“The rise of the internet, along with thousands of health-oriented websites, medical blogs, and even doctor-based television and radio programs, means that today’s patients have more opportunities than ever to take charge of their medical care.”

So begins Tara Parker-Pope’s article in the New York Times entitled You’re Sick. Now What? Knowledge Is Power. If what Parker-Pope is saying is true, then why aren’t more patients taking charge of the legal aspect of their illness? No, we don’t mean taking legal action against doctors, we mean taking the steps necessary to legally protect yourself while in the hospital or on the operating table.

If knowledge is power, that doesn’t just apply to knowledge of medicines and treatments, it means knowing your legal rights and protective measures as well, and using all the knowledge at your disposal. How do you insure you have the people you want making decisions for you if you are unable to make them yourself? How can you guarantee you won’t be kept in the hospital if you would rather be cared for at home? And what can you do to cut through the red tape and open channels of communication between your family and your medical personnel during a time of fear and stress?

The answer lies with two simple documents that your estate planning attorney can provide: An Advanced Health Care Directive (or Health Care Power of Attorney), and a HIPAA Authorization. These two documents together name the people you want as your agents to make decisions for you if you are incapacitated, and the people who are allowed to receive information about your healthcare condition. Without these two documents both your family and your medical caregivers may be left in the dark. These documents not only name your agents, but give them guidance and outline your wishes and preferences for care.

Parker-Pope says in her article that when it comes to internet information, “the goal is to find an M.D., not become one.” The same is true of lawyers and legal advice. You may find these two legal healthcare documents online, but there is no way to be sure that they are legally accurate and binding without the advice of a qualified attorney. Don’t take chances with your healthcare, call our office and let us provide the legal knowledge and power you need.

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With all of the uncertainty on Wall Street recently, many of our clients whose bank accounts are held in their Revocable Living Trusts are concerned about whether their assets are protected, and to what extent.

According to the FDIC, accounts owned by a Revocable Living Trust are indeed insured.  To what extent they are insured depends on who your beneficiaries are and when they become entitled to their interest.

The owner of a living trust account would be insured up to $100,000 per beneficiary if all of the following requirements are met:

The beneficiary must be the owner’s spouse, child, grandchild, parent or sibling. Stepparents and stepchildren, adopted children and similar relationships also qualify. In-laws, cousins, nieces and nephews, friends, and charitable organizations do not qualify.

The beneficiary must become entitled to his or her interest in the trust when the owner dies — coverage would be based on the beneficiaries who meet this requirement at the time the bank fails. Example: A living trust names an owner’s three children as beneficiaries but states that each beneficiary’s share will pass to the beneficiary’s children if the beneficiary dies before the owner. Assuming all three children are alive at the time the bank fails, only the children — not the grandchildren — would be beneficiaries for insurance purposes. (That’s because the grandchildren are not entitled to any trust assets while their parent is alive.) Coverage up to $300,000 ($100,000 per beneficiary) would be available on the trust’s deposit accounts.

The account title at the bank must indicate that the account is held by a living trust. This rule can be met by using the terms “living trust” or “family trust” in the account title.

If you have any concerns about how your account is titled and whether you are covered, please call our office for more information.

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When you are an Estate Planning Attorney you meet a lot of parents with the same concern: they want to leave a legacy for their children, but they worry about the repercussions if the children are given too much financial obligation before they are mature enough to handle it. What these parents want is to be there as their children receive their inheritance, to give them the responsibility slowly, as they become ready. To gradually relinquish control as each child reaches various milestones which prove they are fiscally prepared.

Well, we can’t assure these parents that they will be around indefinitely to watch over their child’s financial education, but we can offer them a solution that bears a resemblance to a cautious parent. The solution has two parts, either or both of which the client may choose to utilize.

The first is to specify an age at which a child may be co-trustee of his or her own trust. The child can then partner with a co-trustee of the parents’ choosing; this could be a close friend of the family, a trusted financial advisor, or even a corporate trustee such as a bank. This gives the child the opportunity to get a taste of responsibility and begin making decisions, but with a safety net beneath them. When the child reaches a certain age (or alternatively, after attaining a goal such as graduation from college, or gainful employment for a specified amount of time) he or she may then become sole trustee of his or her own trust.

The second part of the solution is to give the child access to the trust principle itself in gradual increments. For example, the child may receive 1/3 upon graduation from college, another 1/3 ten years later, and the remaining 1/3 ten years after that. Of course the ages and amounts are completely up to each client, but the slow distribution of assets allows the beneficiary to have a learning curve, something which makes the parents (and the child) much more comfortable.

At our office we understand that there is no substitute for parental involvement, but we can give our clients options that can lay a strong foundation for fiscal responsibility. If you are a parent with similar concerns, contact our office for more information.

