New York Elder Law Attorney Blog

September 30, 2020

Protecting Assets With Caregiver Agreements

Family members as caregivers overwhelmingly provide for elderly and disabled loved ones at home. Although a labor of love, taking care of ailing loved ones also has a market value, meaning that caretakers may be paid as a way to protect assets.

Through the use of a Caregiver Agreement, also known as a Personal Services Contract, the disabled or elderly person may transfer money to family members as compensation rather than as a gift. Gifts to family members made in the last five years before applying for Medicaid to pay for nursing home costs disqualify the applicant from receiving Medicaid for a certain period of time, known as a “penalty period.”

For example, mom depends on daughter Janice for her care. If mom gifts $100,000 to Janice, then goes into a nursing home in the next five years and applies for Medicaid, the gift to Janice will result in about a ten month penalty period. Janice will have to give the $100,000 back to mom to pay nursing home costs during the penalty period, or mom will have to use other resources to pay.

August 28, 2020

2020 Medicaid Rates for Community and Nursing Home Medicaid in New York

by Ettinger Law Firm

Medicaid is state and federal funding that pays for long-term care costs, either at home, called “Community Medicaid,” or in a nursing home, called “Institutional” or “Nursing Home Medicaid.” The Medicaid rates change every year for income and asset requirements to determine eligibility for benefits. Following are the 2020 New York rates.

A single applicant for Community Medicaid may keep up to $15,750 in assets and $875 in income. If the applicant’s income is greater than the limit, a “Pooled Income Trust” created by a non-profit organization may shelter the excess income to make the applicant eligible for community Medicaid.

A married applicant for Community Medicaid may keep up to $15,750 in assets and $875 in monthly income. The non-applicant spouse may keep their own income and keep up to $128,640 in assets. The rules are different if one spouse is enrolled in a Managed Long Term Care Plan. The applicant spouse may keep $409 of monthly income and the other spouse may keep $3,216 of monthly income. The healthy spouse may keep between $74,820 and $128,640 in assets. “Spousal Refusal” is another option that may help the healthy spouse keep more income and assets. A review of the couple’s income and assets helps determine which approach is more favorable.

May 12, 2020

How the New Rules Under the Secure Act Changes the Way People Will Inherit Money

by Ettinger Law Firm

The Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019, Pub. L. 116–94, was signed into law by President Donald Trump on December 20, 2019, as part of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (The Secure Act). Future beneficiaries of retirement accounts have different rules than current inheritors. What follows is a brief description of some of the ways the new rules under The Secure Act may impact your future beneficiaries.

The Secure Act changes the way people will inherit money — are you affected by the new rules?

The new rules do not treat all beneficiaries the same. Beneficiaries of qualified retirement accounts, such as individual retirement accounts and 401(k) plans, now must withdraw all of the money out of those accounts within 10 years, instead of over their lifetime as was previously allowed (commonly referred to as the “stretch IRA” provision). An IRA is an individual retirement account. There are no required minimum distributions within that time frame, but the account balance must be zero after the 10th year.

May 8, 2020

Save for Retirement and Pay-Off Your Student Loans

by Ettinger Law Firm

The average student loan payment, according to credit.com, is $393 a month. That represents almost 20% of the monthly household income after taxes. During your prime working years, you may be tempted to postpone saving for retirement or maxing out your 401K contribution. If you’re on a federal income-based repayment plan, however, saving for retirement while paying off your student loans may actually reduce your monthly student loan payment.

Most federal repayment plans calculate your monthly payment based on your adjusted gross income (your net pay after deductions for taxes). The lower your net income take-home pay, the lower your monthly student loan payment may be. Not all federal repayment plans will result in a lower monthly payment. The eligible repayment plans include:

Revised Pay as You Earn Repayment Plan (REPAYE)

May 5, 2020

How Much Do You Think You Need for Retirement?

by Ettinger Law Firm

In 2019, the U.S. Census Bureau, determined that the average national retirement age was between 63 and 64 for men and 62 for women. Most Americans agree that in retirement they’ll need saving to supplement Social Security benefits. Social Security alone will not get them through retirement. The current life expectancy for Americans is 78.93.

Social Security benefits accounts for close to 40% of your pre-retirement income. The average Social Security monthly benefit in 2018 was $1,409.91 a month, or about $16,919 a year. You will need savings to cover the other 60% through a combination of cash, 401k, and other retirement accounts for income. Schwab conducted a survey of its 401k plan participants and found that the participants themselves calculated they’ll need savings of $1.7 million on average to get through retirement.

