Trustees of special needs trusts generally have wide discretion in determining whether to distribute funds to trust beneficiaries. But if the person with disabilities receives Supplemental Security Income (SSI), careful precautions should be taken before any trust funds are used to pay for housing costs. For the year 2018, federal guidelines set the maximum monthly SSI benefit at $750
A promissory note is normally given in return for a loan and it is simply a promise to repay the amount. Classifying asset transfers as loans rather than gifts can be useful because it sometimes allows parents to "lend" assets to their children and still maintain Medicaid eligibility. Before Congress enacted the Deficit Reduction Act
By Adam Shell, USA Today For most working Americans, the savings vehicle of choice is a 401(k). But a flood of retirement savings dollars moving from these employer-sponsored plans to IRAs suggests that retirees or workers nearing the end of their careers favor individual retirement accounts when it's time to tap the cash they've amassed. Older Americans
Medicaid law imposes a penalty period if you transferred assets within five years of applying, but what if the transfers had nothing to do with Medicaid? It is difficult to do, but if you can prove you made the transfers for a purpose other than to qualify for Medicaid, you can avoid a penalty. You
Employee retirement savings plans come in two main flavors: the traditional 401(k) and the Roth 401(k). The benefit of a Roth 401(k) over a traditional 401(k) after retirement is that distributions from a Roth 401(k) are tax-free, but there is a little-known situation where distributions can be taxed. Contributions to a traditional 401(k) are made
Planning for retirement and deciding whether to buy long-term care insurance would be a lot easier if you knew your odds of needing long-term care, as well as at what age and for how long. Unfortunately, there's no definite answer. On the other hand, some statistics do provide a bit of guidance. The Numbers In
If your child has reached the teenage years, you may already feel as though you are losing control of her life. This is legally true once your child reaches the age of 18 because then the state considers your child to be an adult with the legal right to govern his or her own life. Up
Joy Loverde. Who Will Take Care of Me When I’m Old? Plan Now to Safeguard Your Health and Happiness in Old Age. New York, NY: Da Capo Press, 2017. 313 pages. Click here to order book via IndieBound.org Millions of Americans are facing old age essentially alone. One in three baby boomers is single or
By P.J. D'Annunzio A federal class action has been allowed to proceed against the state Department of Human Services, brought by a group of mentally disabled Pennsylvania youths claiming they were left too long in treatment facilities and not given access to proper treatment. U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III of the Middle District of Pennsylvania denied
Figuring out how much to save for retirement and when you can safely stop working can be difficult. A growing number of online retirement calculators, many of them free, are available to help. Although these calculators can yield vastly different results, they can still be useful tools. Based on information about you and your finances,