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Small business owners are some of the hardest working people I’ve ever met. They not only take their work and their clients seriously, they take them to heart . . . sometimes to their detriment. Yes, hard-working small business owners can take on too much. They give up family time and workout time; they lose sleep and lose perspective. All of this will not only take its toll on their health, it can be costly to their business as well. Like a trapeze artist working without a net, small business owners need balance–or else.

Recent studies have shown that two-thirds of small business owners (many of whom left big corporations to spend more time with their families) work more than 40 hours a week; with one in five actually putting in 80 hours a week! If you’re a small business owner reading this you probably have some experience with this yourself. How often have you read e-mails during dinner, taken phone calls from clients on weekends, or taken the family with you on a business trip to double up the time as “vacation”?

Why do small business owners find it so difficult to find balance? John Wyckoff believes it’s because too many of them spend all their time working “in” rather than “on” their business. CBS News posits that perhaps people have a hard time drawing the line between on-call and off-duty when both business and family happens in the same physical space. And the Entrepreneurial Connection thinks that small business owners would be much better off if they knew more about (or were willing to take advantage of) time-saving opportunities and devices.

Whatever your reason, finding a balance between work and pleasure is essential for small business owners. And as unlikely as it may seem, your attorney can help you find that balance. Whether by helping your business make that transition to the next level, by putting legal protections in place to keep your family finances safe from business lawsuits, by updating your business plan, or working with you on an eventual exit strategy. However you choose to do it, the best way to take care of your business is to take care of yourself. Start taking care of both today.

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Our blog this week has included a series of posts about families with special needs children, beginning with a mention of Sarah Palin in Monday’s post, and how she has helped bring the those families into the limelight. It seems appropriate to end our series with a letter written to Sarah Palin, published in the Concord Monitor. A letter from one mother of a special needs child to another.

Betsy McNamara’s letter is honest and eloquent. She writes of the joy she has in her son with special needs, of the hopes she has for his future, and the fear that his life (and hers) will be all the more difficult if the government and local communities don’t take steps to help children and families like hers. The fact that it is written to Sarah Palin seems to be secondary, it could be a letter to anyone in a position of authority, with the potential to understand her plight and help her son.

This letter speaks to all of us, whether or not we have loved ones with special needs. It describes the pure and unlimited love every parent has for a child, and the hopes and fears we have for them from the first day they’re born. Thank you to Betsy McNamara, who with her grace and courage has made our world a little more intimate.

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A Special Needs Trust (or SNT) is a wonderful—and necessary—tool to protect your Special Needs Child’s public benefits, to protect their inheritance, and to provide them with the extra funds they will need to have a home and food and clothing. But some parents still think it’s not enough. They know that something more is needed if their child is going to be truly and comprehensively cared for.

Does this mean Special Needs Trusts are inadequate, or should be avoided? Not at all! Because an SNT goes hand in hand with something called a “Letter of Intent”. Although the SNT carries all the legal weight, the letter of intent (which is not a legal document) will have the greatest impact on the day-to-day life of your child. A letter of intent is your message to the people who will be caring for your child if something happens to you. Consider the instructions you leave a babysitter when you leave your child for just a few hours. What would you want to say to that person if you knew you wouldn’t be coming back?

A letter of intent should address ALL the areas of significance in your child’s life. Here are just a few to get you started:

• A medical history and list of doctors and contact information
• Any allergies your child has
• A list of teachers, therapists, and any other important people
• Your child’s biographical information, including favorite foods and activities, likes and dislikes, best friends, and personality traits
• A rundown of your child’s daily and weekly routine
• Your family philosophy
• And most especially, your wishes for your child’s future

A letter of intent may not carry any specific legal weight, but it serves as more than just a list of instructions for your child’s caretaker, it also provides guidelines for your Trustee, the person who will be deciding how trust funds are going to be spent. The SNT and letter of instruction together provide a comprehensive security net for your Special Needs Child. If you wouldn’t leave her alone in the house, don’t leave her alone in the world. Create something lasting to protect her when you are gone.

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Regardless of your political leanings, it is undeniable that the nomination of Sarah Palin as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate has brought the issues and concerns of parents of special needs children into the limelight. Here at our office, we think that any media attention given to special needs families is for the better.

Most parents of a child with special needs know that they need to plan for that child’s future, but they don’t always know how. Some think that their child will just have to rely on public benefits for the rest of his or her life, some mistakenly believe they can put money into a savings account for the child to use when the parents are gone, and worst of all, some parents will leave their estate to their special needs child as an inheritance.