To figure out how much money you’ll need to support yourself in retirement consider the following:

May 2, 2020

About 40 Million Americans to Experience a Drop to their FICO Score

by Ettinger Law Firm

Millions of Americans are expected to experience a drop in their FICO score when the Fair Isaac Corporation, the company that invented the FICO score, modifies the methodology they use to determine a consumer’s FICO score. Beginning in the summer of 2020, lenders may opt to use the new methodology when assessing the creditworthiness of a consumer when extending credit and setting interest rates on mortgages and consumer loans, such as credit card or automobile loans.

Link between consumer behavior and your FICO score

Consumers with fair credit, growing debt, who take out personal loans to consolidate debt, or who are about to max out their credit cards are expected to see a negative impact to their FICO credit score. The Fair Isaac Corporation updates its scoring model every few years. The last time significant changes were implemented was in 2014, where it was thought that credit restrictions were lessoned. For individuals with little to no credit, utility payment histories, rental payment histories, and the elimination of civil judgments from individual’s credit histories, helped bolster their credit score.

April 27, 2020

Assisted Reproductive Technology and Estate Plans

by Ettinger Law Firm

In-vitro fertilization, also known as IVF, has its origins in the 1890’s when the first known case of embryo transplantation occurred in rabbits in Great Britain. By 1973, scientists were able to transplant a human embryo into a woman. The first human IVF pregnancy occurred 47 years ago in Melbourne, Australia. In addition to IVF there are other assisted reproductive technologies, commonly called ART for short, that have changed human conception, such as artificial insemination and surrogacy that have made parenthood possible for people who are unable to reproduce naturally.

Significant changes are afoot in the area of estate planning of such families as more children are born from ART methods for reproduction. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 1.8% of all infants born in the United States were aided by ART methods. In the context of estate planning, there are two main issues ART families should tackle. First, how parentage and descendants are defined for legal purposes, such as maintenance and inheritance. Second, is who controls the disposition of stored genetic material that has not been used.

Are all children descendants, legally speaking, of course?

April 24, 2020

Why Claiming Social Security Benefits at 62 May be Good for You

by Ettinger Law Firm

The conventional wisdom is to wait and not claim Social Security benefits until you are over 66 (the full retirement age for individuals born between 1943 and 1954). Full retirement age is calculated by year of birth. To see what your full retirement age is click here, or review the website maintained by the Social Security Administration (www.ssa.gov). The reason choosing when to begin claiming Social Security benefits is a big decision that will impact the size of your monthly benefit amount or checks for the rest of your life. For example, if you have a full retirement age of 67 and wait until age 70 to begin claiming Social Security benefits, you’ll receive your full benefit amount plus an extra 24% each month for the rest of your life.

Delaying benefits however isn’t right for everyone, and it may make sense for you to claim your benefits as early as possible, or age 62, (the earliest retirement age for individuals born between 1943 and 1954). Again, to determine when you can claim your benefits, click here. Three reasons why claiming your retirement benefits through the Social Security program may be right for you are as follows:

Your retirement years are limited.

April 21, 2020

What did he do with all the money?

by Ettinger Law Firm

After decades together, there are still couples who do not share information about their finances with each other. Some couples separate their money – mine, yours, and ours. They too often get caught in the same position, having very little knowledge about their spouse’s money.

The problem is compounded in household’s where one spouse worked outside the home. The stay at home spouse may not have a separate stockpile of money and investments and is wholly financially dependent on the other spouse. The working spouse in this scenario, usually manages the family’s bank accounts and makes the financial decisions. The non-working spouse trusts the information the working spouse provides and goes along with the plan.

Without a financial power of attorney, one spouse has no way of knowing what the other spouse has by way of cash, investments, life insurance policies, stocks and bonds, pensions, and retirement accounts. Unless, the accounts are held jointly, even if you are legally married, you will not receive financial information from any financial institution about your spouse’s accounts.

April 18, 2020

Divorcees, You Could Be Owed Extra Social Security benefits?

by Ettinger Law Firm

The general consensus is that Social Security replaces around 40% of your pre-retirement income. The reality is that half of all single people depend on their Social Security benefits to replace close to 90% of their pre-retirement income, says the Social Security Administration (SSA). From the start, the only way for you to survive retirement is to cut your living expenses to 40% of your working income.

For married couples, the outlook is better. One spouse, usually the one who may never have worked or earned less than the other spouse, is able to receive Social Security benefits based on the other spouse’s work record. Because that spouse is married, his or her Social Security benefits will be higher than a single person. According to the SSA, only 21% of married couples depend on their checks for at least 90% of their retirement income.

If you are single and divorced, in some circumstances, you too can receive Social Security benefits based on your ex-spouse’s work record, even if your ex has remarried. You may be surprised to learn that there are few eligibility requirements you’ll have to meet in order to claim benefits based on your ex’s work record. To qualify for Social Security benefits based on your ex’s work record: