Fong Law Group

Medicare Launches App to Help Beneficiaries Find Out What's Covered

At the doctor's office and want to know if a procedure is covered by Medicare? There is an app for that. Medicare has launched a free app that gives beneficiaries a quick way to see whether the program covers a specific medical item or service. 

The "What's Covered" app allows you to search or browse to learn what's covered and not covered under Medicare Parts A and B, how and when to get covered benefits, basic cost information and other eligibility details. You can also see a list of covered preventive services. The app does not give results for extra benefits that Medicare Advantage plans may cover but that Original Medicare does not, such as certain vision, hearing or dental benefits. 

Examples of the types of questions the app can answer include:

• When are mammograms covered?
• Is home health care covered?
• Will Medicare pay for diabetes supplies?
• Can I get a regular cervical cancer screening?
• Will my Medicare benefits cover a service to help me stop smoking?

Although the app provides beneficiaries with basic information, it doesn’t provide personalized information. It doesn't ask details about each user's specific insurance information, so it doesn't take into account the user's supplemental insurance, co-insurance, and deductibles. Essentially, the app provides another way for Medicare beneficiaries to get the same information that is available online and in the Medicare handbook.

The app is part of an initiative by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) focused on modernizing Medicare and empowering beneficiaries. Other initiatives include:

• Enhanced interactive online decision support to help beneficiaries better understand and evaluate the coverage options and costs of original Medicare compared to Medicare Advantage plans.
• New price transparency tools that let consumers compare the national average costs of certain procedures between settings, so people can see what they’ll pay for procedures done in a hospital outpatient department versus an ambulatory surgical center. 
• A new webchat option in the Medicare Plan Finder.  
• New easy-to-use surveys across Medicare.gov so consumers can tell CMS what they want.

To get the new "What's Covered" app, go here: https://www.medicare.gov/blog/whats-covered-mobile-app.

What's a Health Care Proxy and Why Do I Need One? 什麼是醫療授權書，為什麼我需要這份文件？(中英對照)

If you become incapacitated, who will make your medical decisions? A health care proxy allows you to appoint someone else to act as your agent for medical decisions. It will ensure that your medical treatment instructions are carried out, and it is especially important to have a health care proxy if you and your family may disagree about treatment. Without a health care proxy, your doctor may be required to provide you with medical treatment that you would have refused if you were able to do so.

In general, a health care proxy takes effect only when you require medical treatment and a physician determines that you are unable to communicate your wishes concerning treatment. How this works exactly can depend on the laws of the particular state and the terms of the health care proxy itself. If you later become able to express your own wishes, you will be listened to and the health care proxy will have no effect.

If you are interested in drawing up a health care proxy document, contact your attorney.

當你失去能力時，誰會為你作出醫療上的決定？醫療授權書允許您指定某人來為您作出醫療上的決定。這將確保您的醫療指示得以執行，尤其是如果您和您的家人對治療的方式有不同的看法，那麼醫療授權書尤為重要。如果沒有醫療授權書，您的醫生可能會為您提供一些您不想接受的治療。

一般而言，醫療授權書僅在您需要治療並且醫生確定您無法表達您的治療意願時才生效。這完全取決於特定的州的法律和醫療授權本身的條款。如果您以後能夠表達自己的意願，您的意願會被聽取，而醫療授權書將不起作用。

如果您有興趣制定醫療授權書，請跟資產規劃律師聯繫。

Celebrity Estate Battles Provide Valuable Lessons on Estate Planning

“Wicked stepmothers are the stuff of Grimm’s fairy tales. Widowed stepmothers are the root of real-life inheritance wars.”

The biggest issues in inheritance battles stem from Alzheimer’s disease, widowed stepmothers and estate crime. Certain issues, like signs of dementia, questionable asset transfers and sudden changes in investment risk profiles are sure signals that something is going on, reports Think Advisor in the article “What the Nastiest Celebrity Estate Battles Can Teach Advisors.”

If regular family fights feel like civil wars, then celebrity battles elevate the conflicts into global meltdowns. Showbiz legends like Tony Curtis, Mickey Rooney and Jerry Lee Lewis serve as perfect examples.

