Retirement planning is becoming more of a reality for Gen Xers as they journey into their 40s and 50s. There are many things to consider, including finances, investments, insurance policies, legal documents, living arrangements, and healthcare. It is advisable to make a detailed checklist within these categories and take action on each item. Meeting with an attorney can help you establish overall goals for your retirement and legacy planning while ensuring the steps you take will lead you to retirement success.

With regards to longevity, things may not be what they seem in the United States. While the world is experiencing an increase in life expectancy, Americans have seen a life expectancy decline for three years in a row. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) considers this a worrying trend. Assessing life expectancy based on these CDC numbers using their traditional approach is just one part of the equation for Gen X retirement planning because the statistic is derived from birth years while retirement years are calculated from age 65 and beyond. Yes, some Americans are living until the age of 100, and fewer are having heart attacks in their 50s because of prescription medications; however, according to the Smithsonian Magazine , there is “no large extension of adult lifespan in old age.” Making a reasonable estimation of your life expectancy is crucial as it affects planning for how long retirement will likely be and the amount of money needed to cover associated expenses.

MDVIP Health and Longevity Survey reveal that more than half of Gen Xers want to live past 90 years of age, with some wanting to make it to 100, and yet, nearly half have not had a comprehensive medical exam in the past five years. One-third of Generation X avoids going to the doctor at all out of fear of finding something medically wrong. Two-thirds admit they could be doing better when it comes to regular exercise, eating healthy, maintaining a healthy weight, and managing stress levels. There is good news, however. Generation Xers have a reasonable amount of lifespan left to identify changes that need to be made and implement them. Barring an unforeseen accident or illness, time is still on the Gen Xer’s side to make their retirement a success story.

The face of retirement has changed. The vision for most retirees is a full life bustling with activity and interpersonal relationships. Semi-retired is how many prefer to see their goal. There are many excellent reasons to keep working beyond age 65. Continuing to earn an income from work is great for health reasons and economic reasons. Generation X will further test the solvency of social security benefits after most of the baby boomer generation will have stressed the federal program to its limits. Staying productive and useful are key elements to financial well-being, happiness, and long-term health. Entrepreneurial pursuits and consulting are more accessible than ever with the advent of the World Wide Web online community. Try pursuing or inventing a new career, perhaps something you have always dreamed about doing.

Joint life expectancy, whether married or not, is an important consideration when planning for and working toward retirement goals. According to the Vanguard Group, a heterosexual Gen X couple where both partners are age 50, the female partner has a 50 percent chance of reaching 85 years of age while her male counterpart only a 38 percent chance of reaching that same age. Since the couple is most likely to pass away at different times, factoring in the longevity of the surviving partner is crucial to planning. When extending longevity retirement scenarios understand that what is discretionary spending for fun in your 70s and 80s may shift to cover increasingly extensive medical aid and expenses in your 90 ^th
decade and possibly beyond. A financial planner can help you to create scenarios that will accommodate the repurposing of monies.

We welcome the opportunity to work with you on your retirement goals to help create a legal plan that supports those goals. If you’d like to discuss ways we can help, please  contact  our office at 973-226-0050.

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Long-term nursing care is awfully expensive. Costs can run around $7,000.00 or more per month, depending on location. Hundreds of thousands of people presently need that kind of care and the numbers are rising. Ten thousand “baby boomers” a day turn 65, and it’s projected that seven of ten of those people will need long-term care.

By astute financial planning, our law firm reduces or eliminates the impact of such phenomenal costs on many families’ life savings. But many others who are not our clients pay and pay until they simply run out of money. The Medicaid program is available to step in and pay, but it is questionable how long that program can continue in its present state. For 2018, Medicaid spending was at $597.4 billion, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Policy-makers are looking for other alternatives.

