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973-226-0050In estate planning, it is common that parents divide the inheritance equally among the children. But sometimes, parents intentionally choose to not leave anything to a child, and the reasons for doing so may vary. One reason could be that a child who is more financially successful than the others and the parent doesn’t feel it’s necessary to leave anything. Another reason may be a desire to prevent a child with special needs from losing government benefits. Or a parent may not want to leave an inheritance to an irresponsible or drug-dependent child for fear the inheritance will be wasted.
Regardless of the reason, disinheriting a child can negatively affect that child’s relationship with his or her siblings. The courts are full of siblings who sue each other over inheritances but even if they don’t sue, it is highly unlikely they will be a close family unit. Money aside, there is symbolic meaning to receiving something from a parent’s estate.
Disinheriting a child for what may seem to be a valid reason may actually be completely unnecessary. For example:
How we choose to include our children in our estate plans has lasting effects, both positive and negative. Choosing not to disinherit a child who has caused grief and heartache sends a message of love and forgiveness while disinheriting a child, even for what seems to be a good cause, can convey a lack of love, anger, and resentment.
If you have previously disinherited a child and you have since reconciled, update your plan immediately. If you wish to disinherit a child, it may be wise to tell that child and explain the reasons why. Doing so may help deter the child from blaming siblings later and may prevent a costly court battle.
Regardless of your desires about how you want to leave an inheritance to your children, grandchildren, or other loved ones, we can help. Give us a call to schedule time for a private conversation about your wishes, and we will make sure your wishes are properly documented. If you’d like to discuss ways we can help, please contact our office at 973-226-0050.
The post The Potential Outcomes of Disinheriting a Child appeared first on Faloni Law Group.
Imagine this scenario, an unwed middle-aged lady, Sandy, being the sole caretaker for her 85-year-old mother. Sandy still worked full time and would help her mom in the evenings and weekends. Unfortunately, Sandy was in a serious car accident and would be out of work for at least 8 weeks. She now faced the challenge of paying her bills while out of work and finding someone to help her mom until Sandy could get back on her feet.
There are only so many ways you can plan for the unexpected. Short-term disability insurance is one. Yet many people may not know exactly what short-term disability is or how it can benefit someone who has experienced an unexpected illness or injury that may prevent them from being able to work for an extended period of time. There are also the planned events, such as surgery to correct a chronic health issue for which you will need some income to help cover the procedure and other expenses incurred during your time away from your job. It is estimated that on a yearly basis, an average of 5.6 percent of workers in America will have a need for short-term disability. Here is an overview of what short-term disability insurance is and what it can and cannot do for you during the unplanned and most likely unwanted downtime you hope you never have.
The short-term disability is used for non-work-related illnesses or injuries, as opposed to a worker’s compensation policy, paid for by the employer, that provides income replacement for a work-related injury. As the name suggests, the short-term disability is active for a limited period of time, is often offered as part of a benefits package, and may be purchased on your own through a private insurance agent if your employer is not mandated to offer it. Currently, there are only five states where it is mandatory for employers to offer this type of coverage to their employees. These states are California, New York, New Jersey, Hawaii, and Rhode Island. Of note, the income replacement from a short-term disability insurance policy will seldom cover 100% of your income but typically will cover anywhere from 40% to 70% of your income depending on the policy terms.
The time covered by short-term disability can range from 30 days to sometimes up to a year depending on the policy, but it is important to know that your job is not guaranteed should you need to use short-term disability. It may be possible to transition to a long-term disability plan once short-term benefits are used up and you are not ready to return to work. Another important thing to know is what the elimination period is for the policy. Employers do not want to start paying for an illness or injury that could possibly be covered by an employee’s “sick days” fund, therefore there is an elimination period associated with the policy, which means that the policy may dictate how many days you would have to be off work with the disability before a claim could be filed.
