Advance Healthcare Directives — Busting the Myths
Presented by Principal and senior elder law attorney, Lindsay V.R. Moss
Presented by Aging Life Care Managing Allyson Stanton of Stanton Aging Solutions and Elville and Associates’ Principal and senior elder law attorney Lindsay V.R. Moss, this webinar is a discussion about the overall purpose of having Advance Directives in place. Attendees gain an understanding of why making these decisions while one is able to do so is vitally important as well as letting your family know what your wishes and goals are. Ms. Stanton and Ms. Moss share critical information that helps empower you to take control of your medical decisions when you don’t have the capacity to advocate for yourself.
Primary topics of discussion include:
– How to get the conversation started
– Creating a healthcare plan is not a taboo topic
– The gift of empowerment
– The importance of having a voice
More Webinars from Elville and Associates
The education of clients and their families through counseling and superior legal-technical knowledge is the mission of Elville and Associates. We hold multiple educational events every month. Click to view our calendar of educational webinars and events or visit the Elville and Associates YouTube channel to view recordings of our past webinars.
Putting It All Together – A Diagnosis to Adulthood Guide of Navigating the Disability World
Elville and Associates welcomes back guest presenter Eric Jorgensen, a Special Needs Advisor who provides a complete timeline overview of what families and the professionals they work with can expect from the original diagnosis until the child survives the parents. Eric highlights key times when specific planning items such as completing an estate plan, getting life insurance, or applying for SSI should be completed. He discusses potentially lesser-known resources such as Low Intensity Support Services and Pre-Employment Transition Services. Key takeaways include:
– Life insurance, ABLE accounts and Special Needs Trusts are critical tools, but not the plan
– Don’t wait until your child is in the last year of school to think about his or her transition
– You are not applying for benefits for you – delaying because it doesn’t seem worth the effort could be sabotaging your child
More Webinars from Elville and Associates
The education of clients and their families through counseling and superior legal-technical knowledge is the mission of Elville and Associates. We hold multiple educational events every month. Click to view our calendar of educational webinars and events or visit the Elville and Associates YouTube channel to view recordings of our past webinars.
Achieving Perfection for Your Legacy – Intentionalism in Estate Planning, with Olivia Holcombe-Volke
Many people want to achieve excellence in their estate planning – to establish an estate plan that works as intended – one that will stand the test of time, accomplish personal goals and priorities, provide for the disposition of assets in the desired way to the persons and/or organizations of choice, controlling costs, and setting forth values, ideas, concepts, and aspirations – organized by leading-edge legal-technical concepts that are up to date at the time of death, and guided by highly instructional letters of wishes or memorandums. Yet few people understand the kind of estate planning process necessary for the realization of this ideal, and even fewer people are offered the opportunity to participate in the kind of process necessary to facilitate the same. To say that achieving true excellence in estate planning is akin to successfully sailing around the world alone is not an exaggeration. It takes all of the stuff of legend, including purpose, persistence, patience, and introspection; partnership with your estate planning attorney and an adequate process forward (facilitated by the attorney); maintenance and updating of the estate plan over time; and more. In short, true excellence in estate planning requires being extremely intentional. In this webinar, Olivia Holcombe-Volke, Senior Principal and senior estate planning attorney with Elville and Associates, P.C., will lead a discussion about Intentionalism in estate planning. Topics of discussion will include:
Why being intentional in estate planning matters; Understanding the risks in estate planning;
Why knowing what you want out of estate planning matters;
Avoiding estate plan failure;
Maintenance and updating;
The importance of Partnership
More Webinars from Elville and Associates
The education of clients and their families through counseling and superior legal-technical knowledge is the mission of Elville and Associates. We hold multiple educational events every month. Click to view our calendar of educational webinars and events or visit the Elville and Associates YouTube channel to view recordings of our past webinars.
Can a Nursing Home Take My Stimulus Check?
Can a nursing home take my stimulus check? This is a question many seniors and their loved ones have been asking since the first round of stimulus payments.
In December 2020, Congress approved a second round of stimulus checks for individuals making less than $75,000 a year. These checks are being sent to everyone who is eligible. This includes individuals on Medicaid and those living in nursing homes and senior living facilities. However, there are continuing reports that nursing homes and other senior living facilities are taking their residents’ stimulus checks without their permission.
Does a Nursing Home Have a Right to My Stimulus Check?