One option is to require adult children to pay for the cost of their parents’ care. This obligation can be imposed through “filial responsibility” laws. Around thirty states have enacted these laws, some of which even impose criminal fines and imprisonment if an adult child is able, but fails, to pay. For which states have such laws, see the table in this article.

In Pennsylvania in 2012, a son whose mother owed $93,000 to a nursing home was held liable for her bill under that state’s filial responsibility law. The case is Health Care & Retirement Corp. v. Pittas, available here.

The rationale for such laws is that parents supported children for many years and the children owe a debt of gratitude: they should return the favor when parents grow old and become unable to provide for themselves. Such laws are supposed to motivate children to exert pressure on parents, to ensure that long-term care planning is done before the children are called on to pay.

There are numerous objections to this kind of law. Children may resent being forced to pay and treatment of the elderly may suffer as a result. The laws differ widely across the states and produce inconsistent results. Courts may not have the power to enforce these laws against children who live in disparate states. Filial-responsibility laws provide no protection for seniors who have no children.

Further, federal law currently prohibits nursing homes from demanding payment from funds other than those belonging to the resident – like a child’s money.

Other alternatives are more-wisely designed to care for elderly people at home, to delay the need for institutional care for as long as possible. In-home care is estimated to cost one-third the amount of institutional care. Further, personal care can be more suited to the individual if it is given by family and community caregivers. The emotional benefit to the elder can be incalculable.

The need for such programs has been recognized by the Affordable Care Act, which greatly expanded options for states to increase funding for home- and community-based services. Additionally, there are HUD funds available for projects like ECHOs (elder cottage housing opportunity units) – “granny cottages,” small houses for the elderly on a child’s property, to keep family help close by. A 2003 study on the results of that program is available here.

Additional tax deductions and exemptions, like those already allowed in the Medicaid rules, could provide more incentives for at-home improvements like wheelchair ramps and grab-bars. Easing qualifications for long-term care insurance deductions could be encouraged. Family and medical leave from employment could become more available, to relieve the caregiving burden that currently rests disproportionately on women and low-income workers. Subsidies to community elder-care services could be beefed up.

The problem of paying for elder care is multi-faceted and should be tackled on numerous fronts. The options other than filial-responsibility laws seem better-advised to relieve the Medicaid program from the stresses it faces now and into the future.

In the meantime, experienced elder-law attorneys are here to help you protect your finances from the burgeoning costs of aging. Give us a call to discuss your particular needs and how we can help.  If you’d like to discuss ways we can help, please  contact  our office at 973-226-0050.

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Outside Winnie’s nursing home room, Kevin stands teary-eyed. The medical staff just finished inserting a feeding tube into Winnie – an act Kevin knew she didn’t want. Unfortunately, Winnie couldn’t express her wishes due to advanced dementia, and she had no legal documents that expressed her wishes not to be fed by artificial means.  Kevin had no choice but to sit back and watch his wife go through a procedure she didn’t want.

The situation with Kevin and Winnie could have been avoided through the use of proper advance directives. An advance directive is actually a collection of documents. What that includes differs depending on your needs and wishes, along with what the law allows. However, it usually means at least a Living Will, and a Power of Attorney for Healthcare.

The purpose of this set of documents is to allow you to control what happens to your health care in case you cannot speak for yourself. If certain criteria are met, your doctors must consult with your advanced directive before making decisions about your care.

Usually, what this means is that two doctors agree that an individual is terminally ill, permanently unconscious, or at the “end-stage” of a condition. Once that happens, and the individual cannot express their preferences, doctors turn to the advance directive to figure out what the individual wants.

A Living Will determines what happens to an individual making it, unlike a Last Will and Testament, which determines what happens to their money and possessions. A Living Will describes what healthcare providers can and cannot do to prolong your life and/or ease your pain when you cannot express those preferences yourself. For example, do you want to be placed on a ventilator if you cannot breathe on your own? Do you want a feeding tube and IVs set up, and if so, for how long? Do you want to be an organ or tissue donor?

