Gainesville Florida Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog

If you have spent any time as a caregiver, or if you know someone in that role, one thing is certain: the biggest challenges facing caregivers is finding time to take care of themselves.

It’s almost always true that a person is never ready to assume the caregiver role but circumstances thrust it upon them.

In many cases, the caregiver of an older person is a son or daughter. That’s challenging enough. It’s often the case that the younger caregiver has a spouse and children already.
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 Note: This article comes from the CPA Journal

The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) projects that by 2030, approximately 16% of women will be between 80 and 84 years old and childless (Donald Redfoot, Lynn Feinberg, and Ari Houser, “The Aging of the Baby Boom and the Growing Care Gap: A Look at Future Declines in the Availability of Family Caregivers,” Insight on the Issues, AARP Public Policy Institute, August 2013, http://bit.ly/2rZDYS8). What are elderly persons who are without children or other family to serve as caregivers supposed to do? This article outlines some practical issues to consider, along with legal and financial matters for those who are fortunate enough to reach their 80s and beyond.

What are elderly persons who are without children or other family to serve as caregivers supposed to do? This article outlines some practical issues to consider, along with legal and financial matters for those who are fortunate enough to reach their 80s and beyond.

We have written here many times about scammers and their largest target area – our seniors. Often the warnings we hear about scammers deal with phony IRS issues. Now, just a week ago, the Social Security administration issued its own warning about scamming.

Like many of the IRS scams, this one deals with phone callers trying to get your personal information, including Social Security and bank account numbers, according to Gale Stallworth Stone, Acting Inspector General of Social Security.

The caller might say they are from Social Security headquarters  and will ask you to confirm personal information – Social Security number, new Medicare number, address and date of birth.
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One of the most significant problems for our senior population is the ongoing effort by scammers to steal their savings. And, it always seems that as soon as the public becomes aware of the latest schemes to defraud seniors, a new one is developed.

The U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging recently issued a report of the latest top 10 scams targeting our seniors.
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If you feel like your Social Security check is not going as far as it has in the past, you’re not alone.

A new report indicates that the buying power of your monthly Social Security benefit has dropped by more than a third since 2000. The annual report from the Senior Citizens League, an Alexandria, Va. Advocacy group indicates the exact reduction in buying power since the turn of the century is 34 percent.

So while you’re seeing a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) in your social Security benefits, it is not keeping up with the real increase in the costs of goods and services.
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VA nursing homes fall behind their private competitors when it comes to neglect and medical mismanagement issues, according to a recent USA Today article.

Analyzing internal VA documents to reach those results, the article suggested that residents in more than two-thirds of Department of Veterans Affairs nursing homes were likelier to suffer from serious bedsores and other pain.

Further, the analysis of a 2017 survey indicated that a significant number of veterans in VA nursing homes suffer potential neglect or mismanagement of medication.

The results showed that more than 100 VA nursing homes showed poorer results than private nursing homes on most key quality indicators, including rates of infection and decline in daily living skills. Overall the VA scored worse on average than homes in the private sector using nine of 11 key indicators.
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Social Security is the financial foundation for many of our seniors, so when there is troubling news about the program, it is alarming for many people.

Some of that news came recently when forecasted projections showed that in 2022, for the first time in history, benefits paid will be greater than revenue collected. That reversal of benefits versus revenue is expected to continue and grow in future years.

There are a number of reasons for this. The most significant is the growing number of baby boomers starting to retire.
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We recently wrote about troubling news when it comes to accessibility for the disabled in our nation’s schools and a request by several members of Congress for a review of accessibility.

On the other end of the spectrum, here’s some good news about special education.

There are an increasing number of students receiving special education in the nation’s public schools, based on a recent report from the U.S. Department of Education.
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It used to be that if you wanted to talk to your doctor you had no choice but make an appointment – and possibly wait weeks or months to see them.

As most of us are aware, that’s no longer the case. More and more medical offices, especially those associated with hospitals, are creating patient portals. The result is that you can have a simple question for your doctor, and by sending an email using a patient portal, you can often get an answer within hours.

But the part of our population that most needs this kind of access are not yet taking full advantage of it.
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For elder law/estate planning attorneys, there may be no question more common than when do I start taking my Social Security benefits.

You are eligible to start collecting Social security at age 62 but for most people and most situations, while tempting, that’s not the best time.

Taking your Social Security benefits at age 62 is referred to as early retirement. The result is your benefits are reduced from what it otherwise would be if you wait until your full retirement age. The benefit you draw monthly will likely be 25 percent less than if you wait.
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A recent report showed some startling results about accessibility for the disabled in our nation’s schools.

The Americans with Disabilities Act, passed almost 30 years ago, prohibits government agencies and private businesses from discriminating against people with disabilities. This discrimination includes access to facilities by disabled individuals. In other words, public and private buildings need to be built in such a way that potential employees and visitors have the same access to the facility as anyone else.

The report focused primarily on the northeast part of the country and was part of an investigation by the U.
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