“Retiring certainly isn’t for the faint-hearted,” Lily said as she shuffled through a pile of papers on her kitchen table. “I can’t believe all of this paperwork.” Her husband, George, scowled. “Why are you even messing with that stuff? We decided not to claim Social Security for a few more years so we can maximize the benefit. And you’re not…
There are so many ways for parents to leave inheritances to their children as you can imagine. These are a few of the common approaches that parents seems to like, each of which can be tailored to a given family. IF YOUR CHILDREN ARE MATURE ADULTS: Outright Distribution If your children are adults, and you have no concerns for their…
Are you turning up the volume on the television set or straining to hear conversations? You may be suffering from hearing loss. And that could impact your overall brain health. An estimated 48 million Americans suffer from hearing deficits. According to recent studies, those who permit hearing problems to go untreated are at greater risk of developing dementia and related…
One benefit available under the Affordable Care Act (sometimes called “Obamacare”) enacted in 2011 is the Medicare Annual Wellness Visit. This yearly appointment with your primary care provider (PCP) is covered under Medicare Part B. It enables you and your PCP to come up with a personalized prevention plan based on your current health and your known risk factors. As…
This is another installment in our series on Medi-Cal planning. In this blog post we will discuss one final concept that we must keep in mind for our clients when doing their Medi-Cal eligibility planning: estate recovery. The State of California is entitled to recover from the estate of a deceased Medi-Cal recipient the funds paid to elderly clients through…
This is another installment in our series on Medi-Cal planning. In this blog post we focus on one particular planning tool: transfers. Before we can create a plan for transferring our client’s assets we have to consider several additional Medi-Cal planning concepts, which we explore in this article. Look-Back Period On the Medi-Cal application we are required to list all…
If you are over the age of 55 and thinking about moving, consider this: you may be able to take your low property taxes with you to your new home. Thanks to Proposition 13, which was passed by California voters in 1978, real estate in California is no longer reassessed at its fair market value for property tax purposes every…
This is another installment in our series on Medi-Cal planning. In this blog post we discuss common eligibility problems and a few of the tools we can use to solve them. Once we have analyzed our client’s situation and see why they are ineligible, either because they have too much income, too much assets, or both, we can create a…