2011 Seminar -THE CRITICAL STEPS TO AVOID A LONG TERM CARE CRISIS

The importance of advance planning, the steps to take, paying for long-term care, creating the “plan” and how to carry out the “plan” to avoid a long-term care crisis will be the subject of this seminar.  By the end of the program, participants will understand why obtaining “critical legal care” in advance of a long-term care crisis will be invaluable for their peace of mind and that of their entire family.

This program is being offered to help seniors, family members and caregivers comprehend a complicated and emotional subject in an easy to understand, single program.

To attend a scheduled presentation please contact the Law Office, 203-755-6277 and ask to speak with Dana.

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Victory for Community Spouse of T19 applicant

In a recent Federal Court case, the Community Spouse (C.S.) was allowed to receive over $2,000.00 a month of income from an immediate single premium annuity she bought with excess assets.  This annuity complied with the DRA 2005 requirements.

Legal finding: The Federal Court found in favor of the C.S. DSS treatment of annuity as an asset was more restrictive than SSI requirements violating federal law. Court found Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) did not change the treatment of annuities in this regard.

Case: Lopes v. Starkowski,US District Court, District of CT, Aug 11, 2010

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Presentation on navigating Long Term Care: legal, financial and insurance maze

Title: Nursing Homes, Assisted Living, Hospitals and Skilled Nursing: Navigating the Legal, Financial and Insurance Maze

Location: Waterbury Hospital, Wednesday, September 29, 5 p.m.-7 p.m.

Speaker: Julia Brown, Certified Elder Law Attorney, Accredited Veterans Claims Specialist by the Veterans Administration, Law Office of Julia M. Brown, Waterbury, CT

One of the biggest challenges facing many people as they advance into their senior years is the process of “transitioning” from one place to another, whether it’s the transition from their homes to a nursing home or an assisted living facility or skilled nursing facility. The process can be challenging legally, financially and emotionally.  This presentation will provide sound advice and guidance on how to successfully handle these challenges and minimize the hardships on those who are making the transitions, as well as their loved ones.

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Change in Transfers of Assets Penalty Period

The transfer penalty amount has been increased from $9,959.00 to $10,366.00.  This new figure will be used when calculating the penalty period for T19 applications filed on or after July 1, 2010 and for T19 recipients who became institutionalized on or after July 1, 2010.

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CT Act passes allowing spouses to keep max. CSPA

The Community Spouse can keep the maximum amount of allowed assets which as of January 2010 was $109,560.00.

AN ACT CONCERNING MEDICAID LONG-TERM CARE COVERAGE FOR MARRIED COUPLES.  S.B. 370, PA 10-73 is effective May 27, 2010.

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Consider this before buying financial products

If there is a need for long-term care you will need to access as much as $12,500.00 to cover each month of nursing home care, $5,500.00 per month for assisted living and $250.00 per day for live in home care.   What you don’t need are additional unexpected or hidden costs when you try to get to your money.

So what should you know in advance?

• Will there be a penalty to access your money?
• If yes, what will be the total cost for access? Transaction fee?  Management fee?
• Is there an early access penalty? Some investments require you keep them for 5 years to avoid a penalty from being imposed.  How does the company selling the investment defines early access.
• While some investments waive the penalty if you need long-term care during the penalty period time, what if your spouse needs nursing home care and you need the money to for their care?
• CT Medicaid/T19 program requires you to surrender certain types of investments to become eligible.   If you may need this program you need to know what investments make the most sense prior to investing or if you already have those investments what the future cost will be to you.

It makes sense to consult with an experienced independent elder law attorney prior to making these investments to make sure you understand what you need to know before you commit to any investment.  In addition, you need to make sure you have the appropriate legal documents in place that will allow others to act in your place if you are unable to so they can access your money to pay for you or your spouses needs.

To give you an example I am going to tell you about a client I had several years ago.  Before I met him he was advised to invest the majority of his money into staggered annuities.  Per his financial advisor the reason for doing so was “to get the highest rate of return on his money”.  Unfortunately, my client required long-term care services fairly quickly after these products were purchased.  Since he had no accessible cash nor did he have long-term care insurance his wife had to surrender each of the annuities paying a significant penalty each time for each one to pay for his care.  What bothered me was that at the time of the initial investments it was known to the financial advisor that his client was suffering from dementia and he would need long-term care.  It was also known to him that based on their overall income they could not self finance his long-term care costs and he would ultimately need to access Title19/Medicaid to pay for his long-term care services.  The client incurred significant surrender costs and the spouse had to go through hoops to get the money from the investment company.  Perhaps in this case it would have been wiser for the client to keep the money in a local bank in CD’s or a money market account for easy access and to avoid the inevitable surrender penalties and difficulty the spouse had in accessing their money.  Unfortunately, the client was never given this option as a choice so we will never know what he would have done had he and his family had all of the information available to them prior to investing.

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AN ACT CONCERNING MEDICAID LONG-TERM CARE COVERAGE FOR MARRIED COUPLES

Substitute Senate Bill 360, AN ACT CONCERNING MEDICAID LONG-TERM CARE COVERAGE FOR MARRIED COUPLES, states:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. (NEW) (Effective from passage) Notwithstanding any provision of subsection (g) of section 17b-261 of the general statutes, the Commissioner of Social Services shall amend the Medicaid state plan to require that the spouse of an institutionalized person who is applying for Medicaid receives the maximum community spouse protected amount, as determined pursuant to 42 USC 1396r-5. The commissioner shall adopt regulations, in accordance with chapter 54 of the general statutes, to implement the provisions of this section.

Sec. 2. (NEW) (Effective from passage) The Commissioner of Social Services shall amend the Medicaid state plan to require that funds derived from equity in home property through a reverse annuity mortgage loan or other home equity conversion loan are not treated as income or assets for the purpose of qualifying for benefits under the Medicaid program, provided (1) such funds are held in an account that does not contain any other funds, and (2) the Medicaid recipient does not transfer such funds to another person for less than fair market value. The commissioner shall adopt regulations, in accordance with chapter 54 of the general statutes, to implement the provisions of this section.

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Reverse Annuity Mortgage (RAM)

A RAM is a home equity loan that allows certain seniors (generally age 62 and older) to convert some of the equity in their homes to cash and still retain ownership. Generally, the homeowner (or the homeowner’s estate) repays the lender the loan amount plus interest when he or she dies, sells, or moves out of the home. The loan proceeds are tax-free, and there are no minimum income requirements for most RAMs.

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Victory for Elders on T19 at home! Reverse Mortgage/Home Equity proceeds excluded

Reverse Mortgage/Home Equity proceeds excluded. CT Legislators just passed a bill that allows those applying for or on the CT Home Care Program for Elders to exclude loan proceeds from a reverse mortgage, home equity loan or other loan instrument from being counted as assets or income.  After the DRA 2005 these proceeds have been counted as income and many people have not received home care services they need.

Reverse Mortgage proceeds allow many elders to stay at home by using the equity to pay for care not covered by the T19 program and to pay for costs to upkeep and maintain their homes.

There are requirements about how to hold these assets and prohibitions against gifting them.

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Victory for Spouses of T19 recipients

A community spouse will be able to retain the maximum amount of assets as provided by federal law.   CT ‘s current law only allows a community spouse to keep one-half of the assets or $109,560 in 2010, whichever is less. Under the new law, a community spouse will be able to keep all the assets up to $109,560 for 2010.

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