New York Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog

Can Elderly Parents Be Claimed as Dependents?

Published on: December 16, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Healthcare coverage has been an unsure and confusing issue for both young and elderly citizens over the past decade, with the potential to only become more complicated as a new president takes office. While laws have been amended throughout President Obama’s term to now allow young adults to remain covered under their parents insurance until they are 26 years old, there are no hard rules regarding whether parents can qualify under their adult childrens’ health insurance plans.

Narrow Exceptions To Covering Parents

There are limited situations in which an adult child could get their elderly or ailing parent covered under their company’s insurance provider, however, they must meet a number of requirements. Parents can be covered under their child’s insurance plan if they can qualify as a dependent and meet specific criteria. Dependents traditionally have been considered those children under the age of 26 who do not maintain coverage, spouses or domestic partners, however, parents can qualify generally if they meet the IRS definition of dependent upon their adult child.

Sumner Redstone Sues Claiming Elder Abuse

Published on: December 13, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Sumner Redstone, the 93 year old media mogul who has infamously alienated both family and friends over the past few years while determining the terms of administration for his estate, added another dramatic chapter last month when he made claims of elder abuse against two of his former girlfriends. The billionaire business man has claimed that his two former girlfriends conspired to take advantage of his wealth and now owe him over $150 million dollars, given in gifts over a period of years.

Some of the gifts to the women included designer clothing and bags, access to any of Redstone’s credit cards, vehicles and real estate located throughout the world. In addition to the gifts given while alive, both women stood to inherit nearly $23 million dollars each, before Redstone altered the terms of his will when he evicted the women from his home. There were numerous tax implications that came with the gifts given by Redstone that left him in financial trouble.

Last year, Redstone’s mental competency was called into question when one of his girlfriends, Manuela Herzer, filed a lawsuit against Redstone following her eviction from his home. The former girlfriend then petitioned a court to regain decision making power of Redstone’s estate and to regain what he originally set aside for her in his will. Herzer made allegations of financial abuse by his family members, however, her case was thrown out after testimony by Redstone was released from a deposition hearing proving that Herzer maintaining decisionmaking power would not be in his best interest.

What is a Blind Trust and Why Do They Matter?

Published on: December 6, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Blind Trusts

Blind trusts are another type of trust that is established in order to set assets aside and preserve them for a specific period of time, however the person establishing the trust has no control over the funds and thus does not receive access to them. Additionally, the individual also does not receive periodic reporting of the assets held in trust and their investments.

Blind trusts are a type of irrevocable trust, meaning that the beneficiary does not have any control over the administration or distribution of the trust or its terms. The person establishing the trust relinquishes his or her rights to make decisions and gives the trustees, those people who are now in charge of managing and handling the assets, full power to make decisions. The maker of the trust only has the power to establish the trust and to terminate it.

Tax Identification Numbers For Trusts

Published on: December 3, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Trusts are common estate planning tools in which a person can transfer ownership of assets to the trust. While this person is alive, they retain control over the assets in their life. Upon their death, the assets are distributed to the beneficiaries named in the trust.

While the Person is Alive

A revocable trust uses the social security number of the person who created the trust. A revocable trust does not have to file its own tax return. All income is, instead reported in the same manner as any other income on the tax return of the trust creator. People who jointly own a revocable trust, such as a married couple, both hold the power to revoke the trust. This means that either person’s social security number can be used. Couples who file tax returns separately must be careful. The person who reports the income on their personal tax returns should be the same as the person whose social security number is used.

Dementia on the Decline and How it Impacts Elder Care

Published on: December 2, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

A study released in late November in the JAMA Internal Medicine journal reported that dementia rates for individuals over the age of 65 years old is down almost 24% from rates found in 2000. There are a variety of reasons why this decline may have happened, including elders with higher education levels than those before them, as well as better heart and brain monitoring, and more awareness as to social and behavioral changes that elders have as a way to combat Alzheimer’s Disease.

This news comes as a welcome surprise, as in 2016, 5.4 million Americans lives with Alzheimer’s Disease, roughly translating to one in nine people over the age of 65 years old. By 2050, the elder population will have tripled in size, amounting to a staggering 84 million people over the age of 65 years old. With the aging population growing at such a rapid pace, medical, legal and social professionals are working to determine how to cope with such a large amount of the population potentially living with this disease.

