Attorneys are finding more success as they fight against nursing home arbitration clauses. The fight against nursing home arbitration requirements continues in state after state across the U.S. as attorneys find that the clauses are no longer universally accepted by courts. As the New York Times reports in “Pivotal Nursing Home Suit Raises a Simple […]

People across the U.S. are increasingly finding success in turning to mediation to handle elder law issues within the family. Mediation has become increasingly popular through the years for handling disputes within families with some state courts going so far as to require a mediation attempt before hearing custody disputes. It is likely to be […]

Heirloom archaeology has been created by a non-profit group as it attempts to return heirlooms to families. A non-profit organization out of Nashville run by Chris Hodge has taken on the difficult task of doing detective work to find the living descendants of the owners of various heirlooms and return them to their rightful owners. […]

The biggest reason that approximately 75% of Americans do not have any form of advanced medical directives is they really don’t know what those are. An advanced medical directive, sometimes known as a health care proxy, which is a legal document you can execute to speak for you regarding your medical treatment if you are […]

A St. Louis case demonstrates how a blended family can be a challenge for estate planning. Both millionaires when they married in 1980, Mary Lee and Robert Hermann Sr., who had children from previous marriages, signed a prenuptial agreement aimed at protecting their own respective children. According to the Riverfront Times in “In Probate Court, […]

While payable-on-death accounts seem to be an easy answer for transfers they do not come without challenges. Payable-on-Death accounts, sometimes called Pay-on-Death or Transfer-on-Death, seem to be easy and therefore a popular method for transferring assets after the account owner dies. But this approach to estate planning must be carefully considered. The money in the […]

What happens if you receive your annual booklet on Medicare Part D prescription drug plans and your prescription drugs have been removed from list? Many seniors end up wondering what their next step is when Medicare prescription plans change the drugs they cover and a booklet with the information is sent out annually. Recently, Elder […]

The amount of long-term-care insurance premiums that can be deducted from your taxes has been increased. The sustainability of long-term-care insurance has been questioned recently concerning losing coverage after missing premium payments. Against this backdrop, however, the Internal Revenue Service might be trying to encourage the purchase of long-term-care insurance as it has increased the […]

The deadline to file the basis for property distributed from an estate by Section 6035 of the tax code is extended by the IRS. The Surface Transportation and Veteran’s Health Care Choice Improvement Act of 2015 was signed into law last summer with a provision unrelated to the act which required that people filing an […]

Getting prepared for meeting with an estate planning attorney can improve efficiency. Meeting with an estate planning attorney for the first time can be much more productive if you have prepared in advance. Recently, the Wills, Trusts & Estates Prof Blog offered some tips about how you can prepare and make that first meeting with […]