The next two months are going to be very exciting and will provide you with an excellent opportunity to make sure your estate plan works for you.

September is “Know Your Estate Plan” month. You won’t find it on any calendar except mine. Over the last few months I have met with an increasing number of new clients that come to me and 1) do not understand how their existing estate plan from another office works or 2) have different expectations from their estate plan from another office than what the documents actually say. This is a problem in my opinion, and I’m going to do something about it. Come back on September 1 for more information.

In October, my “Medicaid Protection Winter Workshop” will take place. This workshop is designed to prepare your family for nursing home costs that average over $9,000 each month in Connecticut. This is an excellent opportunity for families that want to protect their life savings from devastating nursing home costs to get educated and get started before it is too late. I’ll be posting additional information on the Workshop and how to reserve your spot in the coming weeks.

It took a while, but the Connecticut Department of Social Services finally got around to issuing its implementation regulations addressing the sweeping Medicaid reforms included in the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. (That’s right, more than two years after the law was passed). I am presenting a seminar open to the public to discuss these latest regulations as well as an introduction to many of the common issues people run in to when considering applying for Medicaid benefits. Anyone that may apply for Medicaid nursing home benefits in the near future is encouraged to attend this event, especially married couples.

Some of the new regulations concern:

Extension of the lookback period;
The beginning date of the penalty period;
Undue hardship claim process;
Annuities and beneficiary designations;
Home equity limitations;
Treatment of interest in continuing care communities;
Treatment of promissory notes, loans, and mortgages;
Treatment of life estates.

The seminar is scheduled for June 28th from 5:30 – 6:30pm.

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