Articles

When meeting with clients and prospective clients, we often get questions about the gift tax, gift tax exemptions, and how a gift of cash affects Medicaid eligibility. To properly understand how these items interact, each needs to be understood separately before taking them together.

Among the many terms that arise in connection with Medicaid planning is the concept of Estate Recovery, which is the process by which the government recoups part of the Medicaid benefits paid on behalf of a Medicaid applicant during his or her lifetime.

President Biden’s proposed tax plan would increase the top rate from 37% back to 39.6%. The President’s plan provides incentive to reconsider a Roth conversion.

On May 18, 2021, the Internal Revenue Service provided guidance on tax breaks under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 for COBRA continuation health coverage.

Clients frequently want to know whether their home (or in some cases their parents’ home) is an “exempt” asset for Medicaid purposes. The answer is a resounding “Yes, but …”.

On March 9, 2021, The PRO Act was passed by the House of Representatives, and now the Act heads to the Senate for a vote. If the Act is ultimately passed and signed into law, it would bring about substantial changes to labor and employment law that the country has not seen in quite some time.

Elder law is a complicated area of legal practice, and thus clients sometimes confuse certain concepts that are similar, but distinct. An example of this is the difference between the five year look-back period and the period of ineligibility for Medicaid that is caused by transfers within the look-back period.

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) includes provisions that immediately impact employers subject to COBRA. For employees or beneficiaries who involuntarily incur a loss of coverage due to termination of employment or reduction of hours from April 1, 2021 through September 30, 2021 ARPA subsidizes the COBRA premium payment through September 30, 2021. For employees or beneficiaries who involuntarily incurred a loss of coverage between November 1, 2019 and April 1, 2021, and who either did not elect COBRA or allowed it to lapse, ARPA creates a current opportunity to elect (or re-elect) COBRA prospectively.

Clients and even certain professional often confuse MEDICARE and MEDICAID. The terms refer to types of benefits that are radically different.

Last month’s article discussed the concept and utility of special needs trusts – a type of trust that is commonly used to benefit disabled persons who are receiving (or may in the future receive) mean-tested public benefits. Here we will review the different types of special needs trusts.

With the release of Notice 2020-79 the IRS has announced the cost-of-living adjustments for pension plans and other related items for the 2021 tax year.

How do I provide for the anticipated future needs of my disabled child without compromising their ability to qualify for government benefits? A special needs trust (sometimes also called a supplemental needs trust) can be a way to bridge that gap.

Nonpayment of a nursing home can be an issue, especially during a period of ineligibility created by gifting. The questions becomes “Who will pay the invoice for the nursing home during this period?”

It is common for parents to want to deed their home to their children for a variety of reasons. Specific to Pennsylvania is the desire to avoid probate, probate fees and inheritance tax (even though probate in Pennsylvania is a relatively simple process).

Under federal law, the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) is required to recover the Medical Assistance (MA) costs from the estates of decedents who received MA benefits during life. The official name is the Medical Assistance Estate Recovery Program.