A Durable Power of Attorney for Healthcare lets you choose someone to make healthcare decisions for you when you cannot. They still must follow your Living Will, but they will be able to make decisions not explicitly considered by your Living Will, in accordance with the facts of the situation. In most states, there are “default surrogate consent laws” which allow family members to make treatment decisions on your behalf, but who is chosen to make these decisions and what they choose to do may not be in accordance with your wishes, as it hopefully would be with a Durable Power of Attorney.

Other documents may be part of an advance directive by law, or they may be worth including on your own volition. These include Do Not Resuscitate orders and Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment, among others. You might also consider an advance directive in case of a mental health crisis.

This is a difficult subject to consider, and it always seems like it won’t be necessary. But nearly 70 percent of Americans don’t have plans in place for a worst-case scenario, which means for some of them, decisions may be made for them with which they would not agree if they had the capacity to choose. For that reason, it is worth thinking about implementing an advance directive even if it seems unnecessary now.

If you or a loved one would like more information about advance directives, please don’t hesitate to reach out. If you’d like to discuss ways we can help, please  contact  our office at 973-226-0050.

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The level of anxiety and fear in us has risen drastically since we have been faced with unprecedented challenges during this COVID-19 crisis in America. The reactive part of your brain called the amygdala, a human physiological response when faced with fear, takes control of your actions, and you enter what is known as the fight-flight-freeze response. This stress response induces your body to produce a steroid called cortisol to handle the feelings of fear. Unfortunately, cortisol has another effect on your physiology; it weakens your immune system. This effect makes you more vulnerable at a time when you need strength.

No matter what your challenges are during this pandemic, there is one thing you can bring to the crisis from which all other problems can be better solved, overcome your fear with mental toughness. Being afraid can quite literally make you more susceptible to becoming sick. As such, the proper precautions like getting adequate rest, staying hydrated, and social distancing should have an additional component, help your brain to feel safe to maximize your physical health.

Some of the techniques you can employ include shifting your focus to those things you are grateful for, like a roof over your head, food in your refrigerator, your health. Consider all of the things you have that others may not; the things we all may typically take for granted. If you can’t find gratitude about your circumstances, think of those people working on the front lines in this continuing pandemic and be grateful it is not you. Finding something to be grateful for will immediately get you out of the fight-flight response.

Begin to practice empathy. Look at the time you spend with your loved ones at home as a gift and not a jail sentence. Embrace being with them, laugh, tell them you appreciate them because when you spread joy to others, it will boost their immune system as well. It turns out that being positive is healthy and
contagious.  We all have a rare opportunity to forge better, more loving relationships with our immediate family, or if you live alone, take the time to recharge and re-center yourself. Take full advantage of this moment and choose positive behaviors. Extend your empathy to those who are feeling ill if possible, through video chat, phone calls, texts, or prayer. This moment is so much bigger than just ourselves.

Turn off the news and turn on personal growth and connection. News reports are full of data, some of which are not accurate. Being addicted to the 24/7 news cycle breeds uncertainty and fear as it touts mostly negative statistics and woeful stories of the moment. The basics about this pandemic are well documented at this point. Practice proper hygiene, particularly with your hands, avoid touching your face, avoid large gatherings, and implement social distance but do not do this out of fear, do it as an act of service. Flip how your brain associates your daily choices by knowing that your actions are preventing the potential deaths of others.

Find something in media or on television that brings a smile to your face or makes you laugh. Break out the board games, cards, art projects, or walk outside (distant from others!) and get some sun. Sun provides vitamin D for your system, which also boosts your immune system. Whatever you choose, staying active and busy in a positive way will lessen any concerns or fears that you are experiencing about the pandemic.