Rock and roll legend Jerry Lee Lewis’s seventh wife (yes, seventh) and his third wife’s daughter have been in court for nearly two years. The wife has charged her stepdaughter with financial and physically abusing the singer, who is now 83. The daughter countersued, alleging that her stepmother was drugging her father into an incoherent state. Lewis recently had a stroke, and he was admitted to a rehab facility.

What can families do about elder abuse, which the American Bar Association has called the “crime of the 21^st century?”

Pay attention. Over the next 30 years, as much as $30 trillion in Baby Boomer assets will be transferred to the next generation. The number of people getting older is taking a huge leap and so will the number of people who suffer from cognitive-related diseases.

Know what an “estate crime” is. This is the term to describe the unauthorized, unlawful taking of someone’s assets, while they are alive. It’s what happens when a personal representative, such as a trustee, suppresses assets and takes them. It’s more likely to occur when an entrepreneur or business owner keeps a lot of cash in the safe. That money mysteriously vanishes at their death. Therefore, if anyone has a lot of cash around, they need to be able to prove it and give that documentation to someone they trust.

What happens when a person’s family is involved in litigation and they are incapacitated? Attorneys will look for transfers that occurred just prior to the time the person became incapacitated. Would they be the result of undue influence or pressure? What about their estate documents — were they changed near the time the person became seriously ill or when they were near to death? Medical records and doctors’ reports become important in these cases.

What happened to Tony Curtis, romantic and comic leading man? A year before he died, Tony Curtis wrote a new will and revised his trust. He disinherited his five surviving children and left his entire estate worth $46 million to his sixth wife. The children, who include actress Jamie Lee Curtis, filed a suit claiming that their father was mentally impaired, but the case was dropped. It’s possible that the suit was settled confidentially. Any time there’s such a big change before death, expect litigation.

Why do so many famous people seem to die without a will? People don’t like to think about death, so they procrastinate. It’s that way for celebrities and for regular people. However, we read more about celebrities. Estate planning attorneys are the ones who see what happens, every day, when people don’t have wills and the family is faced with estate battles.

What’s the solution? It’s not that complicated. Find an estate planning attorney that you are comfortable with and draw up an estate plan. Make sure you have a will, power of attorney and health care power of attorney. Talk with your family about your intentions for distribution of your property and make sure that every few years, when events occur in your life or when laws change, you update your estate plan. That would save many people, famous and otherwise, from devoting time and money to cleaning up after their loved ones.

Reference: Think Advisor (March 27, 2019) “What the Nastiest Celebrity Estate Battles Can Teach Advisors”

 

 

Will Helps Avoid Problems and Expenses for Family 遺囑有助於避免家庭糾紛和費用 (中英對照)

“Wills are beneficial, whether you think you have assets or not.”

Having a will and an estate plan makes passing along assets much easier for the family. Having necessary documents like a power of attorney and a health care power of attorney lets the family make decisions for a loved one, who has become incapacitated. These are estate planning basics, as reported by WKBN 27 in the article “Attorney recommends everyone have a will in place to prevent avoidable issues.”

Think of the will as a way to speak for yourself, when you have passed away. It’s the instructions for what you want to happen to your property, when you die. If there’s a will, the executor is responsible for carrying out your requests. With no will, a court will have to make these decisions.

Many people believe that if they don’t have a will, their spouse will simply inherit everything, automatically. This is not true. There are some states where the surviving spouse receives 50% of a decedent’s assets and the children receive the rest. However, the children could be offspring from outside the marriage. Not having a will, makes your estate and your family vulnerable to unexpected claims.

A will must contain certain elements, which are determined by your state’s laws and must be signed in the presence of two witnesses. Without the correct formalities, the will could be deemed invalid.

Lawyers recommend that everyone have a will and an estate plan, regardless of the size of your estate.

Young parents, in particular, need to have a will, so they can name a person to be guardian of their child or children, if they should both die.

Details matter. In some states, if you make a list and neglect to name specifically who gets what, using the term “children” instead of someone’s name, your stepchildren may not be included. State laws vary, so a local estate planning attorney is your best resource.

