Have you talked to your elderly family members recently? Being old is not always fun. We all see pictures of retirement communities. They always have smiling senior citizens that look happier than any person has the right to be. However, the reality is that most people are lonely and isolated in the later years of their lives. Your elderly family members could benefit from hearing from you, if only for a few minutes.

There is another benefit besides the emotional one that your elderly relatives can get from regular visits. Increasingly, senior citizens are being taken advantage of in America. It is all too common and all too easy to do. Find a senior citizen whose family never seems to be around, gain his or her trust, and convince the senior citizen to rearrange their estate plans and financial affairs for your benefit. It happens every day. Do not let it happen to your relatives.

The first and most important step to preventing elder abuse is to visit your elderly relatives frequently. No, it is not always fun to visit your relatives in a nursing home, but it is something you need to do. Make sure your loved ones really are OK.

The Mendel Law Firm, L.P. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

If you live long enough, there is a fifty-fifty chance that you will end up with some form of dementia. You will not be capable of handling your own finances. It is a possibility that you need to plan for. You should have a General Durable Power of Attorney in place so that someone you designate can handle your finances. However, what if unexpected costs occur and you run out of money? You should have a plan for that possibility as well.

One thing that you might want to consider is an annuity. By surrendering principle now, you receive an annual income when you might need it. You usually get a higher return for the investment than a bond or CD and you do not take the risks of investing in stocks. The one caveat is that the insurance company you purchase the annuity from needs to remain solvent or you can lose your principle.

Annuities are not for everyone. Used wisely, they can be an excellent part of a larger estate and retirement plan. Talk to your attorney about how they might fit into your plans and about other alternatives for taking care of your needs as you age.

The Mendel Law Firm, L.P. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

There are crimes that make you silently shake your head, like minor traffic violations. There are other crimes that make you wonder what this world is coming to, like elderly abuse. A recent case out of New York is one of the latter.

Michael Ostrowski was appointed to be the guardian of his grandfather who has dementia. This is rather ordinary and happens in Probate Courts every day. What is not ordinary is what Ostrowski did with that guardianship. He used it to steal approximately $300,000 of his grandfather’s money. He didn’t even need the money, unless you count needing a new flatscreen TV, pickup truck and semi-automatic assault rifle as necessities. That’s what he used the money for.

Fortunately, in this case Ostrowski was caught and will go to prison. He’s also been ordered to pay restitution. However, this type of situation happens all too frequently. Financial abuse of the elderly is a real problem and it needs to be addressed. In the absence of tougher laws, you can better protect yourself from it with proper planning. Get a General Durable Power of Attorney and talk to your attorney about appointing a responsible person to the position. Don’t rely on a court to appoint a responsible guardian.

The Mendel Law Firm, L.P. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

In an ideal world, you would always be able to make all of your own health care decisions. However, in the real world, it is possible that there will be a time when you can not. You might be under amnesia. You might have Alzheimer’s. You might have had an accident and cannot communicate. Unfortunately, during these times. doctors might need to ask someone to make a decision about your care. Because you will not be able to answer the questions, you should have someone else ready to do so.

You can decide who will make decisions about your care when you are not able to do so by getting a Health Care Power of Attorney. In this document, you appoint someone now who is ready to step in and make your decisions for you. However, the document is just a piece of paper. It does not do you any good unless you tell the person your are appointing what you want them to say to doctors. Your Health Care Power of Attorney should know what to do in different scenarios. For that to happen you need to talk to him or her and tell them.

Get a Health Care Power of Attorney, but don’t stop there. Talk to the person you appoint.

The Mendel Law Firm, L.P. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Medicaid is a federally funded health insurance program for low-income and elderly individuals. Unlike the Medicare program, the Medicaid program is income-based and reserved for certain groups of individuals with limited means and resources. Medicare is age-based and does not depend on an individual’s income. Medicare is available to U.S. citizens and other legal residents who are at least 65. In Texas, residents with limited means may qualify for Medicaid insurance if disabled, blind or at least 65 years old. If you are under age 65, you must have a certified disability and have limited income and resources or you must be blind and have limited income and possess limited resources.

If you qualify for Medicaid medical insurance, you may be able to receive medical and mental health services for little or no cost. If you need long-term nursing care and home health care, you may be able to receive these services at no cost. Unlike Medicare, the Medicaid program pays for most of these costs, regardless of the length of time.

The Mendel Law Firm, L.P. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

When most people think about estate plans, they think about documents that will be used by their relatives and the courts after they pass away. This is usually the bulk of an estate plan. However, some of the most important documents in an estate plan are actually legal instruments that are designed to be used while you are still alive. In fact, these documents lose all legal effect as soon as you pass away.