Fortunately, there are many conditions that qualify for a short-term disability that even include many mental health issues. As mentioned earlier, if there is a need to be off work for a planned procedure that will render you unable to return to work for a while, you will want to be sure your policy covers that issue and time needed to recover when planning for your care needs. There may be limits to what one employer covers versus another, and conditions that are covered should also be part of your consideration when choosing a plan should you decide to purchase your own policy. Unfortunately, pre-existing conditions are not covered by short-term disability, nor can benefits be used to take time off from work to care for other family members who are sick or injured. In general, the short-term disability plan, when you are informed and knowledgeable of how it works, can be a benefit that may provide some peace of mind should an unexpected health crisis happen.
We help people of all ages plan for the unexpected so that their wishes will be carried out. Through the use of legal documents like a living trust, power of attorney, and health care directives, we make sure your home, your savings, and your family are taken care of if the unexpected happens. If you’d like to discuss ways we can help, please contact our office at 973-226-0050.
The post Short-Term Disability Insurance and Its Many Benefits appeared first on Faloni Law Group.
Hospice care is meant to provide comfort by reducing suffering and focusing on the quality of life for the patient and the family. And yet a lack of regulation, oversight, and available information means that isn’t always the case.
The HSS Inspector General has found that, between 2012 and 2016, health inspectors cited 87% of hospices for deficiencies. In 20% of hospices, these deficiencies were serious – serious enough to endanger patients. For-profit hospice agencies are more likely than to have non-profits, likely because decreasing staff increases profit margins.
There aren’t many options for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to discipline hospices. They can drop hospices from the Medicare program, but they can’t assess fines or install temporary management. Many complaints can’t be substantiated, and even when they are, that information doesn’t become readily available to consumers. CMS could put citations for deficiencies and complaints on their website for consumers, Hospice Compare, but they don’t.
The CMS Inspector General has recommended that legislators strengthen hospice standards, increase inspections, streamline the complaint and investigation process, and improve accountability and availability of information. Whether we will see improvements in the near future remains to be seen.
Choosing long-term care for a loved one can be challenging. We help families find good long-term care and work with them on how to pay for the care. If you’d like to discuss ways we can help, please contact our office at 973-226-0050.
Read more at:
The post Hospice Providers Riddled With Deficiencies in Care appeared first on Faloni Law Group.
Most young adults don’t consider estate planning a priority. Young adults in their twenties and thirties often think they don’t own enough to constitute an estate. However, an estate is the total of all you own – money, investments, real estate, vehicles, business interests, digital assets (including cryptocurrency), and other personal belongings. No matter how much or minor, you own your possessions need to go somewhere after you die. You may not think you will die young, but if the coronavirus pandemic has taught us anything, it is that life is uncertain. It is a myth that estate planning is just for the rich and the old.
Some documents may vary depending on your wealth or financial structure; however, everyone should have a will
. At the time of your death, everything you own becomes your estate. Your estate will go through a probate process where the court will determine what happens to you everything you own that doesn’t have a co-owner or beneficiary. Because the probate court will inventory your assets and notify and pay creditors, your will is a public record. If you have a will, the probate court will use it as a guide. In the absence of a will (dying intestate), the court will use state intestacy laws to determine who inherits your assets.
A will designates two critical things. The first is the naming of your executor. An executor is responsible for carrying out the instructions in your will, making payments on any outstanding debts, distributing assets to named heirs, and filing your final taxes. Second, if you have dependents, your will names the guardian and backup guardian to provide care for them. The naming of an executor and guardian for a dependent can only happen in a will.
All young adults should have an advance healthcare directive
, also known as a medical directive or living will, which includes a durable healthcare power of attorney. These legal documents specify your healthcare wishes if you are permanently incapacitated or for end-of-life healthcare and designate who will make those decisions on your behalf according to your instructions. In addition, it is imperative to include a HIPAA privacy authorization form for your durable healthcare power of attorney or trustee. The form permits medical and healthcare professionals to disclose pertinent health information and medical records to your healthcare proxy.
While it may be uncomfortable to contemplate being unable to make decisions for yourself as a young adult, accidental injuries, heart disease, cancer, and strokes, to name a few, are becoming all too prevalent in young American adults. Making plans while you are competent and able is a prudent course of action and can bring you a sense of calm, knowing you have confronted the possibility and have a plan in place.