You should also be sure to talk with your spouse and your children about what your intentions are, before putting your wishes in writing. You may not feel totally comfortable having the discussion. However, if your intention is to preserve the family, especially if it is a blended family, then everyone should have a chance to learn what to expect.

Wills do become binding, but they are not a one-time event. Just as your life changes, your estate plan and your will should change.

Don’t neglect to update your beneficiary designations. Those are the people you named to receive retirement accounts, bank accounts or other assets that can be transferred by beneficiary designations. The instructions in your will do not control the beneficiary designation. This is a big mistake that many people make. If your will says your current spouse should receive the balance of your IRA when you die but your IRA lists your first wife, your ex will receive everything.

Here are the four estate planning documents needed:

• A will;
• A living will, if you need to be placed on life support and decisions need to be made;
• A healthcare power of attorney, if you cannot speak for yourself, when it comes to medical decisions;
• A durable power of attorney to make financial decisions, if you are incapacitated.

A local estate planning attorney can help you create all of these documents and will also help you clarify your wishes. If you have an estate plan but have not reviewed it in years, you’ll want to do that soon. Laws and lives change, and you may need to make some changes.

Reference: WKBN 27 (March 14, 2019) “Attorney recommends everyone have a will in place to prevent avoidable issues.”

“無論你認為自己是否擁有資產，遺囑都是有利的。”

擁有遺囑和資產計劃使得家庭更容易傳承資產。擁有財務授權書和醫療授權書等必要文件可讓家人為已喪失能力的親人做決定。這些是資產規劃的基礎，正如WKBN 27在文章“Attorney recommends everyone have a will in place to prevent avoidable issues.”所報告的那樣。

當你去世時，遺囑像是代你發言的一種的方式。當你去世時，它就是一個指引說明你想要你的財產如何處理。如果有遺囑，執行人有責任執行您的要求。沒有遺囑，法院便會做決定。

許多人認為，如果他們沒有遺囑，他們的配偶就會自動繼承一切。這並不正確。在某些州，在生配偶獲得死者的一半資產，而子女則獲得其餘的資產。可是，他們可能是非婚生子女。故沒有遺囑，會使您的遺產和家人容易受到意想不到的索償。

遺囑必須包含某些要素，這些要素由您所在州的法律決定，並且必須在兩名證人在場的情況下簽署。如果沒有正確的手續，遺囑可能被視為無效。

律師建議每個人都有遺囑和資產計劃，無論您的資產規模如何。

特別是年輕父母, 更需要遺囑，這樣他們可以指定一個在他們都去世後作為子女的監護人。

細節很重要。在某些州，如果你列出一個資產清單而忽略了具體說明誰得到什麼，使用“子女”這個詞而不是某個人的名字，那麼你的繼子女可能不會被包括在內。各州法律各不相同，因此咨詢當地的資產規劃律師是最好的辦法。

在以書面形式表達您的意願之前，您應該要與您的配偶和您的子女談論您的意願。討論時你可能感覺不太舒服。但是，如果你的目的是保護家庭，特別是混合家庭，那麼每個人都應該有機會得知自己將得到什麼。

遺囑確實具有約束力，但不是一次便能完成。隨著你的生活產生變化，你的資產計劃和遺囑應該作出適當的改變。

不要忽略更新您的受益人名稱。這些人您所指定的人將得到您的退休帳戶，銀行帳戶或其他可以通過指定受益人來轉移資產的人。您遺囑中的說明不會推翻這些指定受益人。這是許多人犯下的大錯誤。如果你的遺囑說由你現在的配偶在你去世時會得到你IRA中的餘額，但你的IRA上列明的卻是你的前妻，那麼你的前妻將得到一切。

以下是所需的四份資產規劃文件：

• 遺囑;
• 生前意願書，如果你需要用儀器來維持生命並且作出決定時;
• 醫療授權書在您不能為自己作出醫療方面的決定時;
• 財務授權書來做出財務上的決定, 當您喪失行為能力時

當地的資產規劃律師可以幫助您建立所有這些文件，並幫助您表明您的意願。如果您已有資產計劃，但多年未有進行審核，你需要盡快審核。您可能因法律和生活上的變化而需要做出一些改變。

參考: WKBN 27 (March 14, 2019) “Attorney recommends everyone have a will in place to prevent avoidable issues.”