One of these documents is called a Health Care Power of Attorney. In this short, simple legal instrument you designate someone to make health care decisions for you if you are incapacitated and can not make the decisions for yourself. That is all that the document does. It should be obvious why this document is so important because it allows you to decide who to trust with your life and death health care decisions.

There are several other estate planning documents that are designed for use during your lifetime. They are an important part of estate planning that should not be overlooked. If you would like to learn more about them, make sure to follow our blog and to schedule an appointment with an estate planning attorney.

The Mendel Law Firm, L.P. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Medicine is a rapidly developing science. Every year brings new advances in technology that can help sustain life longer than the previous year. This actually creates problems in preparing for your own end of life care. A Living Will might no longer be an appropriate document if you do not want your life to be sustained by artificial means.

Living Wills typically state that if you are suffering from a terminal condition with no hope of recovery that doctors should not sustain your life by artificial methods. In most cases, it is a basically a way to tell doctors not to use life support if they believe that you have no chance of ever coming off the support. However, as new medical technologies are developed, doctors have less certainty about a patient’s ability to recover from previously terminal conditions. A new technology might give a slight chance for recovery.

Because of this uncertainty, many people are choosing not to create traditional Living Wills. Instead they are attempting to create documents that tell doctors their wishes about the quality of life. These may or may not be effective legal documents. The best thing you can do is to appoint a Health Care Power of Attorney who knows your wishes and who can direct doctors to act accordingly.

The Mendel Law Firm, L.P. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Should children pay for the long term care of their parents? In the thirty states that have Filial Responsibility laws, they can be legally required to do so. Texas does not have these laws, but the issue is important for Texans whose parents live elsewhere or for Texas parents who might consider moving to another state.

Filial Responsibility Laws allow the state, or a health care provider, to sue family members to recover money that was spent on a relative’s medical care. Some of the laws take into account the ability of the relative to pay. Additionally, a federal law prevents the state from applying its recovery law if the person in question is already enrolled in Medicaid. However, the Filial Responsibility laws can still be applied if a Medicaid application is still pending.

These laws make planning for long term care and Medicaid extremely important. If you do not do so, your children could unexpectedly find themselves legally required to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in your medical costs. While it can be argued that children have a moral responsibility to pay for their parents’ care, the reality is that often they simply cannot afford to or that the money would be better spent on their own children.

The Mendel Law Firm, L.P. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Long term care in a nursing home can be very expensive. If you do not plan properly, you can lose most of your assets before Medicaid will start paying for your care. Because you do not know whether or not you will need it, planning for the possibility of long term care should be a part of your overall estate plan. You have several options to plan for long term care. In Texas, you even have a unique option that is not available in most other states.

In Texas, you can use a particular type of enhanced life estate deed known as a “Lady Bird Deed.” It gets its name as it is what former President Lyndon Johnson used for his own estate. Basically, this deed gives you a life estate in your home and the home automatically passes to a beneficiary upon your death. However, there are certain advanced features. You can still control the property and sell it without the consent of the beneficiary, which is unlike a traditional life estate. Perhaps most importantly to most people, the home is exempt from Medicaid claims during your lifetime.

A Lady Bird deed is not right in every situation. It is one tool out of many that an estate planning attorney has to assist you in planning for the eventuality of long term nursing home care.

The Mendel Law Firm, L.P. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Elderly residents should be wary of high-pressure tactics from overbearing salespeople who pressure them into giving them your financial information. Be wary of con artists throwing around probate law terms like “executors.” You should always be suspicious of claims from scam companies promising that you can significantly reduce your estate taxes by creating living trusts. A written will can also help you reduce your taxes and are often less expensive to create. Promises that a living trust will help you receive federal or state government assistance are false. Finally, you should be wary of overinflated claims from fraudulent salespeople guaranteeing that you can save lots of money in federal taxes by creating living trusts.

Only a licensed attorney can help you decide if a living trust would appropriate serve your estate planning needs and only after carefully discussing your goals with you.

Although living trusts can provide some tax benefits, so can other estate planning tools, including making lifetime gifts. Unfortunately, not all consumers understand the specific legal advantages to creating living trusts. Without proper legal training and consulting, consumers often unintentionally overemphasize the utility or benefits to creating living trusts. These myths helped fraudulent and deceptive businesses devise living trust scams. Scaring consumers, mainly elderly consumers, into believing they should create living trusts, living trust scam artists sell fake living trust forms and kits.

The Mendel Law Firm, L.P. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.