Some young adults will have enough assets, real estate, or business interests to make a revocable living trust
worthwhile. This trust type avoids the probate process, ensuring privacy. There is no limit to the number of times you can amend a living trust. You may change asset distribution or add assets as you acquire more throughout your life. An estate planning attorney can help you determine if your financial situation and age warrant the setting up of this type of trust.
You probably have more assets than you realize. To assess your situation, inventory all of your belongings which typically includes but is not limited to:
Once you realize the scope of your belongings and assets, you can begin formulating your estate plan. First, consider who you want to receive your possessions and think about secondary beneficiaries, especially over time, as early estate planning requires frequent reviews and updates in the event of deaths, marriage, divorce, or the birth of a child.
Once you have an inventory and have begun thinking about who should handle things upon your passing and who you want as beneficiaries, it’s time to sit down with an estate planning attorney. Working with an estate planning attorney is easier than ever now, as COVID-19 increases the use of video and smartphone conferencing that streamlines legal planning. Estate planning attorneys like us can create a plan that best suits your situation, even if you aren’t sure what to do. Proper legal documents can save your loved ones from an expensive probate trial should someone contest your will. Even as a young adult, it is best to start planning now, even if it is just with some primary documents.
We would be happy to discuss your needs in a confidential setting that you are comfortable with – by video, over the phone, or in person. If you’d like to discuss ways we can help, please contact our office at 973-226-0050.
The post Why Estate Planning Is Important to Younger Adults appeared first on Faloni Law Group.
The US Food and Drug Administration ( FDA ) recently approved a new drug under the trademark Aduhelm
to treat Alzheimer’s disease. The drug, Aducanumab, is a therapeutic drug that clinically demonstrates a potential to delay further decline from Alzheimer’s disease and is also the first FDA approval for a drug that does more than address the symptoms. This drug therapy can target the fundamental pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease. In clinical studies, Aducanumab demonstrates an ability to remove amyloid plaque from the brain, delaying the disease’s progression.
Multi-national pharmaceutical company Biogen (Corporate Headquarters Cambridge, MA International Headquarters in Baar, Switzerland) has been researching and developing approaches to treat Alzheimer’s patients for over a decade, according to CEO Michel Vounatsos. The hope is this drug can help those diagnosed with the disease in its earlier stages and can quell the ever-increasing number of Americans suffering from the disease, a number that now stands at 6.2 million. While not a cure, Aduhelmis a significant advancement in the treatment of the disease. Further clinical testing must be done on people with more advanced cases of dementia to qualify its effectiveness.
To date, Alzheimer’s disease is an irreversible, progressive brain disorder. The disease slowly attacks thinking and memory capabilities and is characterized by a build-up of amyloid plaque and neurofibrillary (tau) tangles resulting in the loss of neurons and connections. Aducanumab is the first drug to receive FDA approval that may slow the damage occurring in the brain.
Like all drugs, Aduhelmcomes with FDA warnings that include a host of side effects, many of which fall under the umbrella of amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA). ARIA can include vasogenic edema. Vasogenic is an extracellular fluid accumulation due to disruption of the blood-brain barrier and edema being swelling due to this fluid accumulation. Other more readily understood side-effects may include headache, diarrhea, fall, and altered mental status such as delirium/confusion/disorientation.
Because the FDA’s approval of Aduhelmused the accelerated approval provisions, Biogen must conduct newly randomized, clinically controlled trials to verify the drug’s benefit further. Should the drug fail in these trials, the FDA reserves the right to withdraw approval of the drug.
Biogen and its investors expect Aduhelmto generate billions of dollars in revenue for the company. Aducanumab’s list price is 56,000 dollars per year. While some analysts expected the price range to be 10,000 to 25,000 dollars, Biogen defends its pricing model, citing billions spent in research to bring the drug to market. Pushback from patients regarding the cost of the drug gets lost in the typical “out-of-pocket cost to patients is health care coverage dependent.” CEO Vounatsos also cites that Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias cost the US more than 600 billion dollars annually and cost patients 500,000 per year. Insisting the time to “invest” in Alzheimer’s drug therapy is now.