Be Careful Granting Power of Attorney

“For the sake of self-preservation in later life, it is imperative that the 60-and-older population understand the powers that are given away, when signing Power of Attorney (POA) documents.”

Power of Attorney abuse has emerged as a serious problem for elderly people who are vulnerable to people they trust more than they should, reports the Sandusky Register in the article “Consumer beware: Understanding the powers of a Power of Attorney” The same is true for a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care document, which should be of great concern for seniors and their family members.

This illustrates the importance of a Power of Attorney document: the person, also known as the “principal,” is giving the authority to act on their behalf in all financial and personal affairs to another person, known as their “agent.” That means the agent is empowered to do anything and everything the person themselves would do, from making withdrawals from a bank account, to selling a home or a car or more mundane acts, such as paying bills and filing taxes.

The problem is that there is nothing to stop someone, once they have Power of Attorney, from taking advantage of the situation. No one is watching out for the person’s best interests, to make sure bank accounts aren’t drained or assets sold. The agent can abuse that financial power to the detriment of the senior and to benefit the agent themselves. It is a crime when it happens. However, this is what often occurs: seniors are so embarrassed that they gave this power to someone they thought they could trust, that they are reluctant to report the crime.

Similarly, an unchecked Health Care Power of Attorney can lead to abuse, if the wrong person is named.

The following is a real example of how this can go wrong. An adult child arranged for their trusting parent to be diagnosed as suffering from dementia by an unscrupulous psychiatrist, when the parent did not have dementia.

The adult child then had the parent admitted into a nursing home, misrepresenting the admission as a temporary stay for rehabilitation. They then kept the parent in the nursing home, using the dementia diagnosis as a reason for her to remain in the nursing home.

The parent had to hire an attorney and prove to the court that she was competent and able to live independently, to be able to return to her home.

Meet with an experienced estate planning attorney to discuss your situation and figure out who might become named as Power of Attorney and Health Care Power of attorney on your behalf. The attorney will be able to help you make sure that your estate plan, including your will, is properly prepared and discuss with you the best options for these important decisions.

Reference: Sandusky Register (Feb. 5, 2019) “Consumer beware: Understanding the powers of a Power of Attorney”

Federal Estate Taxes of Little Worry for Most of Us

“According to the Tax Policy Center, in 2018 only 1,890 estates in the U.S.–a drastic reduction from prior years–were estimated to be subject to the estate tax.”

If you are worried about the federal estate tax, it is a good problem to have. It means that your asset level is above the limits brought about by the new tax laws. That wasn’t the way things were 10 or 20 years ago, when federal estate tax limits were much lower. As a result, many middle-class families found themselves with big estate tax issues, when estates were settled. A recent article in the Rome Sentinel addresses the estate tax from an historical perspective and what you need to know about it today. The article is titled “2019 update: Should you be concerned about the estate tax?”

For starters, there are many loopholes and nuances in the tax laws. Therefore, every situation is different. Your estate planning attorney will be able to review your individual situation and work with the laws of your state to make sure that your estate plan works for your family and minimizes your estate tax liability.

The estate tax concept is based on laws from past centuries, when the goal was to limit the amount of property that individuals could pass from one generation to the next. The estate tax is now government’s way of saying you had too many assets, or assets that could not be fully valued or taxed, except upon your death. After death, the net worth of your estate is calculated by valuing your assets minus any liabilities.

Assets are counted as anything of value. However, they include: cash, insurance policies, stocks, bonds, real estate, annuities, brokerage accounts, business interests and today, digital assets. They are brought to present market value to create the “gross estate.” Liabilities are counted as debts, mortgages, assets, funeral and estate expenses, and any assets lawfully passing to a surviving spouse. The liabilities are deducted from the assets to get to the “net estate” value.