All of these parents have the best intentions, but none of them are actually doing the best thing for their child. (The creation of a Special Needs Trust to provide for the expenses of the child while still preserving his or her public benefits is most often the best course of action.) Why is this? It isn’t because the parents don’t care; it is because often they just aren’t informed. Accurate information and caring guidance is not always easy for parents of special needs children to find. Not only that, but these parents have much of their time taken up with more immediate tasks: the day-to-day care of a child with intensive and ongoing needs, working with school systems to ensure their child has fair treatment, keeping on top of government paperwork to get the resources they need to pay for necessary medical expenses.

We know these parents have a lot on their plates, which is why we want to help them in every way we can. Call our office for legal guidance, referrals to qualified advisors, suggestions for further resources, or plain old-fashioned support. Let us help you be informed and prepared.

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In spite of the growing numbers of adult children finding themselves in the situation of having to care for elderly parents, the role of caretaker can be a lonely and frustrating one. But now there’s a place for caretakers to go online where they can get relevant news, good information, familiar stories, and most importantly: camaraderie.

The place is The New Old Age blog, by New York Times reporter Jane Gross. Some of Ms. Gross’ most recent posts deal with the serious issues of Elder Abuse, or the stance of our two presidential candidates on long-term care. However, she also writes about lighter (but no less interesting) topics such as irritation at being called by your first name, or the transition from analog to digital T.V.

The best part about Jane Gross’ blog is that she isn’t afraid to share her own experiences. In fact, one of the most moving posts on her blog is one from early July entitled What I Wish I’d Done Differently, in which she shares her own thoughts about taking care of her elderly mother.

When you are serving as caregiver for an elderly parent, having an outlet for your feelings, and a community of individuals who can sympathize with your plight is just as important as having advisors who are versed in the ins and outs of Medicare and Elder Law. Jane Gross’ New Old Age blog is that community.

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Emily Dickinson knew firsthand that the aging of our parents can take us by surprise. Most of us hold an image in our hearts of our parents as they were when we were children: young, strong, and sure. They were our providers and our protectors, and stood between us and the more frightening aspects of the world at large. It can be difficult to let go of that comforting image. In fact, many people won’t let go of it until tragedy strikes.

But there are consequences to waiting until tragedy strikes. At best, you pay the price of being unprepared—looking for answers to bewildering questions, unsure of where to go for help, and spending valuable time reinventing the wheel. This is the scenario described by Jessica Marquez in her article Elder Care Programs Take Center Stage as Baby Boomers Age.

At worst, the tragedy that strikes is a true tragedy, and you beat yourself up wondering what preventative measures you might have taken, what you could have done differently if only you had faced the changing situation and prepared yourself and your parents for the changes that come with age.

Marquez’s article shines a ray of hope on the situation. In it she points out that not only are there people and programs to help you prepare for the possibility of caring for your parents, but that help may be closer than you think. With a larger percentage of the workforce moving into the “sandwich” situation of caring for aging parents and young children at the same time, some employers are reaching out to help by offering elder care assistance programs.

This comes as a relief to a lot of people because it means that if and when you find yourself having to care for elderly parents, you don’t have to start from scratch. It means you have a starting point, and maybe even a solution, right there in your own Human Resources office.

Even if your parents are fit as fiddles, it’s worth it to look around and know what your options are should tragedy indeed strike. Don’t let yourself be caught in the same situation as Rose Stanley—frightened, in an unfamiliar place, and seemingly without resources.

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If you are the child of parents who are now over the age of 65 you’ve probably given at least some passing thought to the day when one of your parents may need Long Term Care. Perhaps that still seems a long way off, or perhaps you see some of the warning signs already. Either way, there are steps you can take now to make the transition to giving and receiving care later easier on both you and your parents.

First and foremost, talk about it with your parents. It may seem like a difficult subject to broach, but it is necessary if you want to be able to work cooperatively in the future. Find out if your parents have already thought about the topic, if they’ve made provisions for it, or if they have any specific wishes.

Second, encourage your parents to create an Estate Plan if they don’t have one already. An Estate Plan will be important in expressing your parents’ wishes on necessary issues such as preferred agents in case of incapacity, financial power of attorney, and health care decisions. These essential documents will prevent many expensive delays and frustrating red tape in the future.

Third, think about what steps you and your parents may need to take to prepare for the financial burden of Long Term Care, because there will be a financial burden. Mellody Hobson of ABC News has some suggestions on how to plan, and what your financial options are. She describes the more well-known options of Medicaid and Long Term Care Insurance, as well as some lesser known options such as a Dependent Care Account.

The most important thing to remember as you think and talk about these issues is that you don’t have to—and you shouldn’t—go through this alone. Elder Law and Long Term Care are intricate and convoluted subjects, and you can serve your parents and your family best by getting the help of caring professionals whose business it is to guide you smoothly through the ins and outs of Elder Care. This includes professionals such as doctors, geriatric care managers, financial advisors, and yes—estate planning attorneys. Let us help you look into the future with confidence and clear eyes.

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