Arbitration clauses in nursing home contracts are increasingly common and problematic. Fortunately, many courts are looking at them skeptically. A court in California is the latest one to refuse to enforce such a clause. An elderly California woman, Marjorie Fitzpatrick, was signed into a nursing home by her daughter in 2012. The next year Marjorie [...]
When you are ready to meet with an attorney and get an estate plan there are a few things that you can do before the meeting to make it more productive. It is possible to be totally unprepared when you meet with an estate planning attorney for the first time. Under such a scenario, you [...]
It is a natural instinct to designate an adult child as your power of attorney should you ever need one. However, you need to be certain that your children are capable of the job. When creating an estate plan be sure to plan for incapacity, in addition to death. Who would you want to handle [...]
One way to avoid probate is to retitle real estate to make an heir a joint owner. However, that has risks that some people try to avoid by not registering the deeds until after the original owner passes away. These are known as "pocket deeds" and they carry their own risks. Joint ownership is one [...]
Tax obligations do not disappear when a person passes away. Executors need to know what forms should be filled out. One of the most important, if not the single most important, thing executors must do is handle the taxes of the deceased and the estate. Not doing so properly can result in personal liability for [...]
Elderly people need to be extra vigilant about who they give their money to as scammers often specifically target the elderly who they view as more vulnerable. One Australian man learned this lesson the hard way. As unconscionable as it might seem to most people, scammers and con artists often target elderly people with their [...]
The Obama administration is expected to sign off on a proposal to strengthen the standards for advisors concerning retirement accounts. The investment advice given by retirement planners has long been a source of contention for elder law advocates. Many advocates fear that, with little oversight of retirement advisors, those advisors often steer clients to risky [...]
Communicating with your children about the inheritance you plan to leave them is an important step in avoiding future battles over your estate. However, having the inheritance talk is not easy. If you want your family to fight over your estate after you pass away, the best way to make that happen is to make [...]
The Major Elder Law Issue Candidates Are Not Talking About Paying for long term care is a major crisis for many American elderly people and their families, so why are presidential candidates not mentioning it at all? For a long time, policy makers have known that the U.S. faces an impending crisis. People are living [...]
Congress has long pushed Medicare to pay doctors less for what tests they run and more for the quality of care that is provided. Medicare plans to do so, but is it even possible? There is no doubt that the sheer number of tests done by doctors and hospitals is a major source of health [...]