In a CNBC interview , Biogen’s Vounatsos defends the drug pricing calling it “fair” as Biogen has experienced “two decades of no innovation” in research for Alzheimer’s drug therapies until now. The CEO further elaborated, promising that the drug price of Aduhelmwould not increase for the next four years. Biogen works closely with federal CMS programs, Medicare and Medicaid, and private medical insurance companies to keep patient out-of-pocket costs as reasonable as possible.
The FDA’s accelerated approval process and the exorbitant cost of Aduhelmseem to be overlooked as Alzheimer’s patient groups are desperate for treatments. Even before the drug’s release, the NYT reports the FDA’s independent advisory committee and several prominent Alzheimer’s experts were not for greenlighting the drug last November. The independent FDA committee overwhelmingly voted against recommending the fast track approval saying, “data failed to demonstrate that aducanumab slowed cognitive decline.”
Aducanumab may provide significant therapeutic advantages over existing treatments, but much is still to be understood. Alzheimer’s is a devastating illness that destroys the lives of the people diagnosed with the disease and the families who love and care for them. The impact is physically, emotionally, and financially draining on many levels. Treating the underlying disease process of Alzheimer’s with Aduhelmrather than just the symptoms is a promising step in eradicating the disease.
If you or a family member has dementia and would like to discuss how this may affect your estate plan (or if you need to create an estate plan), please give us a call. We’d be honored to help. If you’d like to discuss ways we can help, please contact our office at 973-226-0050.
The post New Alzheimer’s Drug Approved by the FDA appeared first on Faloni Law Group.
Hotel heiress Leona Helmsley left a trust fund for her Maltese dog named “Trouble” to the tune of $12 million dollars in 2007. Unfortunately, pet inheritances ever since have enjoyed a dubious reputation.
For those who care about the well-being of their animals or livestock, animal trusts can play an essential role in ensuring that the animals get the care they need after the principal caregiver passes. After all, estate planning aims to provide for the family, and many of us consider animals as part of the family. Trusts can ensure that money is put aside to care for animals when the animal’s primary human is no longer there. This legal document is significant for long-lived animals like parrots, horses, or tortoises.
Because trusts avoid the probate process, there is no delay in the continuity of care. Trusts also surmount another obstacle by creating a legal entity to receive money. This document is necessary because money or life insurance proceeds cannot be left directly to an animal.
A trust can appoint a caregiver to provide a home, name a trustee to manage the money, and state animal care instructions. These instructions may supply essential information about the animal’s diet, preferred veterinarian, and, for example, farrier.
Here are the elements that go into a pet trust.
➢ Carefully consider whom to appoint a caregiver. Ideally, name several people as backups with whom you have discussed the proposal beforehand. Leona Helmsley unwisely named unwilling family members.
➢ Describe your animals as a “class” if you own several, or you can specify your animals by name or photo, or microchip number.
➢ Provide details for the care the animals need, including diet, medical attention, and maintenance schedule.
➢ Allocate reasonable funds to pay for your pet’s care. “Reasonable” doesn’t mean $12 million. The Helmsley judge reduced that amount to a paltry $2 million to maintain Trouble in the manner she had become accustomed to until she went to her final reward in 2011 at age 12.
➢ Itemize bloodlines for prize livestock or horses. Valuing them correctly can make a big difference in the worth of an estate.
➢ If you have taken out loans to finance the purchase of a herd, identify whether you got credit for specific purchases or blanket financing for all stock purchases. Those debts will need to be settled before any of your human heirs can inherit.
➢ Provide instructions for the disposition of your pet’s remains.
➢ Designate where funds should go if there is money left over after the animal passes.
When appropriately drafted with the help of an attorney, pet trusts can save significant money and time. And, your estate plan will provide the care you want for everybody you leave behind – your family and your animals.
If you’re interested in learning more about pet trusts or discussing your estate planning needs, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We would be happy to help. If you’d like to discuss ways we can help, please contact our office at 973-226-0050.