As the second round of stimulus checks are delivered, many are still wondering, can a nursing home take my stimulus check? The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wants residents of senior living facilities to know that stimulus checks are for their personal use. Residents of nursing homes are not required to turn their stimulus checks over to their senior living facility. Nor can a senior living facility take a stimulus check without their resident’s knowledge. In fact, these senior living facilities have no right to their residents’ stimulus checks at all.
Unfortunately, many nursing homes are inaccurately claiming that they are entitled to a resident’s stimulus check when that resident is on Medicaid. Not so. According to the CARES Act, the stimulus payment is a tax credit. Tax law states that tax credits do not count as “resources” when determining eligibility for Medicaid. Therefore, nursing homes and assisted living facilities cannot take their residents’ stimulus payments under any circumstances. This includes taking stimulus checks from residents on Medicaid.
What Should I Do if a Nursing Home Has Taken My Stimulus Check?
If your loved one lives in a nursing facility and you’re not sure if they received their stimulus check, talk with them as soon as possible. If you do know if they received their stimulus payment, you may need to ask the facility’s management for their “policy” regarding stimulus checks. If you suspect that their policy is unlawful, contact your state attorney general’s office and then file a complaint with the FTC. It is advised that you not make any accusations that could impact the level of care your loved one receives. Simply take the information and report it to the proper authorities.
How Does a Stimulus Payment Affect My Medicaid Eligibilty?
There are some things you need to be aware of regarding stimulus checks and your Medicaid eligibility.
The Social Security Administration does not count economic stimulus payments as income. Additionally, stimulus payments are excluded from a Medicaid recipient’s eligibility resources for 12 months from the date of their stimulus check. Therefore, if a senior’s stimulus payment puts them above Medicaid’s resource limit, their stimulus money needs to be spent down within a year. Otherwise, they may risk losing their Medicaid benefits.
What Can I Spend Stimulus Money on When on Medicaid?
The following are examples of what a Medicaid recipient may be able to spend the stimulus payments on without affecting their eligibility:
- Payment on debt
- Rent or mortgage payment
- Making small repairs around the house
- Buying household goods and personal comfort objects, such as clothing, electronics, and furniture
- Purchasing needed medical equipment, seeing a dentist or eye doctor when those services are not covered by insurance
Learn more about how you can spend your stimulus if you live in a nursing home. If you have questions about how you or a family member in a nursing home can spend their stimulus checks, contact the estate planning and elder law attorneys at Elville and Associates. The attorneys at Elville and Associates are well-versed in helping clients and their families plan for a variety of situations, be they crisis or pre-crisis situations. Contact Community Relations Director Jeff Stauffer at jeff@elvilleassociates.com, or 443-937-3845 x117 as a first step in setting an appointment with one of our attorneys today.
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What Is Long-Term Care and Who Provides It?
Long-term care is the care you need if you can’t perform daily activities on your own for an extended period of time. There are a number of different ways that long-term care can be provided.
Most long-term care involves assisting with basic personal needs rather than providing medical care. You are usually determined to need long-term care if you need help with two or more “activities of daily living” (such as bathing, dressing, eating, and going to the bathroom). Family members usually provide long-term care to start, but as an illness escalates paid care may become necessary.
The following are the types of long-term care:
- Home care from family member. The most basic form of long-term care is when a family member becomes the caregiver. It can involve simple tasks like buying groceries or more complicated ones like bathing and dressing. Sometimes family members can be paid for their work.
- Home care aide. Home care aides provide companionship and socialization and assist with meal preparation, housecleaning, laundry, shopping, and errands. They are also called homemaker or chore aides.
- Home health care aide. Health care aides provide personal care (bathing, grooming, etc.), assist with range-of-motion exercises, provide some medically-related care (empty colostomy bags, dress dry wounds, check blood pressure, etc.), and provide assistance with housekeeping and errands. They are often referred to as personal care assistants
- Adult day care. Adult day care allows family members to get a respite from caregiving. In general, there are three types of centers: those that focus on social interaction, those that focus on health care, and special Alzheimer’s care centers.
- Assisted living facility. Assisted living facilities are a housing option for people who can still live independently but who need some assistance. Depending on the facility, that assistance may include help with meal preparation, housekeeping, medication management, bathing, dressing, transportation and some nursing care. Residents usually live on their own, in small apartments. Despite the emphasis on independence, supportive services are available 24 hours a day in order to provide different levels of help with activities of daily living. The level of medical supervision depends on the facility.
