Shikuma Law Offices, PLLC in Seattle Washington is dedicated to providing personalized estate planning counsel and asset protection planning at a reasonable price. We can also assist you with medicaid planning, probate, trust administration, VA pension benefits planning, charity planning, pet trusts and much more. See our services and practice areas for more deatils.
The New Law. There is currently no federal estate tax or generation-skipping tax for decedents dying in 2010 unless Congress passes new estate tax legislation this year. The federal estate tax will return in 2011 with a $1 million exemption ($2 million for married couples with basic planning) and the generation-skipping tax exemption will return at $1 million, indexed for inflation. This means that a person with assets of $10 million, $20 million or even $100 million who dies in 2010 will not pay a dime of estate tax. However, assets a decedent owns and passes on to a beneficiary at death will receive little, if any, step-up in basis, thus creating a large capital gains tax problem for the beneficiary who acquires the property.
Continue reading 2010 Tax Code Changes and The Effect on Medicaid Planning
What if 33% of all seniors in this country could receive up to $1,949 a month in additional income from the government to help cover their elder care costs? They can!
Cotinue reading Little-Known Government Program Pays the Cost of Elder Care
At 83 years old, Martha still lived in her own home, and enjoyed working in her garden and canning peaches. It was becoming harder to motivate herself, to get up in the mornings and accomplish the day’s tasks. She confided to her daughter that she felt anxious and tired. Her daughter, who was taking medication for her anxiety, took Martha to her own doctor, not Martha’s and got her a prescription for Valium. In doing so, the daughter’s doctor, who had never seen Martha and who did not have her medical history, was only aware of a few medications they told him she was taking.
Martha, in fact, was taking 9 different medications as well as herbal supplements.
Cotinue reading Medication Problems and the Elderly
Nursing home coverage for veterans is available from two sources within the Department of Veterans Affairs — the veterans health care system and the state veterans homes system.
Cotinue reading Nursing Homes for Veterans
A fast-growing generation of elderly people, needing care, is starting to put a great deal of pressure on caregiving family members. More and more we are seeing articles and books about the burden of long term care on families.
According to research By the National Care Planning Council, only about 16% of long-term care services are covered by the government. The other 84% are provided free of charge by family caregivers or provided by services paid out-of-pocket by families or from those receiving care. And the bulk of government care services are provided only after a care recipient has depleted all of his or her savings. The Council also estimates that at any given time approximately 22% of the population over age 65 is receiving some form of long term care support. About 44.4 million adult caregivers provide 21 hours a week of care with 4.3 years average time spent providing care. “National Care Planning Council”
Cotinue reading One Stop Shopping for Eldercare Services
2010 Tax Code Changes and The Effect on Medicaid Planning
Little-Known Government Program Pays the Cost of Elder Care