The post A Guide for Understanding How Pet Trusts Work appeared first on Faloni Law Group.
Jeanette’s mother lay seriously ill in the hospital, while her father pleaded with her to promise to take care of her mother if he at some point could not. Of course, Jeanette said “yes.”
Years later, when Jeanette’s father had gone and mother’s hearing and eyesight failed, she could no longer drive, and she had fallen several times, Jeanette remembered that promise.
Jeanette’s first step in keeping that promise is to make sure that if mother hasn’t already done so, she should visit us, your friendly elder-law counselors. We will check to see that mother has done the financial planning and powers of attorney that every adult needs, especially older adults, particularly those in the mother’s situation.
As Jeanette keeps her promise, she will join a community of millions who are taking care of aging parents. The challenge is enormous. Caregivers can feel the loss of freedom keenly. Family emotional issues left unaddressed for years, may re-emerge. Jeanette might be spending money she’s not sure she has. She can’t sleep without worry. She is wrestling with the demands of caregiving, at the same time she’s striving to meet commitments to her own family and workplace. Her or another family member’s health can act up. Time off from work is harder and harder to come by, yet she may face daily demands and frequent emergencies.
The great numbers of people in Jeanette’s situation pose a substantial public health issue. Congress has recently passed the RAISE Family Caregivers Act,
https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/3759/text?overview=closed
to establish a national strategy to provide assistance to so many of us.
It’s very important that caregivers also take care of themselves. Time-honored flight attendants’ advice is good here, too: Put on your own oxygen mask first. For advice on self-care and how to manage caregiver stress, visit the Mayo Clinic website, here.
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/caregiver-stress/art-20044784
Then, take full advantage of the numerous resources listed below. Remember:
Keep the home fires burning
https://theconversation.com/the-story-behind-world-war-is-greatest-anthem-100-years-on-31601
– but don’t you burn out yourself.
Area Agencies on Aging
https://www.n4a.org/caregivers
This is a national association of nonprofit agencies serving as a clearinghouse for information on public long-term support and benefits. Services include elder transportation, emergency assistance, respite care (temporary supervision of the elder to provide rest for the caregiver), individual counseling and support groups, and caregiver education classes and training.
Caregiver Action Network
http://caregiveraction.org/
This website provides advice organized by the stage of the process the caregiver is in, helpful care checklists, and advice on cost management and juggling work and family obligations with caregiving responsibilities.
Caregiving.com
https://www.caregiving.com/
Here find podcasts, a story-telling project, a directory of caregiving consultants, an extensive free webinar library covering numerous topics including “decision fatigue,” plain old fatigue, boundary-setting, respite care, and many others.
Family Caregiving Alliance
https://www.caregiver.org/
This is the first community-based nonprofit in the country to address the needs of families and friends providing long-term care for loved ones at home. The site provides information, support, and resources state-by-state, as well as sponsoring research initiatives for caregiver programs and policies.
National Alliance for Caregiving
This site provides a long list of resources, including government programs for family caregivers, care locators, a caregiving calendar to coordinate group volunteer efforts, financial information, and organizations that address caregiving for specific conditions like cancer and Alzheimer’s.
Parenting Our Parents
Peer-to-peer networking, family coaching, videos, and website compendiums.
If you have questions on anything you have read or would like additional information, please don’t hesitate to contact us. If you’d like to discuss ways we can help, please contact our office at 973-226-0050.
The post Caregivers Need Care Too appeared first on Faloni Law Group.
You may have seen a friend or loved one suffer for a long time with Alzheimer’s. In the final stages of this and other dementia diseases, there comes a time when the person can no longer speak, recognize loved ones, or move purposefully.
With that poor quality of life, many would choose to stop hand-feeding and hydration and to allow the dying process to begin. However, long before that time arrives, the person in question has lost the capacity to make and to express that decision. If the person no longer has an effective way to be heard, institutions, where such people are usually confined, are legally and morally obligated to continue hand-feeding and hydration until the bitter end.
