New York Elder Law Attorney Blog

Across the country, states are attempting to combat the tide of rising insurance premiums and overall increased healthcare costs burdening Americans by asking the federal government for permission to engage in so-called “reinsurance programs.” While these types of programs have only been in effect for a few years, the early data suggests they can be potent tools to help curb the cost of health care premiums for individuals with plans under the Affordable Healthcare Act.

A reinsurance program helps to protect insurers from very large claims by having the state step in to pay part of an insurance company’s claims once they pass a certain amount and can help stabilize an insurance market and make coverage more available and affordable but needs more than just a temporary pool set up to create real and lasting effects on the market.. Experts estimate that around three-dozen or so common medical conditions are responsible for high claims, with about half of ACA marketplace enrollees living with one or more of these conditions.

Although each state participating in reinsurance programs have their own models, some of the more common plans are for the state to cover insurance claims between $50,000 and $250,000 for those with ACA coverage. With the repeal of the ACA’s individual mandate, these reinsurance programs can serve as a temporary fix to help shore up individual marketplace plans and give lawmakers a few more years to come up with a long term solution to rising healthcare costs.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently issued a warning to consumers about the risk associated with adding cryptocurrencies to so-called self-directed individual retirement accounts. These types of unregistered IRAs allow individuals to invest their nest eggs outside of the stock market and bond market and often incorporate holdings in real estate, private mortgages, precious metals, and more recently cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

In an investor alert issued by the SEC, regulators warned that the agency has the power to oversee traditional IRA investments like stocks, bonds and mutual funds but lacks oversight of self directed IRAs. Although spokespersons for the SEC did not mention a specific scheme or incident to prompt the alert, the agency nonetheless felt it was important to issue the statement to warn consumers about the risks associated with the accounts.

The SEC also recently joined the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants in pointing out that this type of fraud associated with self directed IRAs can pose a unique opportunities for criminals to perpetrate elder abuse. With questions about the solvency of Social Security, rising health care costs, and other economic uncertainty may lead seniors and adults planning for retirement to consider these type of risky, self directed IRA accounts over traditional investment methods.

A recent study by the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine suggests that women whose mothers lived healthy lives into their 90’s may be a key indicator for longevity and overall health. The study was published in the Journal of Age and Ageing and examined over 22,000 participants over a two-decade span and found that women whose mothers live to at least 90 years old with no health problems have a 25 percent chance of living past 90 years old.

In cases where both parents lived to be at least 90-years old, the study found that the likelihood of women living into their 90’s increased by 38 percent. However, researchers did not find any increased longevity in cases where only the subject’s father lived to be at least 90 years old. One key caveat to the study is that the subject’s parents not have suffered any chronic health conditions like heart disease, cancer, or diabetes.

The study is important because it helps to validate the view that genetic, environmental, and behavioral factors transmitted across generations may influence ageing outcomes among offspring. Although we cannot control the genes we are born with, we can however make healthy lifestyle choices, such as maintaining a good diet and getting exercise, that can create positive environmental factors to help us live longer, healthier lives and hopefully pass on those traits to our children.

A recent European study suggest that adopting what is popularly known as the “Mediterranean Diet” could potentially help people live longer, healthier lives. Although it does not have a specific set of dietary requirements, the Mediterranean Diet is typically considered to be one made up of fish, nuts, fresh vegetables, olive oil and fruit – all popular culinary items in Italy and surrounding regions.

According to the study, conducted in Italy and published in the British Journal of Nutrition, those surveyed with a higher adherence to the Mediterranean Diet had a 25 percent lower risk of death compared to those who had a lower adherence. The study also concludes that even a modest increase in adhering to the diet could yield as much as a 6 percent decrease in risk of death from any cause. Those calculations were based on the participant’s age, sex, activity levels, socioeconomic status, smoking and body mass index (BMI).

A total of 5,200 individuals aged 65 or older from the Molise region in Italy were followed as part of the study and were recruited as part of a larger study between 2005 and 2010, and followed up until 2015. Those participants were given a questionnaire asking about their diet in the year leading up to the study and each was given a score of 0 to 9 based on how closely the person followed the Mediterranean Diet. Participants who scored from 7 to 9 saw the greatest benefits compared to those who scored 0 to 3.

Creating a trust is one of several ways folks can pass on the fruits of their hard work to family, friends, and business partners and has the added bonus of being able to avoid the time consuming and costly process of passing those assets of the estate through probate. With a trust, the creator names a trustee, beneficiaries, and how the trustees are to manage the trust. It is important to know that there are different types of trust, which can severely limit the creator’s control over the trust while he or she is alive.

A revocable trust is just that, one that can be altered or done away with during the lifetime of the creator for whatever reason he or she sees fit. Common reasons for changing a revocable trust can be related to life changes like getting married, divorced, having children, or financial changes. Many times, grantors create revocable trusts because they are malleable but some estate planning choices require the grantor create an irrevocable trust that does not allow he or she to make alterations.

When a grantor creates an irrevocable trust, he or she transfers assets to the trust and effectively lose ownership or control over them. One of the main benefits of this type of trust is to shield assets from creditors since the assets and any income associated with them no longer belong to the debtor. Irrevocable trusts can also be useful to spend down assets to qualify for Medicaid which is granted only to those with small amounts of assets.