Federal limits to the estate tax deduction were doubled, and today very few estates in the US are subject to the federal estate tax. Here’s a comparison: in 2000, the federal estate tax exemption was $675,00 and an estimated 52,000 estates had to pay estate taxes. The top 10% of income earners paid almost 90% of the tax, with more than a quarter of that paid by the wealthiest 0.1%. Even those percentages have decreased since 2017.

When the new Tax Cut and Jobs Act became effective, the exclusion for federal estate tax increased from $5.49 million per person to $11.18 million per person. In 2019, there has been a further increase, to $11.4 million per person. That remains in effect until 2025.

Many states impose their own estate taxes. In New York State, the Basic Exclusion Amount for New York State Tax for estates for people who died on or after Jan. 1, 2019, and before Jan. 1, 2020, has increased from $5.49 million per person to $5.74 million per person. These amounts will increase in 2020 and will be adjusted for inflation in the future.

However, even without the federal estate tax, people still need estate plans to protect themselves and their families. A will ensures that your assets are distributed to the people you want to receive your assets. An estate plan includes Power of Attorney, to name the person you want to make financial decisions in the event you are incapacitated. You also want to have a Health Care Power of Attorney, so someone can make decisions about your health care, if you cannot speak on your own behalf. Talk with an estate planning attorney to make sure that your plan will work as intended to protect you and your family.

Reference: Rome Sentinel (Jan. 22, 2019) “2019 update: Should you be concerned about the estate tax?”

Without a Plan, Your Estate Could be at Risk 沒有計劃，您的資產可能會面臨風險 (中英對照)

“Although the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 eliminated the risk of estate tax liability exposure for 99% of the estates, your estate is still at risk.”

The unknown events of life include financial perils. They don’t disappear just because you try to ignore them. There are more threats to your financial future and personal health than an estate tax, says Newsmax Finance in its article “Your Estate is at Risk.” There is also legal liability, which is a commonplace event in our increasingly litigious society.

For many people, the first experience with litigation is a divorce. Even in the best of circumstances, it’s a difficult situation. In a bad situation, it’s a nightmare for all concerned. What would happen if you became disabled? It’s more likely that someone will become disabled during the course of their life than that they will die prematurely.

Do you have a health care power of attorney, so someone you trust is empowered to make decisions on your behalf if you became disabled? What about a durable power of attorney so a person you trust, who also has some financial savvy, can take over for you if you can’t do things, like pay bills or manage your business?

If you don’t have these documents in place, a court-appointed person will be assigned as your guardian. That is not something you want to happen.

If you’ve created a private business, you also need to plan for succession. Too many business owners let their businesses die along with them, leaving families, employees and clients stranded. Transitioning a business for succession or to be managed in your absence takes planning.

All of these issues can be dealt with in an estate plan, which you should have created for you by an estate planning attorney. The attorney should be someone you trust, who has experience helping people with the same challenges as your situation, whether that’s a blended family or a privately held family business.

Estate planning attorneys know how to use certain methods to help individuals and families make the most of their assets, limit their tax liabilities and plan for the future. There are many different tools available, from different types of trusts to the basics, like a will, power of attorney, and health care power of attorney, to make sure you and your family have the correct protection in place.

Going through the estate planning process is a useful experience, since it gives you and your spouse a chance to review your life’s accomplishments from a long-term perspective, prepare for events like retirement or funding a child or grandchild’s college education and taking care of this important element of adulthood.

Reference: Newsmax Finance (Jan. 14, 2019) “Your Estate is at Risk”

“儘管2017年的減稅和就業法消除了99％的徵收遺產稅責任的風險，但您的資產仍處於風險之中。”

未知的事包括財務危機。它們不會因你試圖忽略而消失。 Newsmax Finance在其文章“Your Estate is at Risk.”表示，您將來的財政和個人健康比遺產稅的威脅更大。還有法律責任，這在我們訴訟日益增加的社會中是一件很普遍的事。

對很多人來說，第一次訴訟經歷就是離婚。即使在最好的情況下，這仍是一個困擾。在糟糕的情況下，這對所有有關的人來說都是一場噩夢。如果你成為殘疾人士會怎麼樣？更有可能的是，有些人在他們一生中會變成殘疾，而不是他們過早去世。