That end can come years and years later. A terrible characteristic of such diseases is that people may have lost all that made them who they once were and, yet, they remain physically healthy enough to continue, in that absent state, for many years.
Existing health-care powers of attorney usually only rule out artificial nutrition and hydration, like feeding tubes and IV. Until recently, the documents did not include hand-feeding. Thus, despite the person’s healthcare agent requesting otherwise, caregivers would be required to continue cajoling, persuading, and insisting that the person continue to be fed by hand. This process would rely on a primitive reflex in which touching the spoon to the corner of the person’s mouth would result in an involuntary opening of the mouth. This could be misinterpreted as a desire to eat, and the sad situation could drag on and on without any way to intervene.
In especially tragic cases, where the person’s swallowing reflex has become diminished, the person could aspirate food and fluid into the lungs, resulting in pneumonia.
Thanks to pioneering efforts by End of Life Washington , and End of Life Choices in New York, a new document has emerged to supplement existing healthcare directives and to specifically address this issue. Where the person has become unable to feed herself, can no longer use the toilet, and can no longer move or speak or recognize loved ones, the person may have expressed, in this supplemental document, that hand-feeding be stopped – or that feeding is restricted only to foods that the person demonstrably enjoys. The document further requests that the person be kept comfortable and out of pain through careful medication and other measures to relieve any anxiety, agitation, or insomnia.
Especially when the dementia diagnosis is first made, and while the person still has the capacity to make and communicate healthcare decisions, this supplemental healthcare directive must be considered. Creating a video expressing these wishes is also a very good idea. That way, at a time when the person has become only a silent immobile presence in bed, caregivers can see the person as he or she used to be, expressing wishes while the person was still able to communicate with them.
Please give us a call if you would like to talk about your wishes and how to create a legal document reflecting those wishes. If you’d like to discuss ways we can help, please contact our office at 973-226-0050.
The post The Importance of Creating a Legal Document Reflecting Your Final Health Care Wishes appeared first on Faloni Law Group.
Your right to vote is one of the most important rights you have as a citizen, but this right could be lost if you become a ward in a guardianship. Having a strong power of attorney is essential to avoid that drastic, but a little-known, consequence.
A power of attorney gives a trusted person the authority to act on your behalf. Support like that is especially important if there is any question that you might have become unable to make decisions for yourself. Sometimes, however, that situation is far from clear. Elderly people can be dragged into unnecessary guardianship proceedings, not of their choice.
This can happen, for example, if you are temporarily hospitalized and a not-so-friendly person – may be related to you by a second marriage – sees an opportunity to seize control of your finances. Any adult person can file a petition seeking a guardianship. If you had designated your trusted agent before hospitalization, your agent could defend against that kind of predatory danger.
The danger is real. You could lose not only your money and your independence but also your right to vote. For example, until relatively recently a provision in the Arkansas Constitution stated that “no idiot or insane person shall be entitled to the privileges of an elector.” That provision had the force of law until 2009. And again in Arkansas, once a person is placed in a guardianship, court approval is required before the ward is permitted to vote. Laws like these are by no means exceptional. Many states disqualify voting persons who have been adjudicated incompetent, incapacitated, or of “unsound mind.”
But the standard to decide whose mind is “unsound” is far from clear. For example, a diagnosis of dementia can encompass a wildly variable population, depending on the point of view of the evaluating professional. And judges usually have no specialized education of their own in psychology.
Whether a person can handle their finances or retains the ability to drive, are far different questions from whether a person retains enough sense to vote. A citizen who votes for any winning candidate joins the majority of the electorate. Determining, in advance, that one vote of all those is irrational discriminates against that particular voter – when many uninformed voters, who might choose candidates based on the brilliance of their smile, say, would not be subjected to that kind of scrutiny.
How much better it would be, then, to avoid that battle in the first place. With the help of an elder law attorney, you can create an effective power of attorney that will do just this. If you’d like to discuss ways we can help, please contact our office at 973-226-0050.
The post Could You Lose Your Right to Vote in a Guardianship? appeared first on Faloni Law Group.
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