Finances

Elder law attorney Jim Koewler joins Suzanne to talk about setting up your estate plan and the people needed to complete various documents, such as powers of attorney, wills, living wills, revocable trusts, and irrevocable third-party trusts. This segment covers Powers of Attorney.

Your senior loved ones may quality for VA benefits. Emily Schwarz, VP of Sales for ElderLife Financial and President of AidInAttendance.com, tells us about these benefits and how to qualify for them, courtesy of MorningStar Senior Living.

What does a family do when faced with having to pay for a senior loved one to move into a senior care community? Emily Schwarz with ElderLife Financial joins Suzanne to talk more about solving this financial conundrum, courtesy of MorningStar Senior Living.

Emily Schwarz with ElderLife Financial joins Suzanne to solve the conundrum of finding financial aid to bridge the move to senior living.

When a care facility threatens to discharge or evict a senior loved one because of a failure to pay, Elder law attorney Jim Koewler joins Suzanne to talk about what to do. Jim explains how to challenge a threat to discharge. You have 30 days, but don't wait to appeal. The facility can go ahead and discharge them if you don't get your paperwork in on time.

We sign all sorts of paperwork when a senior loved one is admitted to a nursing home, assisted living, or memory care community. But often we don't know what we're signing. When a senior living community threatens to discharge or evict a loved one, certain rules apply to those communities that take Medicare or Medicaid, regardless of whether your loved one is using those programs. Elder law attorney Jim Koewler joins Suzanne to talk about those rules.

Most nursing home and assisting living agreements have a spot for someone to sign as "resident representative." Elder law attorney Jim Koewler joins Suzanne to warn about certain aspects of that. One option is to sign your name with a comma, followed by POA, meaning that you're signing on behalf of your loved one, legally protecting yourself to consequences that can affect you personally.

This segment focuses on aspects of the admissions paperwork that are subject to federal rules when a senior love one comes into a skilled nursing facility.

This hour addresses all the paperwork — legal contracts — involved in a loved one's transition to senior living. Sometimes you're electronically signing your name and initialing a few signature blocks on an iPad, but you aren't shown the 50 related pages that are on the document you just signed. Here are some red flags to watch for in the paperwork. They apply to nursing home, assisted living, and memory care admissions.

If you're applying for Medicaid, what happens if they say you have "too much income?" Elder Law Attorney Jim Koewler joins Suzanne to discuss this interesting scenario. You would need to seek a lawyer, set up a qualified income trust, called a "Miller trust," and then you have to use that trust every month, in order to even qualify for Medicaid.