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Asset Transfers That Are Exempt From Medicaid Penalties
Under the Medicaid “look back” rules, gifts made by a nursing home resident within the five-year period preceding the date of filing a Medicaid application are scrutinized by the Department of Social Services to determine the impact of those gifts on the applicant’s Medicaid...
Get Involved With Your Local Government
Your effort within local government can have a real impact on your community. Many issues that directly affect our lives are decided on the local government level. That is where you can contribute to your community and directly affect the...
Spousal Refusal: A Powerful “Crisis Planning” Medicaid Technique
For many married couples of advancing age, their greatest fear is that they may be forced to deplete virtually all of their assets if one or both requires long-term care. Given that the private pay rate for nursing home costs in...
Totten Trusts: A Technique for Distributing Your Assets at Death
The most common method of distributing assets after death is by a will. A will has precise legal requirements, can sometimes require a lengthy probate proceeding, and should be drafted by a legal professional to ensure it adequately protects your interests regarding...
Thinking of Sitting for the CELA Exam? What You May Want to Know Before Taking the Plunge
Read the article in the NYS Bar Association’s Elder and Special Needs Journal here. About three years ago I first considered taking the CELA exam administered by the National Elder Law Foundation (NELF). By then I had been practicing law for 25...
Why You Need a Certified Elder Law Attorney
The Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA) certification has frequently been referred to as “the gold standard” for elder law and special needs practitioners. This reflects the hard work and proof required before an attorney can proudly proclaim that he or...
BETTER BUSINESS: The Triple Bottom Line
“No man is an island,” wrote poet John Donne, and certainly the same is true of any small business. The beauty of working with people who own and operate a small and/or family-owned business is that those people usually understand...
Medicaid Asset Protection Trust
Given the escalating costs of long-term care (Orange County nursing homes currently cost an average of almost $12,000.00 per month), not surprisingly, people are searching for ways to shelter their hard-earned assets from the potentially devastating financial effects of a...
THE IMPORTANCE OF TITLE: The Pitfalls of Joint Ownership
When people think about estate planning, the last will they executed 20 years ago undoubtedly comes to mind. Most never consider that the way their accounts are owned will have specific, possibly undesirable after-death consequences. In fact, coordinating how you...