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 abreast 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. 

Written by Sagar Jariwala, JD, LLM

A trust instrument may give a trustee different levels of powers over distributions. A trustee can have full discretion over distributions, meaning that the trustee can decide if distributions should be made, when distributions should be made, and what amount of distributions should be made to a beneficiary. Alternatively, a trust instrument can require a trustee to make distributions. For example, the trust may require distributions of all income at least annually or of required minimum distributions received from a retirement account, or the trust may grant a beneficiary a withdrawal right that the beneficiary exercises.