A Hospital Escape Story
               Every year between June and September we are contacted by parents who have children that have turned age 18 and are going off to college. I have written in the past about the importance of parents having their child execute a power of attorney and health care directive because
Shifting Drugs from Medicare Part B to Part D
               A few months ago President Trump announced a plan to lower prescription drug costs under Medicare by moving coverage of certain expensive drugs from Medicare Part B to Part D. Part B is the medical benefit that was part of the original Medicare law passed by Congress in 1965.Â
A Pension Hole the Size of Japan’s Economy (Part 2)
    In last week’s post I wrote about the growing public pension crisis in our country. A recent Wall Street Journal article highlighted the efforts by different states to try to start solving the problem which will only grow worse in coming years.     Some pension recipients
A Pension Hole the Size of Japan’s Economy
               The title of the article in the Wall Street Journal a few weeks ago was intended to turn heads. (See https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-pension-hole-for-u-s-cities-and-states-is-the-size-of-japans-economy-1532972501?mod=hp_lead_pos7) There has been an increasing amount of coverage in the media about the pension crisis in the country, specifically the underfunding of public employee pensions. According to the
Resistance to Power of Attorney – Part 3
               In this week’s post we continue with the topic of power of attorney and specifically how to handle resistance from banks and financial institutions. Last week I outlined the scenarios in which a bank can refuse to honor a power of attorney. New Jersey law says that a banking
Resistance to Power of Attorney – Part 2
               Last week’s post again addressed the use of powers of attorney and specifically the problem of encountering resistance by a financial institution. As I explained, many financial institutions prefer that customers sign their own form of power of attorney and do so in front of one of their employees.Â
How to Handle Resistance to POA – Part 1
    I have written several posts over the years on the importance of powers of attorney and the problems many people encounter when trying to use them. It seems that as time has passed the problems have only increased in frequency. Just this past week we received two
The Declining Pool of Caregivers
               Another article, this time in the Wall Street Journal caught my eye the other day. It’s about how this country is running out of family caregivers at a time when the need for those caregivers is increasing.              Some of my recent posts have included statistics showing the continued trend
The Talk
               I have written in past blog posts about how best to approach the topic of long term care with a parent or elderly loved one. There are no two situations that are exactly alike so there is no one best way to handle the delicate subject. It is especially
Buzz Aldrin’s Legal Fight
      As the population ages so do our celebrities who face many of the same elder related legal issues as the rest of us. Buzz Aldrin is yet another example of this.  His story caught my attention last month. Aldrin, a local guy, was born and raised in Montclair, New