Elder Law Articles & Media
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.
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.
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.
Dr. Marion Somers, PhD.
1. Mr. Russo, as an elder law attorney can you to tell me what is the number one concern of seniors today?
Vincent J Russo: Seniors are most concerned about being impoverished if they need long term care and have to spend down all of their assets to pay for it. Medicaid is the only government program available to seniors to pay for long term care, but there are strict financial eligibility requirements.
2. Who pays for New York’s Medicaid bills?

