What does it all mean?

For the first time in 95 years, there is no federal estate tax, even for the wealthiest individuals. However, it’s not time to celebrate yet. We’ll return to our familiar tax system in 2011, but at a higher rate with a much lower exemption, if Congress doesn’t act.

As Americans now face a year without estate taxes, it’s important to know the possible impact on family and loved ones. The first step: review your plan. It’s a critical time to review documents with an attorney and ask hard questions. For example:

If you die at a time when the estate tax is not in effect, will all your assets still go the way you had intended? The language in a will or trust that was clear when the estate tax was in place could skew the results in a crazy year like 2010.

Is my estate arrangement still valid? Because most married couples’ basic estate tax plan is a revocable trust, which is a trust that can be changed at any time. The trust is divided when one spouse dies, known as an “A-B” arrangement, with part becoming irrevocable, meaning it’s unable to be changed after agreements are signed. This is good estate tax planning.

However, what clients may not know is that the irrevocable “B” trust may be made flexible for the survivor while still complying with the tax law. If someone has this arrangement or is considering it, both spouses should clearly understand how it works and what type of flexibility the survivor would have, so the trust document states what the couple wants it to state.

Non-estate Tax Reasons for Planning

With all the uncertainty in the law, the least likely outcome is permanent estate tax repeal. However, it’s critical to realize that even if there were no estate tax, there are even more important reasons for having a valid and effective plan in place.

• To avoid family conflict and ensure your wishes are carried out, with respect to who receives assets and which individuals are in charge of making decisions.

• To protect beneficiaries who are too young, irresponsible or who have special needs by placing their inheritance in an appropriate trust. This will protect them from themselves or outside forces and keep them qualified for necessary governmental benefits.

• To provide protection if you use continuing trusts, even for mature and responsible beneficiaries. Arizona law can keep an inheritance secure from spouses in the event of divorce, from creditors in the event of a lawsuit and from estate taxes.

It’s hard to predict what the rest of 2010 will have in store. With planning and guidance from your attorney, an estate plan can stay intact and perform the way it was originally intended.

Original Story by Craig Wisnom, Special to “The Explorer” Published: February-24-2010

Often times, navigating the complicated channels of Medicare requires research and planning of your own accord in order to get the full, quality care you deserve. Here is some valuable statistics and information you may not know about making the right healthcare decisions. A qualified elder law attorney can help you create an advance directive which will not only save your loved ones in the time of crisis that it’s needed, but it will ensure that your passing is handled how you wanted it- with care, concern and compassion.

“The Federal Patient Self-Determination Act requires that all Medicare-participating healthcare facilities inquire about and provide information to patients on Advance Directives; it also requires these facilities to provide community education on Advance Directives.  See 42 C.F.R. § 489.102. All healthcare facilities are required to:

• Provide information about health care decision-making rights.
• Ask all patients if they have an advance directive.
• Educate their staff and community about advance directives.
• Not discriminate against patients based on an advance directive status.

The U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (www.ahrq.gov), in a 2003 article, “Advance Care Planning: Preferences for Care at the End of Life,” found the following:

• Less than 50 percent of the severely or terminally ill patients studied had an advance directive in their medical record.
• Only 12 percent of patients with an advance directive had received input from their physician in its development.
• Between 65 and 76 percent of physicians whose patients had an advance directive were not aware that it existed.

More Americans Discussing – and Planning – End-of-Life Treatment. The Pew Research Center, January 2006. http://people-press.org/reports/pdf/266.pdf.

• 42% of Americans have had a friend or relative suffer from a terminal illness or coma in the last five years and for a majority of these people and 23% of the general public, the issue of withholding life sustaining treatment came up.
• An overwhelming majority of the public supports laws that give patients the right to decide whether they want to be kept alive through medical treatment.
• By more than eight-to-one (84%-10%), the public approves of laws that let terminally ill patients make decisions about whether to be kept alive through medical treatment.
• One of the most striking changes between 1990 and 2005 is the growth in the number of people who say they have a living will – up 17 points, from 12% in 1990 to 29% now.

Brief Communication: The Relationship between Having a Living Will and Dying in Place. Howard B Degenholtz, PhD, YonJoo Rhee, MPH, PhD; and Robert Arnold, MD. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2004; 141:113-117.

• Having a living will was associated with lower probability of dying in a hospital for nursing home residents and people living in the community.
• During advance care planning, physicians should discuss patients’ preferences for locations of death.

Appropriate Use of Artificial Nutrition and Hydration – Fundamental Principles and Recommendations. David Casarett, MD, Jennifer Kapo, MD and Arthur Caplan, PhD. New England Journal of Medicine. 353; 24.

