Articles & Bulletins

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Articles (listed in alphabetical order):

• Advance Directives: Who Will Handle Your Affairs If You Cannot? (Also, see New Power of Attorney Law, below, for an update eff. Sept. 1, 2009; New York changes Power of Attorney Law ... Again! for an update eff. Sept. 2010; and MOLST: Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment, below, which became NYS law July 9, 2008)

• Aging in Place: Living at home as long as possible (see also Technology, below)

• Assisted Signatures in the Elder Law Practice: What Constitutes Execution of a Document When the Client Needs Help Holding the Pen published at New York State Bar Association, Elder Law Attorney, Winter 2006, Vol. 16, No. 1, p. 81

• Avoid Foreclosure Scams (with advice from HUD)

• Behavior Problems and Dementia

• Beyond the Routine Advance Directives: An Important End-of-Life Issue That Can Easily Be Missed [Deactivation of the Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator] published at New York State Bar Association, Elder and Special Needs Law Journal, Spring 2012, Vol. 22, No. 2, p. 15

• Brain Workouts ("Neurobics"): Do they really prevent dementia?

• Buy/Sell Agreements for Businesses

• Care Agreements: How it makes sense to pay your kids to take care of you

• Caregiving: Is it the right choice for you?

• Constructive Trusts: A Primer

• Conversation-starters for Aging Parents

• Do-It-Yourself Home Funerals on the Rise

• "Don't put all your eggs in one basket": The need to diversify your portfolio

• Gifts and Their Tax Implications

• Grief: Questioning the "5 Stages"

• Guardianships in New York

• Holiday Blues - depression in the elderly

• How to advocate for your loved one in a Nursing Home

• Identity Theft

• Important Talks During the Holidays

• Irrevocable Income Only Trusts

• Legacy Letters and Ethical Wills

• Loan Modification

• Long Distance Caregiving

• Medicaid Myths: The Dirty Dozen - Top 12 Myths

• Medicaid Planning 1-2-3

• MOLST: Medical Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment

• New Power of Attorney Law (Eff. Sept. 1, 2009) [see also the update at "New York changes Power of Attorney Law .. Again!"]

• Older Drivers: Warning Signs to Look For

• Option-ARMs: Road to Ruin or Path to Prosperity?

• Person-to-Person Lending: Who Needs a Bank to Get a Loan, Anyway?

• Refusing Treatment

• Reverse Mortgages

• Social Security and Retirement

• Special Needs Trusts

• Springing Powers

• Supplemental Needs Trust ("SNT") set up retroactively within a Guardianship Proceeding: An Actual Case Study

• The Nature and Extent of a Testator's Property: What Degree of Awareness is Needed? published at New York State Bar Association, Trusts and Estates Law Section Newsletter, Fall/Winter 2012, Vol. 45, No. 3, p. 4

• Technology Makes it Possible for Seniors to Remain at Home (see also Aging in Place, above)

• Trustees' Duties: A Brief Overview

• Trusts: Are They Right For You?

• Use of the Constructive Trust Remedy to Enforce Oral Promises published at Nassau County Bar Association, Nassau Lawyer, Focus on Real Estate section, December 2006

• What a Will Won't Do (and What it Will)

• Why you need a Will

• Your Online Afterlife: After death, what happens to all the online accounts and information you accumulate?

• Your Online Afterlife: Digital Estate Planning in the Facebook Age published at New York State Bar Association, Elder and Special Needs Law Journal, Fall 2012, Vol. 22, No. 4, p. 7

Bulletins:

• Administration on Aging Website

• Alzheimer's Treatments

• Groundbreaking settlement in San Francisco class action

• Gumby Turns 50

• Lenders Restricting Refinances With Deed Transfer

• Social Security Spousal Benefits

• Taking Care of Business During the Holidays

• Great Recession affects ability of seniors to move

• Apply for Social Security Benefits Online

• Important Medicaid Case: Weatherbee v. Richman

• LoJack for People

• Moderate drinking aids health in seniors

• Guess what? The elderly are not bankrupting the health care system

• Falls: A Major Concern for Seniors

• Forest Grove School District v. T.A.: Supreme Court says public must pay for private Special Ed

• 100+ population growing in Japan and U.S.

• Housing and Credit Markets Improving

• New Short Sale Rules

• America's Best Nursing Homes

• Family Health Care Decisions Act becomes law

• New York should follow Tennessee's lead and enact law addressing 2010 estate tax

• Reverse Mortgage Costs on the Decline

• Balzarini v. Suffolk DSS holds well spouse can use institutionalized spouse's income to pay for necessities (superseded)

• New York changes Power of Attorney Law ... Again

  • 2011 Changes to Estate Tax Law [see also The 2010 Tax Relief Act and Estates]

• Medicaid Redesign means Do Your Planning Now

• America's Best Nursing Home 2011

• May is Decision-Making Month

• The 2010 Tax Relief Act and Estates

• 7 Billion and Counting (people, not burgers!)

• Alzheimer's Reversed in Mice

• Repeal of Expanded Estate Recovery

• Update: New York Passed and Then Repealed Expanded Estate Recovery -- A Recap

• Obamacare Individual Mandate Upheld

• Same Sex Couple Allowed Unlimited Marital Deduction by NY Federal Court

• Jimmo case

• Seniors and Snowstorms

(Note: Some out-of-date links have been omitted)

Coming soon:

- Just how irrevocable is an irrevocable trust?

- Estate Planning: a few basic concepts

(More articles to come in the near future)