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Is This Investment Right for Me?

by Financial Planner, Jim Zifer

Clients come to the office every week and ask this question. I am amazed at the number of families that own investments and they don’t understand what they have. They have either forgotten from the time of the purchase of the investment what they bought or never understood what they bought and just took the salesman’s advice. The bottom line is that they don’t know what they own and they worry that what they own is not right for them.

When you evaluate an investment to determine if it’s right for you, there are a number of considerations. These things should reveal the answer to that big picture question. Is this investment right for me?

1. How much risk does this investment take?
2. How much liquidity does this investment provide?
3. Is this investment available to a nursing home?

When we evaluate an investment, these are the main issues that we explore with clients. Most importantly we look at all other investments and savings and we look at how the investment in question fits into the entire portfolio. Remember that your savings and investments are like pieces of a puzzle and if properly coordinated can make a great picture. You must look at all investments together, not just one piece at a time.

Please refer back to the blog in the future as I talk about how risk, liquidity and nursing home protection affect investments. Additionally, I am always available to answer questions regarding your investments. Feel free to call and ask for me personally.

Increases 2010 LTC Deduction Limits

Want to Deduct Long-Term Care Insurance Premiums: IRS Increases 2010 Limits

If you are paying for long term care insurance, then you know that it's expensive and usually gets more expensive with age. The IRS is increasing the amount you can deduct with higher deductions for higher ages. If you need assistance with how to use long term care insurance as part of your estate plan, call us or complete the email request.

The 2010 limits are as follows:

Maximum Deduction	Attained Age Before Close of Taxable Year
$330	40 or younger
$620	Older than 40 but not more than 50
$1,230	Older than 50 but not more than 60
$3,290	Older than 60 but not more than 70
$4,110	Older than 70

The maximum non-taxable per diem benefit will be $290 in 2010, up $10 from 2009.

Sources:

Law Office of Donald D. Vanarelli Blog
IRS Revenue Procedure 2008-66, 2009-50
The Corporation for Long-Term Care Certification, Inc.

Vietnam Vets with Parkinson's, B Cell Leukemias, Ischemic Heart Disease

by Attorney Mitch Adel

Great news for Vietnam veterans and widows of Vietnam veterans: the Department of Veterans Affairs has approved three new medical conditions necessary to establish a service-connected injury in order to qualify for Compensation benefits. These three conditions (below in bold) join the following list of already approved medical conditions. As the number of presumptive medical conditions increases, so does the ease of proving service-connected illness and the ease of qualifying for Veterans' Compensation benefits and Dependency Indemnity Compensation benefits for surviving spouses.

• Parkinson's
• B cell leukemias
• Ischemic heart disease
• Diabetes type II
• Acute and sub-acute peripheral neuropathy
• Chloracne and porphyria cutanea tarda
• Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
• Prostate and respiratory cancers
• Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
• Multiple myeloma and soft tissue sarcoma, acute

If you or someone you know is a Vietnam veteran or the surviving spouse of a Vietnam veteran whose death certificate lists the cause of death as one or more of the following conditions, you could be eligible and should contact a qualified elder law attorney or the veterans service office for more information. Five attorneys at the Thom L. Cooper Company, LPA, have been admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals For Veterans Claims in addition to receiving accreditation from the Department of Veterans Affairs. Call or email us to discuss how we can help you coordinate your benefits.

Source: The November 2009 Veterans Family Matters Newsletter from Veterans Information Services, Inc.

“A Second Opinion or Another View”

by Roy Whited

As a result of reading a recent blog by Daneen Cline and an experience that I had while visiting my parent’s, who are both residents of Country Club Retirement Campus (CCRC) in Mount Vernon, Ohio. I would like to offer my thoughts about choosing the right long term care facility for your parents or loved one.

During one of those recent visits to see my folks, which are usually weekly, I picked up a brochure titled “Making Decisions about Nursing Home Care”. It was a reminder for me that 18 months ago, I was deeply involved in the process of visiting nursing homes and assisted living facilities. In a period of about two months, both my mom, age 84 and my dad, age 87 had been in the hospital, transferred to a nursing home for skilled care for about 30 to 60 days. As a result of these health changes for my parents, I had been advised by their doctor that neither of my parents could continue to live at home. My mom’s condition would require assisted living and my dad was in need of full nursing home care.