您是否擁有醫療授權書，如果您成為殘疾人士，您信任的人是否有權代表您做出決定？您是否擁有一份財務授權書讓您信任的人可以在您失去能力做某些事情，比如支付賬單或管理您的財務時為您處理？

如果您沒有這些文件，法庭可指定某人為您的監護人。這是你不想要發生的事情。

如果您已成立了私人業務，您還需要計劃繼任問題。太多企業擁有人讓他們的企業跟他們同去，使家庭，員工和客人陷入困境。透過規劃繼任在您缺席的情況下業務仍得以營運。

所有這些問題都可以在資產計劃中處理，您應該找資產規劃律師為您成立資產計劃。律師應該是您信任的人，而富有經驗幫助跟您情況相似的人，無論是混合家庭還是家族企業。

資產規劃律師知道使用哪些方案去幫助個人及家庭如何充分利用其資產，減輕稅務負擔並規劃將來。有許多不同的文件可供選擇，從不同類型的信託到基本的如遺囑，財務授權書和醫療授權書，以確保您和您的家人得到適當的保障。

規劃資產這過程是有用的體驗，因為通過規劃資產可讓您和您的配偶有機會對您們的生活從長計議，為退休或資助子女或孫兒的大學教育等事情做好準備。這是作為成年人需要做的重要事情。

參考:Newsmax Finance (Jan. 14, 2019) “Your Estate is at Risk”

Make Your Retirement Dreams Come True

“While a retirement wish list might include roaming the world or pursuing a luxurious hobby, the daily realities of paying off a mortgage or funding a child’s education can make it tough to save.”

Moving from general concepts to specific retirement activities you think you’ll want to do during retirement, can help you do a better job of saving and planning, advises U.S. News & World Report in the article “Will You be Able to Afford the Lifestyle of Your Dreams in Retirement?” Increased longevity has made retirement a time to begin anew. This requires a different mindset. Regardless of your retirement dreams, you’ll need more funding for a longer retirement.

Here are some pointers to help get retirement savings on track:

What do you want to do? Vague goals like travel may not motivate your savings. However, if you’ve identified the cost of living in Paris for six months, you’ve got a real concrete goal to work toward. That provides more motivation and helps avoid impulse spending. Get specific: write down what you want to do and start researching what it will cost.

Do a test drive first. If your spouse wants to live in an RV full time, that’s great as long as you do. However, don’t sell the house before testing it out. Try renting an RV and living in it for at least a month. The same is true for living in a house in the woods. Sounds great—but if you’re a city dweller, how will you feel after a few months of living in an isolated spot?

Think about how long you want to work. Many people today work into their late 60s and early 70s. If they have a desk job, and they have reached a certain level of success, there may not need to be a cut-off date for retirement. What about taking more time off for vacations or working part time? Recent studies have shown that working even a few more years, can have a major impact on the quality of your full retirement.

Do the math. Once you have some concrete plans in place, run the numbers. Consider how you might make the money you have last longer. Look at housing prices, if downsizing to a less expensive area is on your list. If you plan on travelling, do you have to stay in five-star hotels, or could you be content with Road Scholar, formerly known as Elderhostels?

Remember to include health care costs. You’ll need to include the cost of medical expenses, including Medicare premiums, deductibles, copays and coinsurance, among other costs. This is especially true, if one or both spouses have any chronic conditions.

Now, what’s your savings plan? Once you have all this information, you’ll be able to determine how much you need to save, each year and each month. When you combine all your retirement income sources, do you have enough to sustain your retirement dreams? Or do you need to adjust your savings?

Reference: U.S. News & World Report (Dec. 19, 2018) “Will You be Able to Afford the Lifestyle of Your Dreams in Retirement?”

Are There Alternatives to Guardianship and Conservatorship?

“Both the guardianship and conservatorship can also take away a person’s right to bring and defend actions in court. There are several other, less intrusive ways to act on behalf of someone with diminished mental or physical capacity.”

Guardianships and conservatorships are used when family members no longer believe their loved ones are able to make decisions or when they are physically incapacitated. A guardianship takes away a person’s right to consent to medical treatment, establish a residence, sign a contract or even to marry. A conservatorship lets the appointee manage their ward’s finances and assets, buy and sell businesses and enter into commercial transactions.

