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MORE ON SHORT TERM ANNUITIES AND MEDICAID PLANNING

Published on: December 23, 2015 | by Ettinger Law Firm

SOME ANNUITIES DO NOT RENDER APPLICANT INELIGIBLE FOR MEDICAID

As this blog wrote about several months ago, certain financial products purchased by a Medicaid applicant do not render them ineligible for Medicaid benefits. While the previous post discussed why a short term annuity did not render a Medicaid applicant ineligible, this blog will discuss why such a choice may be a good fit. For sure, the short term Medicaid annuity must satisfy certain criteria to qualify for the federal “safe harbor” provisions that would otherwise render the purchaser of the short term annuity ineligible for Medicaid.

RECENT CASE

CAMERAS IN THE NURSING HOME

Published on: December 11, 2015 | by Ettinger Law Firm

MANY ISSUES TO ADDRESS – PRIVACY AND LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS

The issue of video cameras in nursing homes has exploded over the last several years. With the large scale saturation of such user friendly technologies as Skype, Facetime and similar video technologies it should not come as a surprise that these issues are cropping up in nursing homes. Video cameras can be a major liability for nursing homes, including even criminal liability. It seems almost weekly that someone is arrested or charged due to evidence gleaned from video cameras located in nursing home residents’ rooms or other areas. While management may decide to utilize video monitoring equipment in public areas, there are many problems with residents using the same or similar video technology even in their own rooms.

Certainly there are common areas that are not public in nature that are a definite problem area for video imaging. The distinction lies in the public versus private designation. You do not have an expectation of privacy in public. There is an expectation of privacy in a residential unit. With a video camera a resident may be able to, unwittingly, record another resident without his or her permission, in a private area of the nursing home. Such a broadcast, depending on the audience, could be grounds for an invasion of privacy lawsuit. In addition, it could be a violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, usually known as HIPAA, the federal law that requires the confidentiality of medical records. In addition, if there is an audio recording function, recording a third party’s conversations may also violate state criminal wiretapping laws. New York is in the majority of states that require the consent of at least one of the interlocutors for any interception to be deemed legal.

ASSUMPTION OF POTENTIAL TAX LIABILITY MAY AFFECT ESTATE PLANNING

Published on: November 21, 2015 | by Ettinger Law Firm

GIFT TAX LIABILITY

Gift tax liability and estate planning sometimes intersect. The tax Court case of Steinberg v. Commissioner, 141 T.C. No. 8 (Sept. 30, 2013) deals with an interesting issue, if tax law can ever be interesting, where gift tax liability and estate tax liability intersect. It is important to note that the opinion deals with gift tax liability and how to measure gift tax liability, it nonetheless deals with some important estate tax implications. In 2007, Ms. Jean Steinberg gifted approximately $71,000,000 in cash and securities to her four daughters. In exchange, the daughters agreed to pay the gift taxes as well as the estate tax on the transfer should Ms. Steinberg pass away within three years of the gift transfer. An appraiser valued that the daughters assumed approximately $6,000,000 in tax liability for the estate taxes alone. When Ms. Steinberg filed her tax return, the IRS disagreed with the $6,000,000 write off, as the daughter’s assumption of estate tax liability did not increase the value of the estate. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) claimed that Ms. Steinberg owed an additional approximately $2,000,000 in taxes and mailed her a notice of deficiency.

ESTATE TAX LIABILITY

Using Beneficiaries as Part of Your Estate Plan – Part II: Considerations

Published on: October 13, 2015 | by Ettinger Law Firm

An earlier post on this blog provided an overview of using beneficiary designations as part of your estate plan. Recall that beneficiary designations are a way to transfer property automatically upon the death of the asset owner outside of the probate process. This post is part II of that discussion, and include some of the pros and cons of using beneficiary designations, as well as a few special considerations related to certain forms of beneficiary designations.

Pros and Cons of Using Beneficiary Designations

Beneficiary designations can be a simple and effective mechanism to transfer your property in much the same a will or trust distributes your property. The advantages of beneficiary designations include the ease in which it can be set up and the speed and in which the beneficiary receives the asset. Also, the owner of the asset has flexibility to designate any of combination of shares to any number of primary and contingent beneficiaries. Beneficiaries may be individuals, trusts, charities, or the property owner’s own estate by way of its personal representative.

