Protecting the Home – Part 1
I received a call last week which again highlights the risk of handling a Medicaid application on your own. As I often say, the application may appear to be easy but you never know when you’ll run into an issue or problem. When that happens it is important to have someone who has knowledge of the ins and outs of Medicaid on your side. Mary called me to ask a question concerning her friend, John. John is in his 60’s and has a daughter, Amy, 21, who is attends college in Pennsylvania. John has MS and cannot live at home any longer on his own with Amy away at school most of the year. He moved to a nursing home and she applied for Medicaid on his behalf. Amy ran into a snag with Medicaid and Mary was trying to help her out. The caseworker informed Amy that John would need to sell his home and spend down the proceeds in order to qualify. She said Amy had just listed it for sale but Mary wasn’t sure if what the caseworker said is correct. I asked Mary what Amy’s plans are after she graduates college. She told me that Amy would like to
Changing Demographics – Part 3
In last week’s post I explained the differences between domestic partnership, civil union and marriage when talking about the rights of same sex couples. So how does this impact the issues faced by aging LGBT seniors? Married vs. single has an impact on taxes. Different thresholds and rates apply to married couples and single individuals with regard to income taxes. Additionally, we must look at estate, inheritance and gift taxes. Transfers between spouses are not subject to estate or gift tax. Domestic partnership and civil union provide the same rights as married couples – at least as to New Jersey taxes. Only marriage, however, would give the couple the same rights with respect to federal taxes. New Jersey no longer has an estate tax. The federal estate tax exemption is now $11.4 million so most couples wouldn’t be affected by this regardless of whether they are married or not. There remains, however, an inheritance tax which is based on the relationship of the heirs to the person who died. It is this tax that penalizes same sex (or opposite sex) couples who are not married because non related (Class D) beneficiaries pay a tax of 15 to 16% on assets inherited whereas
Changing Demographics – Part 2
In last week’s post I began discussing some of the unique issues faced by seniors who are part of the LGBT community. Only within the past 20 years or so has marriage been an option for same sex couples. It is still an evolving area of the law as various states address or decline to address the issue. New Jersey has been in forefront in the sense that same sex couples have as many as 3 options to choose from, marriage, domestic partnership and civil union. The New Jersey Domestic Partnership Act is a law that grants couples certain basic rights that married couples have such as the right to make health care decisions and to receive tax exemptions. Before either a civil union or marriage were possible, this was the only option for same sex couples. It remains an option now only for same sex and opposite sex couples who are 62 years of age or older, although it still applies to anyone who entered into a domestic partnership before the civil union law was passed or who entered into such a partnership in another state. The law provides some of the same protections, rights and benefits that married couples have
Changing Demographics – Part 1
In past blog posts I have written about the changes in the demographic makeup of our aging population and the issues they face. The LGBT community encompasses lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals. Historically, this community has experienced disapproval of and discrimination against its members although much has changed in the last half century. There are also unique issues these individuals face as they age. They are 4 times less likely to have children and twice as likely to live alone. Accordingly, when they begin to age and need to rely on a support system, they may not have readily apparent friends and family to step in. LGBT members may also be more likely to be estranged from less than accepting biological family members or not wish to have those members be in decision making roles but the law tends to favor blood relatives over other “selected” family. Having documents in place such as powers of attorney, health care directives and trusts can avoid the scenario where the law makes the choice for you – one which you may not have chosen for yourself. The LGBT community also faces some of the same issues that heterosexual couples who are “together” but not
A Family Theft – Part 4
In this week’s post I give you the conclusion to Joe’s saga involving his sister Sophie’s Medicaid application. As I explained in last week’s post, things didn’t go according to our expectation. When we filed a civil lawsuit seeking to collect the amounts Mary took from Sophie I expected that she would ignore the lawsuit since she lived out of state and was ill herself. Instead, Mary hired an attorney. She claimed that some of the funds she took were actually spent for Sophie’s benefit. I told Mary’s attorney we needed bills to prove this to Medicaid. It turns out that this did not amount to much – only about $5000. But, then Mary really surprised us. She felt guilty about what she had done and she was willing to offer an amount of money in settlement of the claim. Her attorney suggested she could come up with about $75,000, although she would need to pay it over time. She also made clear that this needed to be in full satisfaction of the claim so that we would not be able to collect the rest of the money. I thought this would work. In my view, a negotiated settlement in the context
A Family Theft – Part 3
Last year I wrote about a family theft and its implications for Medicaid eligibility (Blog posts on 9/24/18 and 10/1/18). To summarize, we needed to apply for Medicaid for Sophie, who could no longer live at home but now needed nursing home care. She had lived with her sister Mary, who handled her finances for many years. When Mary herself needed care, brother Joe took over and discovered that Mary had helped herself to some of Sophie’s money. In order for Medicaid to treat the transfers to Mary as theft and not voluntary transfers subject to a Medicaid penalty we needed Joe to file both a criminal complaint for theft as well as a civil complaint to recover the money taken which reached in excess of $200,000. The criminal complaint went nowhere. The police took the complaint but it wasn’t a priority for them. Joe never heard from them but that was OK since the we just needed to take the first step. The civil lawsuit, however, took a surprising twist. When we filed for Medicaid, as I told Joe, the caseworker only was willing to accept our explanation with proof of the criminal and civil complaints. Because Mary moved in with