Are there other, less intrusive ways you can act on behalf of someone with diminished mental or physical capabilities? The article “Alternatives to guardianship and conservatorship,” from On Common Ground News, offers some different approaches.

One is a petition for a temporary medical consent guardian. Based on the facts in the petition, the court can determine whether there is cause, to believe the proposed medical consent ward needs a temporary medical consent guardian immediately. This occurs after all the preliminary steps have been taken, which includes a hearing. That temporary guardianship terminates, when either the court removes it, if a permanent guardian is appointed, when the hospitalization or stay in another healthcare facility ends or sixty days after the appointment is made.

An alternative option to conservatorship is the Durable Power of Attorney (DPA), which permits a competent individual to name another person as their legal representative regarding finances and other matters. There can be specific instructions, and this also can include an agent who is named to make health care decisions. A DPA is broader in power than a living will and applies any time the individual becomes incapable of either making or communicating health care decisions on their own behalf.

If you are a resident of Georgia, the state’s Advance Directives for Health Care combines the living will and health care power of attorney into one document. This gives instructions regarding how the person wants medical decisions to be made. Note that every state has its own laws and processes for these documents.

A Special Needs Trust (SNT) is a trust that can be established for a person with a disability and the assets can be used in specific ways. This kind of trust permits a person with a disability to have access to funds that might make them ineligible for certain types of programs funded by the state or federal government. The SNT allows for much more flexibility than a conservatorship and should be considered for a special needs individual first.

There are many different tools to achieve goals in the estate planning attorneys’ tool box. An in-person meeting with an experienced estate planning attorney is the best means of exploring what tools are available and appropriate to your family’s situation.

Reference: On Common Ground News (Nov. 29, 2018) “Alternatives to guardianship and conservatorship”

Heading South after The Holidays? A Few More To-Do’s

“If you find yourself one of the successful snowbirds that we all envy, you may have already begun packing clothes and other necessities. Your car’s oil is likely changed, and you will not pull out of the driveway without a full tank of gas.”

Not everyone travels south for the winter in September. Many like to wait until after the holidays, so they don’t miss out on family gatherings. Then, on New Year’s Day or shortly thereafter, off they go, heading to a warm, sunny climate to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

If that’s your annual schedule, congratulations. However, before you go, advises LimaOhio.com in the article “Extra checklist before heading south for the winter,” make sure you’ve taken care of some personal legal business. It’s just four items—but they are very important tasks for snowbirds.

First, make sure that your general/financial power of attorney and healthcare power of attorney documents have been updated. Does your family have copies of these documents? Or do they have 24/7 access through a portal from your estate planning law firm?

Some law firms provide laminated cards for clients to give to family and friends that gives the holders of the cards access to these powers, while clients are out of town. Others are starting to use encrypted thumb drives, so that clients have documents wherever they go. Make sure you have these documents and that the people who will need them, either have them or can get them in a moment’s notice.

Second, review your living will with your estate planning attorney. Update them, if changes need to be made and get copies to your children and/or friends.

Third, make sure that your last will and testament is updated. Have you had any big changes in your life since the last time it was reviewed? Marriages, deaths, divorces, births and adoptions are the typical “trigger” events that signal a need for review. Who will have that document? If your estate planning attorney maintains original copies for clients, then make sure to have another original on your person or safely secured with a loved one.

Lastly, and this takes a little time but is well worth doing, create a list of all your assets. Make sure they are properly titled for your situation. Should you have all your bank accounts become Payable on Death to your spouse? When was the last time you checked your beneficiary designations? Chances are good there are beneficiary designations on your bank, investment, and retirement accounts and on your life insurance policies. Wherever you have a beneficiary designation, you should also have a contingency beneficiary.

Once you’ve gotten all your estate planning properly addressed, you’ll be able to enjoy the holidays and your warm weather fun, knowing you’ve taken care of these important matters.

Reference: LimaOhio.com (Oct. 13, 2018) “Extra checklist before heading south for the winter”