From the US House of Representative’s passage of a new tax bill to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid’s issuance of new spousal impoverishment standards and the Department of Labor’s decision not to apply its 2024 final rule on worker classification, we have recently seen significant developments in estate planning, elder and special needs law, and business law.

To ensure that you stay informed of these legal changes, we have highlighted some noteworthy developments and analyzed how they may impact your estate planning, elder law, and business law practice.

From a taxpayer win involving an intrafamily transfer to the vacating of a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) final rule and a prohibition on contractual limitations of damages for intentional torts, we have recently seen significant developments in estate planning, elder and special needs law, and business law.

To ensure that you stay informed of these legal changes, we have highlighted some noteworthy developments and analyzed how they may impact your practice.

Written by Jill Roamer, JD

Chances are that individuals over the age of 65 will need long-term care at some point in their golden years. In fact, 70 percent of seniors will. Part of elder law is helping clients plan for the possibility of requiring long-term care; elder law planning provides clients with options for funding such care.

Medicaid is the only public benefits program that pays for long-term care for non-Veterans. Medicare will only pay for brief nursing home stays under limited circumstances. Before the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, qualifying for long-term care Medicaid benefits was relatively easy. However, since that law became effective, the rules regarding Medicaid eligibility have become much stricter.