These points of view may all may read as cliché, but in 2009 Dr. Alvaro Pascual-Leone conducted a study consisting of two groups of people learning to play a simple piano melody. For five days, one group practiced the melody for two hours a day while the other group, over the same time, sat in front of the keyboard, imagining they were playing the melody. Dr. Pascual-Leone mapped the brain activity of the study participants before, during, and after the experiment, and the results were surprising. Both groups experienced the same brain changes. What this means is the brain does not differentiate between imagination and reality. What this also means is you have a choice, a choice to be riddled with anxiety, worry, and uncertainty, or the opportunity to be courageous, bold, and confident by simply imagining those feelings. How you feel is a choice.

In simple terms, when you have a thought, your brain sends a pulse of electrical activity at the same moment. This electrical activity stimulates a release of neuropeptides that communicate with your body to produce a feeling. So truly, your thoughts create feelings. Activate your brain’s natural superpowers and boost your immune system by redirecting your brain’s thought patterns. Remind yourself daily to think positive thoughts, be grateful, and practice empathy which will give you the mental toughness to endure what still lies ahead.

We are open for business and would be happy to discuss any concerns you have. The pandemic we are living through has opened everyone’s eyes to the importance of having healthcare documents, as well as other planning documents like a will or trust. If you’d like to discuss your particular needs, please contact us – we’d be happy to help. Please  contact  our office at 973-226-0050.

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It can be a struggle for the entire family when a loved one starts to lose his or her memory. The person who has been the head of the family may soon fade from the person they once were, leaving their loved ones to wonder what will come next. The stigma associated with Alzheimer’s disease has a significant negative impact on the lives of people with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers. Around 25% of dementia patients hide their diagnosis, and 40% said they have withdrawn from many everyday activities according to recent studies. There are many negative public images and stereotypes associated with dementia, which contributes to a lack of engagement with people with this condition. Many people with dementia experience social isolation due to withdrawal from friends and other important people in their lives.

Many misconceptions of Alzheimer’s exist. It is widely believed that Alzheimer’s and dementia are a normal part of aging. This is not true. It is a disease that develops from a wide variety of risk factors. Many people believe that Alzheimer’s patients become violent and aggressive. This only happens with some patients and is typically the result of a deep sense of confusion and fear. It is also widely believed that people with Alzheimer’s can’t function or enjoy activities. Stigma is the use of negative labels to identify a person with a disability or illness. Stigma around Alzheimer’s disease exists, in part, due to the lack of public awareness and understanding of the disease, preventing people from:

Stigma and lack of awareness also impacts Alzheimer’s disease research. The government funds Alzheimer’s research at lower rates than other diseases, even when the cost of caring for Alzheimer’s disease is significantly higher. Stigmas and stereotypes are significant obstacles to the well-being and quality of life for those with dementia and their families. Here are some examples of the stigma those with Alzheimer’s may experience:

With proper assistance, people with Alzheimer’s can enjoy meaningful activities and maintain relationships. There are plenty of reasons why we need to fight Alzheimer’s stigma. Stigma can prevent people from seeking medical treatment when symptoms are present. It can prevent people from receiving an early diagnosis or any diagnosis at all. It can prevent people from developing a support system and benefitting from available treatments allowing them a high quality of life which is absolutely possible with Alzheimer’s disease.

What Can You Do?

If you’d like to discuss ways we can help, please  contact  our office at 973-226-0050
.

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Long-term care often creates devastating financial impacts on Americans, particularly the elderly, and for those family members who loose hours of income (and more) while providing care for their loved ones. The Medicaid system is still one of the best options to afford long-term care. Medicaid crisis planning is a strategy that can help you qualify for Medicaid without experiencing financial ruin.

As a joint federal and state social safety net Medicaid differs by eligibility rules and regulations in every state, and even by name. Unfortunately, people often wait until a catastrophic event brings about sudden illness, disability, or other medical crises before planning long-term care. Under duress, a family system will listen and take advice from misinformed individuals, such as non-attorneys or attorneys who do not practice elder law. Perhaps unwittingly, these people tend to give the worst advice: spend everything you have until you qualify under the Medicaid eligibility rules. Though this approach can work, there are far better strategies that can be employed.