These recent findings shed some light on how the disease, which generally exhibits symptoms of memory loss, confusion, limited social skills, mood changes and disorders as the result of irritability and anxiety, as well as confused speech and muscular movement.

Here Comes the Estate Plan – Estate Planning For Newlyweds

Published on: November 30, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Newly married couples are embarking on a whole new life together. This new life comes with a number of changes. It is important to consider your estate planning as you begin your life together. Creating an estate plan that works for both you and your new spouse can ensure that you are on the same page when it comes to medical, financial, and end of life decisions.

Update Accounts and Beneficiaries

Many married couples consolidate their accounts. Checking and savings accounts are usually held jointly. Consider opening a joint bank account or credit cards to make paying for future expenses more convenient. Insurance plans, such as health, car, home, or life insurance often allow for family plans that include coverage for the whole household. Changing over to these plans can almost always provide the same amount of coverage for a better rate.

Executors, Trustees and Powers of Attorney: Blessing or Curse?

Published on: November 28, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

When choosing the people you trust the most to serve as a part of your estate plan in any capacity, whether they be a family member, close friend or trusted individual in the community, it is important to understand the role that you are asking them to play. Serving as the executor of your estate, the trustee of your trust, as your healthcare representative or power of attorney is not a blessing. Making sure that the people you ask to fulfill these roles ahead of time understand that is crucial to ensuring that your estate plan is carried out effectively and to your wishes.

Managing Expectations

Many people feel that being chosen for one of these roles is a great honor. After all, being asked to serve as someone’s power of attorney or trustee means that there is a presence of trust in the relationship. After all, out of all the people who could have been chosen, out of all the people who could have been asked, you asked that specific person to handle your affairs.

Back to the Basics – The Gift Tax

Published on: November 28, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

Putting your assets in an irrevocable trust has a number of benefits, including: allowing the settlor, also known as the maker of the trust, to establish how his or her assets will be kept and eventually distributed, it allows the settlor to have access to the income produced by the trust, as well as the numerous tax benefits such as capital gains taxes being either deferred or in the event of gifting, avoided.

According to the Internal Revenue Service, the federal tax code applies a gift tax on an individual level, however, that tax does not apply to trusts. If you transfer funds from your personal account, whether it is a savings or checking, to another, in excess of $14,000 you will be subject to a tax for the gift made, however, the IRS does not place these same taxes on trusts, depending on how the gift was made.

If the beneficiary makes a discretionary gift to another, a gift that can be shown to be made for the immediate benefit of another, it depends on whether the donation is viewed as present or future interest in the gift. If it can shown that the gift was made for the future interest of another, the IRS will not subject the trust to gift tax, however if it can be perceived that the gift was made for a temporary relief of another, the gift tax will be applied to the donation made.

The Pros and Cons of Adding Your Adult Child to Your Bank Account

Published on: November 25, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

There comes a time in many people’s lives when their adult children begin to help out with daily tasks. For some people this includes writing checks and paying bills. Many people begin to wonder if they should take steps to make being taken care of easier for their caregivers. In these cases, the question arises “why not just add your adult child to your bank account?”.

The Pros

The most obvious and powerful positive for adding an adult child to your bank account is ease of access. As joint owner, your child will be able to access funds from the account in order to assist you with bill paying and other financial matters.

Fiduciary Duties & The New Rule for Financial Advisors

Published on: November 22, 2016 | by Ettinger Law Firm

The New Rule

When consulting a financial advisor, we all assume that they would have our best interest in mind when determining where our portfolio should be invested and what investments best suit our interests, however, this has not always been the case. This year, the Labor Department issued new regulations that require industry professionals dealing with individual retirement accounts and 401k accounts to act on the best behalf of their clients.

Before this new standard was issued, financial advisors only needed to meet a suitability standard, meaning that the financial advisor only has to choose what is suitable for the portfolio, which is not always what is in the client’s best interest. A financial advisor under this standard could invest in a fund he found suitable, but may be more risky or expensive, although a similar option is available with a different fund. This suitability standard led to many advisors investing in funds they were personally interested in, sparking a need for change.