Estate Planning Basics – Planning for Incapacity

Published on: May 18, 2015 | by Ettinger Law Firm

While the main purpose of an estate plan is to distribute assets to your loved ones after you are gone, it can also serve an important purpose while you are alive – planning for your potential incapacity. An estate plan can provide instructions for the management of your assets, payment of expenses, and personal instructions for your care if you become unable to communicate those decisions on your own.

Importance of Planning for Incapacity

Planning for incapacity is important for everyone, but it is especially important for unmarried partners. Typically, the spouse of an incapacitated person is named as the administrator for financial, legal, and medical needs. However, unmarried partners are not always named as the administrator, and a blood relative may be named instead.

What to Do When You Inherit Your Parent’s Home

Published on: October 27, 2014 | by Ettinger Law Firm

According to the Boston College Center of Wealth and Philanthropy, the Baby Boomer generation stands to inherit over $27 trillion in the United States alone over the next four decades. A large portion of that wealth is invested into your parent’s home, but when you inherit the house it can come with emotional and financial issues. When siblings are involved in the decision making process, deciding what to do with the home can be even trickier.

There are three options that you can elect after you have inherited your parents’ home: sell it, move in, or rent it. Each choice comes with its own advantages and disadvantages, emotionally and financially, for you and your siblings.

Selling the House

Estate Planning Tips for Business Owners

Published on: July 17, 2014 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Many people, business owners and everyone else, are concerned about the federal estate tax when creating their estate plans. Although the federal estate tax is 40%, it does not apply unless the decedent has an estate worth over $5.34 million, and the estate amount is doubled if the person is married. However, there are other concerns besides the federal estate tax that a business owner should take into account when creating an estate plan.

Other State and Federal Taxes

The estate tax should be the least of a business owner’s worries when creating an estate plan. Before an estate tax is even considered other state and federal taxes are first deducted from a business and the estate. The federal income tax rate on an equity owner of a business can top out at 44.6%. State income taxes compound the issue by charging even more on an equity owner’s share. A business owner should first try and minimize the damage done by income taxes on his estate before dealing with the possibility of an estate tax.

Lawyer Developing Online Estate Planning Game

Published on: June 11, 2014 | by Ettinger Law Firm

An attorney is developing an online game aimed at teaching its players about estate planning. Stephanie Kimbro has created a demo for the game, “Estate Quest,” where the player is a detective who is given various cases about people who did not plan their estates correctly. The player is taken back in time and given clues about what the person should have done in his estate or written in his will. Examples include naming a guardian, specifying bequests to certain people, or naming an executor.

Using Crowdsourcing for Legal Products

Ms. Kimbro has been utilizing online crowdsourcing such as Rockethub as a means to develop her game. Crowdsourcing websites allow developers to explain their idea to everyone on the internet, and if people want to invest in the idea they donate money to the venture. Crowdsourcing is also a good tool for gauging interest in potential products. Ms. Kimbro is interested to learn about how crowdsourcing can be used to advance legal services projects, and she is using Estate Quest as a test product.

Putting Conditions on a Trust in New York

Published on: May 13, 2014 | by Ettinger Law Firm

For many New Yorkers, the term ‘trust‘ continues to invoke visions of the super wealthy. Similarly, terms like “trust fund baby” are used to refer to spoiled, rich individuals who do no work on their own and simply live off their parents savings. The connotation is always negative.

As our estate planning attorneys often explain, however, trusts are critical tools for families of all income levels. And there is no reason why children who benefit from the trust suddenly become slovenly or without their own motivations. For one thing, many trusts are not large enough to offer income that can last a lifetime. Even when the trust is large, conditions can be placed on child-beneficiaries which can help prevent them from relying solely on an unlimited stream of income.

Incentivizing a Trust in New York

The Complexities of Late-in-Life Marriages

Published on: April 30, 2014 | by Ettinger Law Firm

The population in New York (and throughout the country) is aging. As the Baby Boomer generation enters retirement, the percentage of residents in their golden years is rising steadily. Statistics suggest that the average age will continue to increase for the next few decades.

One effect of this change is that a growing number of seniors are entering into new romantic relationships later in life. It is not necessarily uncommon for those in their 60s, 70s, or even 80s to meet new people and form strong bonds. But even though these relationship often blossom into marriage, many seniors are reluctant to legally tie the knot.

Is Marriage Appropriate?