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,…
The Golden Years May Have a New Name: The Bankrupt Years In the past month or so, a number of articles in the news have come out showing that seniors are declaring bankruptcy at an increasing and alarming rate. The debt burden on seniors is going up due to student loans, credit cards, and lack of retirement savings. Often, the…
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…
Here is an increasingly common scenario we see in our practice. One family member usually a child, begins assisting, then taking care of and possibly even living with, an elderly parent as the parent’s abilities decline with age. The other children in the family eye the arrangement with suspicion: Is our sister just sponging off of mom or, worse yet,…
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…
When Anna approached her 80th year, she decided it would be wise to add her daughter Amy’s name to her checking account. “After all,” she told her children, “she already pays my bills and does my grocery shopping. What happens if I become ill and can no longer sign the checks? Someone has to have access to my bank account…
It began on a sunny Saturday morning, when 70-year-old Sandra Johnson’s phone rang.
“Sandra, Sandra Johnson?” the caller asked.
“Yes, that’s me,” she responded.
“I’m pleased to inform you that you have won the Clearinghouse Sweepstakes, a grand prize of $1 million! Unfortunately, when we went to your address to deliver the check, no one was home. Before we go further, could you verify your address for me?”
Joint checking accounts are not always the answer.
At age 65, Louisa Willis was anxious to get all of her estate planning ducks in a row. Louisa decided to forgo the traditional methods of estate planning—a Will and Living Trust– and created a joint checking account, naming her son, Ben, as the co-owner. Louisa’s reasoning was simple. By creating a joint account, Ben would have immediate access to her funds “in emergencies,” such as long-term care or upon her death, funeral expenses.