“And to Mary Kay Morgan, I bequeath my home and the sum of $250,000,” the lawyer intoned. Sara gazed at her sister, Mary, her eyes filled with questions. “Who the heck is Mary Morgan?” she whispered. Mary shrugged. “No idea. Maybe Uncle Hank had a girlfriend or something?” Sara’s eyes narrowed. “Sounds fishy to me. We all know Uncle Hank…
One of the most important aspects of your estate plan may be the decisions you make about your health care. There may come a time when you are no longer able to make such decisions and by planning for that possibility, you can ensure that your desires will be carried out to the very end-of-life. There are three tools at…
The doorbell would not stop ringing. Finally, 80-year-old Mary activated her video doorbell and asked hesitantly, “Who is it?” “My name is Manny Pearson, ma’am. Your son, Jake, sent me. He’s in jail and needs bail money. No one else is answering their phone, so he asked me to come by and get a check from you. He needs $1,000…
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 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…
This is another installment in our series on Medi-Cal planning. We are focusing on the income requirements for Medi-Cal eligibility. In our last blog post we discussed income in the context of in-home care. Here we look at nursing home care. Nursing Home Medi-Cal The income calculation for nursing home Medi-Cal is slightly different from in-home Medi-Cal. There is almost…
The population of seniors in the United States is growing rapidly. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that people 65 and older will make up 20 percent of our country’s population by 2030. Along with this increasing population come increasing reports of elder financial abuse. It is only going to become more and more important for all of us,…
In this continuing series of posts we will focus on Medi-Cal for our over-65 clients who need assistance with long-term care. Here, we continue our discussion of the issues we discuss in our first appointment with our clients. What About Veteran’s Benefits? One preliminary question we ask our clients has to do with their prior military service. In some cases,…