Imagine you receive a letter in the mail or a phone call informing you that you have received a valuable inheritance from someone who recently passed away and who was a distant relation of yours. In popular culture, it is known as the long-lost uncle. When it happens in real life, someone administering the estate…
Most of the discussion about cryptocurrency in the news is about how volatile and risky it can be as an investment. However, another important issue is that the very nature of these currencies creates important issues in estate planning. Why? Proof of ownership is nothing more than possession of a digital key. Anyone who has…
It is quite common for people to have a retirement account through an old employer that they have forgotten about. When you leave a job that had a 401(k) plan, for example, you are still entitled to your funds through that plan. This is true even if you never did anything with the retirement funds…
Estate planning should be very individualized. Some of our clients with substantial assets do not need a trust and others with quite modest estates do. The need for a trust and the type needed depends more on your goals and your beneficiaries than your wealth, as Kiplinger discusses in “What Type of Trust Solution is…
The U.S. has an elder abuse problem, with an increase in reports. As many state legislators seek ways to curb this growing problem, they are having to come to terms with the fact that the very people the legal system has in place to protect the elderly, are often the source of the abuse themselves:…
Not all nursing homes are equal. Some have much higher rates of re-hospitalization than others or just do a generally better job at providing good outcomes for residents. Recently, some researchers looked at the quality of care that traditional Medicare enrollees receive versus Medicare Advantage enrollees as ElderLawAnswers discusses in “Are Medicare Advantage Plans Steering…
People often put off estate planning for as long as possible. This includes people who spend theuir lives planning. There is just something about estate planning and contemplating their own deaths, that people want to put off. A business owner makes a lot of plans for the business, including how to manage it and expand…
It is not difficult to get advanced medical directives today. One can do a living will as part of the process of admission to a hospital. However, it is not enough to prepare a living will. People have to know about it. The system of medical records used in the U.S. does not make it…
Even just a few years ago, it was almost impossible to gain access to the digital accounts of the deceased. Even when ordered to allow access by judges, tech companies would point to their terms of service and deny that access. This created many problems for families and estate administrators who needed access to those…
We are all going to die . However, most of us would rather not think about it. Getting more comfortable with the idea , has benefits. Americans do not generally like to think about death. It does not matter if it is their own death or the deaths of people they know and care about….
