan is generally more favorable in treatment during an estate holder’s lifetime. RMDs can be calculated during a participant’s lifetime, and initially based on a distribution period specified by the Uniform Lifetime Table.

With the enactment of the U.S. federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (“Tax Act”) estate and gift transfers became more attractive in the planning of trusts (Pub. L 115-97). The unified credit exemption accorded under the Act, offers a global elimination of transfer tax on a set level of asset holdings gifted or transferred by an individual decedent. The rule change, however, reduces the availability of federal estate tax exemption for gifts and transfers not eligible under the Act. Generation-skipping tax exemption per decedent remains separate from the unified credit exemption from gift and estate taxes.

New IRS Tax Exemption Rules

As of January 1, 2018, the IRS raised tax exemption for gift and estate transfer amounts to 11,180,000 for single individuals, and $22,360,000 for married couples. This is an increase from 2017 levels from $5,490,000 for single individuals, and $10,980,000 for married couples. Modifications of the law before January 1, 2026 are possible, and estate planners are advised to take advantage of the latest exemptions as part of trust planning strategies in advance.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Studies (CMS) recently made a pair of announcements regarding changes to some of the important services the agency offers to millions of seniors across the country. Both of which aim to improve customer experience for CMS enrollees and help combat the threat of identity theft against those seeking vital medical treatments paid for in part by the federal government.

To help protect seniors from identity theft, CMS has begun phasing in new Medicare cards that no longer display enrollees’ Social Security numbers. Pennsylvania residents will be among the first to receive the new cards that assign each person a randomly generated eleven-digit number.

Social Security numbers are vital for accessing key financial information, medical records, and legal documents and should a Medicare enrollee’s card fall into the wrong hands, it could result in a serious case of identity theft. The new cards are tied directly to existing accounts so those who receive the new cards will have all their medical information will still be available with their doctors.

 Beginning Tax Year 2017, the U.S. federal Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will now require some taxation of cryptocurrency that may affect estate planners and executors. As of this tax season, capital gains and losses on property transactions involving cryptocurrency, for example, must now be reported to the IRS (Notice 2014-21). Before the current tax year, the IRS offered exemption for “like kind exchanges” of crypto assets allowing swaps of digital currency for other assets. With IRS rule changes, and latest insights into the fluctuation of cryptocurrency value, make those assets a bit less attractive to investors than in recent years.

Capital Gains, Estate Tax, ICOs  

If market analysts have advocated cryptocurrency as an estate asset in the past several years, the rule reform will impact investors seeking tax-exemption from Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin earnings. Once considered property rather than fiat currency by the IRS, the rules of have changed. The rules now also distinguish between the tax-exempt proceeds of equity funded trades, and cryptocurrency Initial coin offerings (ICOs), requiring that proceeds from the latter be treated as taxable income. In the short-term, it is likely that investors, including those responsible for estate trusts, will continue to invest in tax-exempt ICOs offered by off-shore banking institutions.   

If you have a beloved elder who currently needs or will eventually need long term, in-home health care, you need to know about new changes to federal labor laws that may not only raise the cost of these services but potentially alter quality aspects. In addition to federal labor and wage laws, state and even local laws may impact what you pay for in home health care and who provides it.

When a person suffers from dementia, alzheimer’s, or or another cognitive health condition, he or she will likely need the aid of a home health care aide to provide even the most basic of care needs. For many years, home health care providers who also lived in the patient’s home were subject to different portions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) which made them exempt from overtime and would essentially earn less than minimum wage because the individual was expected to be on call even during the evening.

However, a recent legal decision determined these in-home health care workers were not overtime exempt and must be paid one and a half times their average hourly wage when working more than 40-hours per week. This meant that it became economically feasible for many families to maintain constant care to their loved one from a familiar person that could be counted on to provide attentive, individualized service to the patient.

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