• Patients and families are often not fully informed of the relevant risks and potential benefits of artificial nutrition and hydration (ANH). In addition, financial incentives and regulatory concerns promote the use of ANH in a manner that may be inconsistent with medical evidence and with the preferences of patients and their families.
• Because ANH is associated with uncertain benefits and substantial risks, it is essential to ensure that decisions about its use are consistent with the patient’s medical condition, prognosis, and goals for care. Therefore, decisions about ANH require careful consideration of its risks and potential benefits.” ~Thanks to: National Healthcare Decisions Day.org

• Most everyone who simply ‘ducks and covers’ WHEN BUILDINGS COLLAPSE are crushed to death. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed. Avoid these if possible. 

• Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. You can survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.

• Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexible and moves with the force of the earthquake. If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs.

• If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the side of the bed during an earthquake.

• If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.

• Most everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse is killed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you may be killed!

• Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different ‘moment of frequency’ (they swing separately from the main part of the building).  The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads – horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn’t collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.

• Get Near the Outer Walls Of Buildings Or Outside Of Them If Possible – It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked.

• People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and sitting or lying next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them.

Spread the word and save someone’s life… The Entire world is experiencing natural disasters so it’s good to be prepared!

Estate planning is defined as the creation of a definite plan for managing your wealth while you’re alive and distributing it after your death. These assets may be owned by you separately or jointly with others.  

Estate planning is about preserving your assets and allocating the distribution of your assets, both during your life and upon your death. It is accomplishing your personal and family goals and easing the management of your financial and legal affairs, as well as minimizing taxes if your estate is large enough for taxes to be of concern. When we talk about an estate, we mean all assets of any value that you own, including real property, business interests, investments, insurance proceeds, personal property and even your personal effects. An “estate plan,” generally, refers to the means by which your estate is passed on to your loved ones on your death. Estate planning can be accomplished through a variety of methods, including:

• Revocable Living Trusts
• Last Will and Testament
• Lifetime Gifting
• Joint Ownership
• Beneficiary Designations
• Life Estates

Problems often arise when people don’t coordinate all of these methods of passing on their estate. If you have a well-drafted estate plan in place, you will ensure that your estate passes to whom you want, when you want, and is carried out in the manner you’ve chosen. You can rest assured that your family won’t have to endure the public process and costly matter of probate. The government won’t be able to take what you’ve spent a lifetime building. But you need to be aware of the many options that exist in estate planning – and you must choose your estate planning attorney wisely.

We offer a wealth of free information and free estate planning clinics in our Lakewood office, each Wednesday at 2pm. Register for one today, we want you to feel confident about the choices you make – let us be your guide on the path toward preserving your family’s future.

Fraud is occurring more often than ever and it happens when providers or suppliers of durable medical equipment, billing services or others seek Medicare reimbursements for treatments, equipment or supplies that were never provided. Some of the fraudulent claims to Medicare include unnecessary and uncovered tests that were claimed to have been provided at health clubs, retirement homes or shopping malls. Another is false diagnoses submitted inappropriately by healthcare providers who seek reimbursement for services that Medicare does not cover. And according to the FBI, seniors have become primary targets for these medical equipment schemes. For example, seniors that are asked to provide their Medicare health insurance claim numbers to receive products or gifts. Once they have the beneficiaries’ numbers the scammers can provide them to Medicare as fraudulent claims.

If you’ve had something like this happen to you here’s what you can do to protect yourself.

1. Remember that your Medicare health insurance claim number and SSN are the same- so keep them secure!
2. Review each and every Medicare Summary Notice carefully and report any suspicious looking claims immediately.
3. Contact a Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program Senior Medicare Patrol (SMP) Counselor. He or she can go over the specific details and if necessary, help move your case forward into a formal investigation.

If we were to ask an older person what his or her most important concerns for aging are, we would probably get a variety of different answers. According to surveys frequently conducted among the elderly, the most likely answers we would receive would include the following three principal concerns or life wishes:

1. Remaining independent in the home without intervention from others

2. Maintaining good health and receiving adequate health care

3. Having enough money for everyday needs and not outliving assets and income

To address these concerns or wishes and maintain the quality of life wanted in the elder years, it simply takes a little preplanning.

Few people do this kind of planning…. read the entire article by going to the link below

Please go to http://www.planforcare.org for more information. Or visit us online at www.calelderlaw.com, we’re happy to answer your questions and help you start creating a plan.

~With permission from the National Care Planning Council