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. 

From the tax treatment of a forfeited individual retirement account (IRA) to a US Supreme Court decision affecting Veterans’ disability claims and FinCEN’s issuance of an interim final rule limiting enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), we have recently seen significant developments in estate planning, elder and special needs law, and business law.

From new legislative proposals relating to the federal estate tax to the use of vehicle purchases as a Medicaid spend-down strategy and the Treasury Department’s suspension of the enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) against US citizens and companies, we have recently seen significant developments in estate planning, elder and special needs law, and business law.