In this series of posts we will focus on Medi-Cal for our over-65 clients who need assistance with long-term care. We will take you through the laws and what we do for our clients, from the initial meeting until we receive that eligibility letter, to help them qualify, apply for and receive Medi-Cal, for long-term care. The Initial Appointment –…
This is another installment in our very occasional series on estate planning lessons learned from celebrities. The actress Nichelle Nichols, 85, who is most famous for portraying Lieutenant Uhura on the original “Star Trek,” is currently the subject of a conservatorship battle pending in Los Angeles Superior Court. Ms. Nichols’ son, Kyle Johnson, filed the petition for conservatorship in May…
According to new federal data, gathered by Medicare from daily payroll records from more than 14,000 nursing homes in the United States, nursing homes have been under-reporting to the government their nurse and caretaker staffing levels for years. For families with loved ones dependent on nursing home care, this is likely not a surprise. There are nearly 1.4 million people…
One of the things we do at Absolute Trust Counsel is assist families with a disabled senior to preserve assets and also become eligible for Medi-Cal assistance to help them pay for nursing home care. One of the tools we often use to do this type of planning is an irrevocable trust. We also sometimes have to help families who…
We know lots of people don’t like to think or talk about dying. We can see how our own clients often put off doing their estate planning until something happens that they see as a wake-up call: a friend dies suddenly without a will, leaving a mess for the family; or our client has to serve as their parents’ estate…
Julia was worried. “I’m telling you, Mom had a big bruise on her leg when I visited her yesterday at the nursing home,” she told her sister, June. “She says she doesn’t remember how it happened. When I asked a nurse, all she said was, ‘Oh, your mother is always falling. She doesn’t always use her walker.’ Mom doesn’t have…
Linda and her friend, Mary, walked through the apartment at the retirement village. It was the perfect space for a single adult who didn’t want to deal with the responsibility of home ownership. “There are a number of different units available, with a wide variety of amenities,” the real estate agent said. “Because this is a continuing care retirement community,…
Laura was worried about her 80-year-old mother. “She gets around well enough, but sometimes she needs help with household tasks, such as cleaning, grocery shopping, and laundry,” she told her friend, Debra. “And she claims she can’t afford to hire someone to help. But neither can I. And if she doesn’t get the help she needs, she may have to…
Estate planning is a critical necessity when someone is diagnosed with a terminal illness: It is vital that the proverbial “house” be put in order. Timing quickly becomes a concern. At a certain stage in a terminal illness, it may become difficult to ascertain desires, or identify the information required, to carry out effective estate planning. In addition, mental competency,…