- Nursing home. Nursing homes are the highest level of long-term care. They provide 24-hour care to residents. Staff provide help with daily activities such as feeding, dressing, and bathing along with medical care and physical, occupational, and speech therapy.
According to longtercare.acl.gov, someone turning 65 today has a 70% chance of needing some type of long-term care services in their remaining years.
Costs for care can vary widely, from a few hundred dollars a week to pay for coverage when family members are at work to $300,000 or more a year for around-the-clock home care or care in the most expensive nursing homes, perhaps with private aides hired on the side.
Long-term care costs, whether at home, in assisted living or in a nursing home, are paid primarily from three sources: out-of-pocket, Medicaid, and long-term care insurance. Medicare, the health insurance for people over age 65, only pays for up to 100 days of skilled nursing facility care following a hospitalization, and only for so long as the patient is deemed to need skilled care. It will also pay for skilled care at home — in theory indefinitely, but this may take some advocacy.
The estate planning and elder law attorneys at Elville and Associates are skilled in advising clients about long-term care options for families and their loved ones, including assisted living and nursing home placement, developing plans to pay for the cost of care in the short- and long-term, and establishing estate plans for families to ensure agents and powers of attorney are in place, wishes are carried out as intended. Contact our office’s Legal Administrator, Mary Guay Kramer, at mary@elvilleassociates.com, or 443-741-3635, to set a time to discuss your family’s situation and create a road map that will offer peace of mind for all involved.
What Families Need to Know About Planning for a Loved One w/ Special Needs w/ Olivia Holcombe-Volke
Presented by Elville and Associates’ Senior Principal and Senior Estate Planning Attorney Olivia Holcombe-Volke, this webinar is a discussion that will educate attendees about planning for their loved one with special needs.
Attendees will come to understand what is involved in the planning process for a special needs family and the importance of preserving the loved one’s financial security and quality of life.
The key issues of understanding the role of public benefits, making decisions about the future, Maryland ABLE, and using estate planning and trusts to protect assets will be discussed along with the types of special needs trusts and their specific purposes (along with who the decision makers and beneficiaries can be in these trusts). Also, to be touched upon will be the “planning team concept” – how your planning team (attorney, financial advisor, CPA) – can work together to help provide your family peace of mind during the special needs planning process.
Open to clients, advisors and the general public. For Certified Financial Planners, CPAs, and other professionals 1.5 continuing education hours are available for attending this presentation.
More Webinars from Elville and Associates
The education of clients and their families through counseling and superior legal-technical knowledge is the mission of Elville and Associates. We hold multiple educational events every month. Click to view our calendar of educational webinars and events or visit the Elville and Associates YouTube channel to view recordings of our past webinars.
When you’re a business owner, estate planning must be integrated with a succession plan. Succession planning is about laying the groundwork for a smooth transition of business ownership to family members, employees, or buyers. Every transaction has tax consequences, and the tax cost of a business transfer can vary widely depending on how it is structured.
This session helps you identify the opportunities for successfully integrating your estate and business succession plans. Presented by guest speaker and attorney Charles Borek, attorney and founder of The Borek Group, LLC and Special Counsel to Elville and Associates, this webinar helps you to:
• Realize the need to integrate your estate and business succession plans
• Recognize the variety of ways available to transfer a business to family members
• Understand the use of trusts in succession planning
• Identify the advantages and disadvantages to using family limited partnerships
• Consider which ways of transferring business interests to key employees is most appropriate
• Differentiate a buy-sell agreement from a thorough succession plan
• Understand how tax consequences are impacted by the structure of your succession plan
More Webinars from Elville and Associates
The education of clients and their families through counseling and superior legal-technical knowledge is the mission of Elville and Associates. We hold multiple educational events every month. Click to view our calendar of educational webinars and events or visit the Elville and Associates YouTube channel to view recordings of our past webinars.
Learn the Truth About About Seniors’ Real Estate
More Webinars from Elville and Associates
The education of clients and their families through counseling and superior legal-technical knowledge is the mission of Elville and Associates. We hold multiple educational events every month. Click to view our calendar of educational webinars and events or visit the Elville and Associates YouTube channel to view recordings of our past webinars.