With the help of an elder law attorney, Medicaid crisis planning allows you to qualify for Medicaid nursing home/LTC without spending down all of your life’s assets. Working with an elder law attorney to devise a personal Medicaid crisis plan is a logical and financially prudent approach to long-term care and allows you or a loved one to use legally approved strategies to qualify for Medicaid before spending everything you own on the high cost of nursing home care.

If you have a loved one who is either in a nursing home or about to enter a nursing home, that is the time to speak to an elder law attorney. There are legal strategies that allow a person who needs long-term care to divest themselves of some of their assets, and use the rest to pay for their care until Medicaid eligibility is met.  The sooner an elder law attorney is employed, the quicker Medicaid eligibility can be met.  However, it’s never too late, even if you or a loved one are already in a nursing home.

The level of complexity involved in Medicaid crisis planning deems it necessary to retain an elder law attorney, preferably one specializing in Medicaid planning. Eligibility requirements vary, calculations are complex, timing is crucial, forms are ever-changing, and laws are amended. An elder law attorney can tailor your financial situation to the best Medicaid crisis planning solution and protect your financial future.

If you’d like to discuss ways we can help, please  contact  our office at 973-226-0050
.

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The Biden Harris Administration’s new tax plan will likely affect those in higher-income households, which means you may need to make some adjustments to your financial legacy. Generally speaking, the sweeping changes to the tax code will aim to levy higher taxes on corporations and high-income households. It will also overhaul how wealthy families transfer assets to heirs. Whether or not his tax reform and economic agenda will be put in place is ultimately down to which party controls the US Senate. With a Biden 7 trillion dollar plan to rebuild the shattered COVID-19 American economy, it all comes down to two Senate runoffs on January 5, 2021, in Georgia.

The tax plan’s components include raising the top individual income tax rate from 37 percent to 39.6 percent. The plan also seeks to extend the 12.4 percent shared employer/employee Social Security tax capped at 137,700 to earnings over 400,000 dollars. Under a Biden Administration, the capital gains tax rate will rise to 39.6 percent for taxpayers with income over one million dollars. This rate hike is up from the current long-term capital gains rate of up to 20 percent for wealthy investors.

President-elect Biden is also proposing to overhaul taxes around wealth transfers. He would eliminate the step-up in basis to the date of death valuation of inheritable equity assets. Instead, any unrealized capital gains will become subject to taxation. If Biden has his way, there will also be a reduction in the amount an individual can transfer free of estate and gift taxes. The currently permissible 11.58 million dollars will be reduced to 3.5 million in bequeaths upon death and a cap of one million dollars in lifetime gifts.

Politically, if Democrats cannot regain control over the Senate, many of the aforementioned Biden Harris proposals will be untenable. Nevertheless, some portions of Biden’s tax and economic reform may garner support from GOP lawmakers. Senators like Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Mike Lee (R-UT) have, in the past, been in support of child tax credit expansion. This previous support will bode well for the Biden proposal for a temporary increase of the child tax credit to 3000 dollars for children under age 17 and a 600 dollar bonus for children under the age of six. There is also sentiment for raising the corporate tax rate, which Biden wants to increase from 21 to 28 percent if lawmakers work together to replenish federal coffers. Republicans find it easier to raise corporate tax than taxes on wealthier individuals.

Additionally, a closely divided Congress may find it more expedient to increase IRS funding to pursue larger, more monetarily beneficial targets. These targets might include corporations or high wealth individuals; rather than draft and pass new tax legislation, it will likely prove to be a contentious process. American taxpayers would also probably prefer this approach to a more dramatic income tax increase. According to the Taxpayer Advocate Service (an IRS agency watchdog), IRS appropriations and employee numbers fell by more than 20 percent between fiscal years 2010 to 2019.

