What Every Parent who has a Child with Special Needs Should Know about Estate Planning
Written by Vincent J. RussoRegardless of your child's age or special need, as a parent you want nothing more than to make sure you are doing everything to love, nurture, protect and provide for your child. From the moment your eyes first meet, you experience a flood of emotions – hope, love, fear – emotions that envelop your every thought. You wonder, "Will I make the right decisions?" "Am I prepared for this life-long journey?" and "Who will care for my child if I am no longer here?" Where do you begin? You develop a plan.
The Family Health Care Decisions Act became New York Law on March 16, 2010.
The new law covers New York residents (other than the developmentally disabled and the mentally retarded who are covered under a different statute) who lack the capacity to make health care and end of life decisions for themselves, even if such individuals previously had capacity but never expressed their wishes in a health care proxy or living will. This new law was 17 years in the making.
Should you give away your nest egg to your heirs – and then stick Medicaid with your nursing-home tab when the time comes? Outrageous though it might seem, it is a perfectly legal estate-planning strategy.
John: I do not understand why I need to make things so complicated. If anything should happen to me, my wife of 40 years, Sally, will take care of me. She knows what is best for me.
When one thinks of abuse, you envision one person physically hurting another, like we hear all too often in domestic violence situations. Unfortunately, abuse comes in many forms: physical, financial, medical and emotional and all too often, the signs of abuse are overlooked or ignored. In general, we also tend to think of those abused in terms of “groups” – young or middle-aged Americans – however it has been reported that older women (67 percent) are far more likely than men (32 percent) to be victims of abuse and a little more than half (53 percent) of the abusers are female. Elder abuse and neglect is a reality for far too many of our seniors today. It is our responsibility as a society to recognize the warning signs, to intervene and to help educate others about how to report and reduce the incidence of this crime.
In part I, the general principals of special needs trust distributions were discussed, as well as in-kind support and maintenance rules, referred to as ISM. Now, in part II, some of the most common requests for distributions will be discussed.
Sitting down with your parents to discuss legal, financial, and long-term care issues can be uncomfortable. Adult children often do not know much about their parents’ financial situation, whether they have enough money to live on, or to pay for the care they would want. Often, families have not had discussions about how they view the end of their lives, and what preparations they have made.
Are you in need of home care services but are afraid to get the necessary care because of cost! Are you aware that you may be able to access the Medicaid Community Based Home Care Program (Medicaid Home Care) for these services?