Webinar – MarylandABLE Accounts and How They Benefit Your Loved One, w/ a Disability w/ Kelly Nelson
Kelly Nelson, Outreach and Communications Manager from MarylandABLE, shares an overview of how ABLE accounts can help people with disabilities and their families save for the future without jeopardizing federal, state and local benefits. Attendees learn about:
— the eligibility criteria and enrollment process;
— features of an ABLE account and the account management process;
— tax-free savings and tax-free withdrawals for qualified disabilities expenses;
— accessing a Maryland State income tax deduction for contributions;
— how an ABLE account can be used in collaboration with a Special Needs Trust
Open to clients, the general public, and financial advisors. 1.5 continuing education hours are offered for CPAs, CFPs, and other professionals for attending this presentation.
More Webinars from Elville and Associates
The education of clients and their families through counseling and superior legal-technical knowledge is the mission of Elville and Associates. We hold multiple educational events every month. Click to view our calendar of educational webinars and events or visit the Elville and Associates YouTube channel to view recordings of our past webinars.
What is a Revocable Trust?
A revocable trust is a legal document, often considered a substitute for a Last Will and Testament. In other words, you write a revocable trust instead of a formal Last Will and Testament. The trust is similar to a contract. There are three parties to a trust. (1) The Grantor is the person who establishes or writes the trust. (2) The Trustee is the person who controls the money titled in the name of the trust. (3) The Beneficiary is the person who receives the benefit of the money in the trust. Typically, when drafting a revocable trust as a basic estate plan, the client occupies all three positions. He or she writes the trust, controls the money in the trust, and all the money in the trust is spent for his/her benefit. During lifetime, there is no change in access to accounts, selling or buying assets, or control. You are still in control of your assets during your lifetime.
At the first meeting with a prospective client, I begin by asking them to tell me about their family and their assets, because that is what estate planning is all about. We need to discuss what their goals are and determine the best approach for writing a document to meet their specific needs. Who should receive their assets? When should their beneficiaries receive the assets? How should they receive your assets upon your death? And, all of this at the least cost.
Avoiding the Probate Process
The purpose of the revocable trust is to ease the administration of your estate upon your death by avoiding the probate process. After you write your trust, you change the title of your accounts and real estate to the name of your trust. You also designate the trust as the beneficiary of some accounts, often life insurance policies. Retirement accounts and annuities pass by beneficiary designation; and sometimes, you incorporate your trust as the beneficiary of these accounts. As retirement accounts are assets that have different income tax consequences upon your death, there is no one size fits all to naming a beneficiary. Incorrectly designating a beneficiary on your retirement account can have serious income tax ramifications upon the beneficiary who receives such assets. You need to ask your attorney for advice regarding naming a beneficiary of a retirement account or an annuity.
If you align your assets properly to your trust, upon your death, your estate beneficiaries will avoid the probate process. Probate is the process of transferring assets upon your death. However, if your assets are titled in the trust, then your successor trustee steps in and distributes the assets in the trust according to the written instructions you provided in the trust document itself. The purpose of establishing a revocable trust is to ease the administration of your estate upon your death by avoiding probate.
Sometimes, you can avoid the probate process by designating beneficiaries to all your accounts so the accounts pass immediately to the designated person, or you jointly title assets with another person. During the initial conversation with your attorney, it is important to talk about your family. If your beneficiary is young, disabled, or irresponsible, you may not want the money to flow into their hands immediately upon your death. Discussing who should receive your assets, when they should receive the assets, and how they receive the assets is important. Your attorney can provide advice as to the best way to protect your beneficiaries and ensure that your goals are met upon your death. You spent a lifetime accumulating your wealth, you do not want to be penny wise and pound foolish when you draft your estate plan. As an experienced estate planning attorney who has drafted thousands of estate plans, I can offer suggestions you may not have considered. Statistics offered by caring.com reflect just under half of Americans don’t engage in estate planning for a number of reasons; however, the process is rather straightforward and offers peace of mind and satisfaction once it is complete. To get started, I offer a free consultation which is the first step to protecting your loved ones and writing an estate plan.
Nicole Livingston is a principal and senior estate planning attorney with Elville and Associates, an estate planning, elder law, and special needs planning firm based in Columbia and Annapolis. To learn more about Nicole and her background, please click here. To contact Nicole with questions or to set up a free initial consultation to begin your planning or review outdated documents, please email her at nicole@elvilleassociates.com, or call her at 443-393-7696.
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