The year 2020 continues to bring new and challenging uncertainties to taxation, retirement, and legacy planning. Biden tax reform plans may significantly impact how families approach wealth building and inheritable asset transfer with minimal tax consequences, particularly if a nearly divided Congress opts to use the power of the IRS as an expedient arm of the federal government for improved tax base revenues. In this case, all Americans must watch what proposals are enacted into law and make their adjustments accordingly to preserve their assets.

We help families plan to protect and transfer wealth on to their loved ones. If you have questions or would like to discuss your particular situation, please don’t hesitate to reach out.  If you’d like to discuss ways we can help, please  contact  our office at 973-226-0050
.

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What Is Duty of Care? 

Duty of care means that a motorist has the duty to operate his vehicle in a thoughtful and careful manner. If the driver did not operate his vehicle in this way, he will be determined to be negligent and the cause of another person’s injuries. For example, a person is negligent in a car accident if he does something that he should not have done. He can also be negligent if he didn’t do something that he should have done.

How Does Duty of Care Affect Car Accident Cases? 

In the court system, a car accident attorney in Fairfield NJ will use the concept of negligence to prove that the at-fault party is responsible for his or her client’s injuries. A motorist has the obligation to use care when driving along the public roads so that pedestrians and other motorists are not injured in a collision. If a driver does not assume the appropriate duty of care, he will be responsible for paying the medical expenses of those injured in a car collision.

In order to prove that a driver is responsible for a car collision, the injured party’s Fairfield NJ personal injury attorney must demonstrate that the at-fault motorist was negligent. This means that the Fairfield NJ personal injury lawyer can prove the following:

Other Duties of Care

The state also imposes other duties of care on motorists for the privilege of driving on the public roads. For example, motorists must not drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol, and they must obey all traffic laws. In addition to that, they are required to drive their vehicles with reasonable care. This means that they must not drive recklessly in rainy weather or while in heavy traffic.

Hire Us at the Law Offices of Faloni & Associates

If you have been injured in a car accident, the only thing that you need to do is hire us at the Law Offices of Faloni & Associates. You are within your rights to represent yourself if you decide to sue the at-fault driver, but our car accident attorney in Fairfield NJ has experience fighting for her clients in a court of law. Our attorney has ample experience investigating car accidents and gathering the evidence that she needs to demonstrate your claims to the court.

Filing a lawsuit is not always something that people want to do. Our Fairfield NJ personal injury attorney also has experience negotiating with insurance companies so that you can receive a fair settlement without having to enter into a courtroom.

Contact us today so that we can make you whole again.

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The clearest choice on deciding how to leave property to your children is to divide everything equally. That is the straightforward choice when all your children are doing equally well.

But if not – if, for example, your son is a starving artist with mouths to feed and your childless daughter has made millions on Wall Street – the temptation is to leave more to him than to her.

That decision, however, can have consequences. There’s a good chance that your daughter might feel hurt. Favoring one child over another has symbolic meaning. You don’t want to leave behind disappointment and resentment.

Also, estate planning is about considering the long term. Even if your daughter has no children of her own now, she may have them in the future. If you leave her nothing, both she and her children will have nothing to keep your memory alive.

Moreover, these days anyone’s financial situation can take a sudden turn for the worse.  Illness, injury, or natural disaster can strike. Marriages can split. Investment decisions might fail. Assets can be lost or stolen. Credit may dry up. While hopefully none of these gloomy misfortunes will befall your daughter, it’s wiser to provide your daughter with some cushion.

If you still want to leave your son more than your daughter, sit down with your children and explain why you’re doing that. Even if your daughter might be unhappy to hear it, at least she would have less reason to blame your son later. And you never know. We have seen people in your daughter’s position freely agree. That love and generosity, on the more-advantaged child’s part, can make everybody happy.

If you’d like to discuss ways we can help, please  contact  our office at 973-226-0050
.

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