Money & Law

Steve Waltar with Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne to talk about the particulars of choosing beneficiaries when planning for your estate.

The value an estate planning attorney brings you, vs. just downloading documents yourself online, is a discussion Andrea Lee frequently addresses. They are who will advocate for you. If you're a senior, an estate planning attorney or an elder law attorney is worth their weight in gold. Andrea Lee from Legacy Estate Planning joins Suzanne Newman on the Answers for Elders podcast to talk about the benefits of hiring an elder law attorney.

There are different ways you can remain solvent in your aging years, and there are techniques to maintain and preserve assets. Estate planning specialist David T. Phillips joins Suzanne to talk about the three types of leveraged care solutions and to provide an example of how they work.

Learn how to appoint people to represent you in situations where you're unable to act for yourself – a who's who of people who should be involved in your estate plan. This segment focuses on living wills. One person does the job – pick one person.

Elder Law Attorney Jim Koewler joins Suzanne to talk about how Medicaid and other long-term care situations handle retirees who continue to receive income the rest of their lives. Income payments can come from Social Security retirement benefits, disability benefits, pension payments, VA pension payments, annuity payments, or income from rental properties.

Attorney Darol Tuttle joins Suzanne to talk about going beyond estate planning. Asset protection focuses on protecting your assets while you're still alive, to finance your retirement throughout your life, and to fund the retirement of your spouse.

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.

Nichole Smith at CarePartners Senior Living says that surprisingly, a majority of financial abuse comes from family members. We often have so many red flags that families are squirreling away money. When a person loses their safety awareness, of course they trust their family more than anybody else, and family members may be making decisions which they think are in the best interest of their loved one, but later down the line it may make it so they can’t get on a state Medicaid program because they’ve gifted money within the last five years.

Elder Law and special needs attorney Jim Koewler talks about planning ahead — what do people need to plan for? When you can't take care of yourself, and you have trouble with activities of daily living — being able to get out of bed or a chair, bathing, eating, toileting, or dressing on your own — you're either injured (temporary) or facing a permanent change. How do you plan ahead for that financially? You can 1) do nothing, 2) buy insurance, or 3) give money away now while you're healthy, and rely on Medicaid later on. If you pick 3, work with a long-term care attorney to find a balance of what you need to care for yourself vs. what you're able to live without. Jim addresses all three choices.

Elder law attorney Steve Waltar joins Suzanne to talk about the Corporate Transparency Act, a new federal law made to thwart money laundering, but has overreaching implications for owners of new and existing small businesses and their legal agents across America.