Collaborative Elder Law

What Are The Most Pressing Estate Planning Issues of Concern to Elders and Their Families?
• How can I protect my family home and keep the state from placing a lien on the home if I enter a nursing home?
• How can I insure that I can continue to live at home or in the community and not enter a nursing home?
• How will my spouse survive with costs of my healthcare?
• How can I protect my estate and my life savings?
• How can I avoid probate and pay the least taxes?
• How can I insure that my family will inherit my estate and there will be something to pass on upon my death?

What are the Essential Estate Planning Documents Every Family Should Know About, and What is Probate?
• Wills
• Health care proxies
• Powers of attorney
• Deeds with life estates and realty trusts
• Homestead Declaration
• Irrevocable Income Only Trusts
• Masshealth qualified Annuities
• Supplemental and Special Needs Trusts
• Revocable and irrevocable trusts
• Care Taker Contracts
• Guardianships
• Gift giving plans
• Asset protection plans.

Probate is a process that must take place when someone dies with property in his or her name alone.
Joint accounts and property held by husband and wife as tenants by the entirety are not probate property.
Joint property and property held as tenants by the entirety pass to the co-owner(s) immediately upon the death of a co-owner. In contrast, property held as tenants in common gives each co-owner an equal share with equal rights, and upon the death of any co-owner, his or her share passes to that individual’s estate.
A person dies either “testate,” meaning with a will, or “intestate,” meaning without a will. If the individual dies with a will, the will should be filed within 30 days of the date of death, but is often filed much later without penalty. An individual named as Executor under the will must be appointed by the Probate
Court in the county where the decedent resided. If a person dies intestate with property, the property passes by the state law of intestacy upon a petition to the Probate Court appointing an administrator.
Intestate property first passes to a surviving spouse and children in equal shares, and if no children, all to the spouse, or if no spouse, to the children equally. If no spouse or children, then it passes to the next level of heirs starting with parents, then siblings, then nieces and nephews, etc.

What you need to know about the Medicaid eligibility and transfer rules.
Introduction
Please note that the Medicaid program rules are made by the state and federal governments, and that there are frequent changes caused by current funding, the courts, agency interpretations of existing rules, and legislative involvement. Every day, we read in the newspapers how one group of politicians or another
is attempting to make major changes. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 was recently passed by Congress, changing many of the rules and regulations outlined in the earlier version of this Resource Guide.
While the effective date of the new law was Feb. 8, 2006 and the new rules have now taken effect, their interpretation by MassHealth continued to evolve. Therefore, it is essential that you consult with an attorney on all matters applying to nursing home level Medicaid before acting. You cannot fully rely on the information set out in this transitional guide.

For most elders, the prospect of long-term care in a nursing home is, to say the least, unpleasant. Elders are also often concerned that the cost of long-term care will deplete their estates. The cost of nursing home care in Massachusetts, now estimated at between $90,000 and $115,000 per year (the daily rate is often
over $290), only serves to compound these fears.
The cost of the monthly premiums to purchase long-term care insurance to pay for the cost of long term care can be beyond the means of middle-income elders and often times is not available to elders due to pre-existing medical conditions.
Many elders receive assistance from the federal Medicare program to help pay medical expenses and the cost of prescription drugs. Medicare, however, does not pay for extended nursing home care. Medicaid, called “MassHealth” in Massachusetts, on the other hand, is a joint federal-state program, which pays
for nursing home care for individuals that meet their financial eligibility rules.
Understanding the complex Medicaid rules is the key to informed long-term care planning and asset protection.
In determining the financial eligibility of an individual applying for Medicaid, Medicaid looks at the applicant’s assets and income.
Assets Income
Anything an applicant owns, such as: All money an applicant receives, such as:
Cash Social Security
Mutual Funds Dividends
Auto Pensions
Real Estate
Consider coming in for a complete analysis of your personal situation to determine your best approach to retain your financial nest egg and gain public benefits.

Elder Law is a focus on life care planning to insure that the total health care and estate planning needs of an individual are addressed, from a multi-disciplinary perspective that includes the following range of services:
• Asset protection planning
• Medicare and Medicaid planning
• Interplay of long-term care and financial planning
• Use of long-term care insurance
• Health care decision-making and the use of advanced directives
• Estate planning and the use of durable powers of attorney, living trusts, wills and real estate strategies to protect the family home
• Housing options and alternatives to nursing homes