Elder law is a broad practice area centered around long-term care planning, asset protection, and many related issues. There are endless stories of folks needing long-term care, yet their families wait until it’s too late to hire an attorney or just simply don’t hire an attorney at all. This leaves families with...
Category: Elder Law
What Are The Odds (Of Needing Long-Term Care)?
Whenever I give a presentation about long-term care, inevitably there will be some discussion about the odds of needing a nursing home. For instance, one statistic from the federal department of Health and Human Services (HHS) indicates that only 15% of older adults will spend greater than two years in a nursing home. If you're...
Long-Term Care Planning: One Thing To Do Right Now
Far too many of us are concerned/worried that we may need a nursing home or long-term care in the future, and that our estate may be in the red as a result. But unfortunately, most of us don’t do any planning.
Nursing homes have been in the news many...
Elder Financial Abuse Study
A study commissioned by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf in 2019 recently revealed some alarming findings related to the financial exploitation of older adults.
Financial exploitation of older adults can take many different forms and can be perpetrated by trusted individuals or complete strangers. The most common forms of financial...
A Legal Update
There’s a bit of news in the estate planning world that I thought I’d share with you this week:
1. Pennsylvania Inheritance Tax Changes
There is currently a potential law (HB 971) working its way through the PA House and PA Senate to eliminate inheritance tax for property passing from a parent...
Do You Need Long-Term Care Insurance?
Is Long-Term Care Insurance a Good Bet? Economists argue that even if Medicaid spend-down rules were tightened significantly, Long-Term Care insurance would still be unfavored by consumers. It is sometimes claimed that reducing the amount of assets an individual can keep while qualifying for Medicaid...
Pennsylvania Inheritance Tax 101
When you die in Pennsylvania, any property or assets that you leave to other people is subject to an “Inheritance Tax.” This is in addition to possible federal estate taxes (more on this in the coming weeks).
Typically, but not always, the Executor of the estate pays the inheritance tax on behalf of...
Elder Abuse and Predatory Marriages
There was an interesting article in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal a couple of weeks ago (June 11, 12). In a column by Kelly Greene, she shed light onto a particularly troublesome topic: elder caregivers secretly marrying the person in his or her care, and as a...
Jeremy Attends Estate & Elder Law Symposium
Yesterday, your estate planning attorney Jeremy A. Wechsler attended the Pennsylvania Bar Institute's annual Estate & Elder Law Symposium. Jeremy believes that continuing to learn the latest estate planning techniques and case law is crucial to maintaining top standards in practice.
For instance, several key cases came through the Pennsylvania courts this...
Avoid Guardianship
Let me get straight to the point: Guardianship is terrible. You can generally avoid guardianship by having valid, well-crafted Powers of Attorney that are drafted and signed while you are competent and acting on your own free volition.
Guardianship is a court-run process where any person can petition the court to hold that another person...