Last week the wife of a man who applied for Medicaid (Title 19), called and said that a bank manager refused to honor the Power of Attorney, from her husband to her. She needs the bank records to get her husband eligible. The manager claimed that the notary signing the acknowledgment at the end of the power of attorney did not put a notary “number” next to his name, and the power of attorney was not valid. This is completely wrong. A certain percentage of people working in banks, insurance companies or other financial institutions are completely uninformed on the laws governing powers of attorney.

In March my office is making a presentation to the Connecticut Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. It will provide professionals with information on programs to provide care for those with Alzheimer’s, but everyone with a loved one suffering from the disease can benefit from this summary. Medicaid has the most comprehensive program for in home care. The applicant must miss three activities of daily living (bathing, dressing, toileting, transferring, or eating), or have a need for daily supervision to prevent harm or need medication supports. A company hired by the Connecticut Department of Social Services evaluates the needs and a determination is made on functional eligibility, and how much the state will pay for care. At the high end, Medicaid can pay up to $5945 per month. In some cases, that could be 24-hour care.

For retirees who move to Florida or other warmer climates, planning ahead in case long-term care is needed is just as important as for those who stay. Even though it is my experience that if retirees need significant homecare help or a nursing home, they usually return to where their children live, as that is their support group. There are additional matters to consider as a result, because planning must take account of differences in the laws of both states. 

Want to avoid probate? Want it to protect assets? Want to make things easier for your family should you pass away? Everyone’s answer is yes, so here is a comparison of revocable and irrevocable trusts. The obvious difference is that “revocable” means you can change it or terminate it at any time, as long as you are still alive and capable. You cannot revoke an irrevocable trust. The most critical difference is that a revocable trust does not protect your assets if you or your spouse need Medicaid or VA or Connecticut programs to pay for long term care, at home, or in a nursing home. That’s because if you can revoke it, and take the assets back, the state quite logically says that asset is still yours. So if the goal is to protect assets in case of long term sickness, a revocable trust does not help. For that, you need an irrevocable trust.

Everyone wants to avoid the nursing home, so if long term care is needed, getting home care help is the answer. How to pay for that care is the question. Using family resources is one option, but that can deplete life savings very quickly, so Connecticut and the Veterans Administration offer several programs to help pay for that care. A wartime veteran who is single and who qualifies could get up to $1,911 per month, and if married, up to $2,266 per month. A widow of a wartime veteran could get up to $1,228 per month..

The President signed a new law titled the SECURE ACT, short for “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement.” Catchy acronyms for laws can be deceiving. Critics might call it the GRABER ACT, or the Grabbing Retirement Accounts Back Earlier. The result is to severely reduce the amount children will inherit from parents by requiring them to pay income taxes on Iras and 401ks within ten years of the parent’s death. The law is effective January 1, 2020, and gives small businesses tax incentives to provide automatic enrollment in retirement plans for employees, and permits small businesses to join with other employers to offer retirement accounts to employees. Whether this is practical is very uncertain, and the part that allows states to establish such plans appears to have failed in Connecticut.