For the next few weeks, my wife and I spent every weekend visiting various long term care facilities to determine which one appeared to be best suited for mom and dad. Like Daneen, we were hoping to find the right place near our home, however we needed both assisted living for mom and full nursing home care for dad. This was not an option in our small town, so we had to extend our search to outlying areas. We also wanted to find a place where mom could visit dad during the day so that they could have meals together whenever possible, hopefully daily.

Unlike Daneen, I would recommend visiting facilities unscheduled, simply walk in, introduce yourself and explain why you are there.

I found my wife to be much better at interviewing the people than I was. Her suggestions, instructions to me made a lot of sense, although I must admit I had not thought of them myself.

Example: keep a keen eye on the workers as to not only how they respond to your questions but particularly as to how they respond to residents. Note how many beepers you hear and how long it takes for someone to check on them. Usually the first thing the workers would do when they would answer their beeper, they would turn it off. This response time is even more important if you have a resident with dementia or Alzheimer’s as they may have the tendency to wander.

Again, unlike Daneen, I had little or no experience with nursing homes or other long term care facilities. I have spent years in the insurance business, primarily in the senior market and have many clients who have purchased LTC insurance. As well as many other clients who I have used other asset protection planning strategies when long term care insurance is not a viable option. However, when it’s your parents you are making decisions for, it some how takes on a whole new meaning.

Back to the brochure “When a decision must be made”, really hits home. It is not my intention to cover the content of the entire brochure in this writing, as I am sure you can request a copy from Greg Carnes, Administrator, at CCRC or you can call 1-888-549-0546 or visit their website at www.countryclubretirementcampus.com and print off a copy. I know information like this is available from many other long term care facilities and various other sources as noted in Daneen’s blog post. This just happened to be the one I read and found it very helpful.

If you are currently faced with a similar situation and have questions or perhaps think I could be of some help to you, feel free to call me personally at 1-800-229-9666.

Keeping Mom at Home

by Kathy Cooper

About two months ago, my 85-year-old mother who lives with us, was feeling very tired. She could hardly lift her arms or get out of her chair. We checked her blood pressure and found that it was 225/105 so we immediately took her to the hospital. She was admitted and that was when the really strange behavior began.

I stopped to see her after work. She was very agitated. She was trying to tell me about a fire that was spreading over most of the world. Had I heard from Uncle Ellis? Where was Cousin Phil? What happened to Jeff and his wife and baby? She screamed at me go home now. Only I could save them … something about the alarm … why didn't I understand … “Please, please, you must go now!” she said. As she tried in vain to convince me of the danger, she wrung her hands and finally put her head in her hands and wept. I called in the staff at the hospital who gave her a tranquilizer to calm her.

The next day was the same: the fire, the missing people in our family, her total frustration with me. I spoke with the physicians at the hospital who recommended she begin dementia medicine. It seemed strange that one day could make such a difference. How could she be my sweet, even-tempered mother one day and this picture of fear and frustration the next? Although she had suffered some aphasia from previous strokes, she had never been out of touch with reality before this.

We resisted the dementia medicine and I am glad we did. Our daughter, a fourth-year medical student, spoke with our family physician about the possibility that these behaviors were caused by a urinary tract infection (UTI). After examining my mother, our family doctor agreed and began to treat her for the UTI. As the infection cleared, so did her mind. Within a couple of weeks, she was back to herself and was able to return home with us. Although the fire remains a memory, she is no longer haunted by it or acting out because of it. We did not need the dementia medicine: she was not demented.

The purpose of this story is to alert those of you who have older parents or work with older patients. Urinary Tract Infections, or UTIs, are one of the primary causes of misdiagnosed Alzheimer's Disease and age-related dementia. My mother was suffering from delusions caused by a UTI, not dementia. Delusions occur suddenly and are usually temporary; they are the result of infection. Read this article for more information: "UFO Abduction or UTI?"

Don't let this happen to your loved one. A misdiagnosed delusional state caused by a UTI can mean your loved one can lose their way of life. They may be needlessly confined to a nursing home, not to mention the associated anguish, guilt and expense.

I am telling you about this experience because I don’t want it to happen to you or a loved one. What we do at the Thom L. Cooper Company is not medicine … but our clients are affected by medical conditions like this. Our mission is to help families protect their assets from catastrophic health crises such as this that can deprive them and their heirs of the money they have worked a lifetime to accumulate. Since this happened to my mother, I have found that there are others who have been through a similar experience, but no one wants to talk about it. It’s strange and disturbing. Luckily, this is a situation where knowledge can make a difference.

A Helping Hand for Veterans and Widows of Veterans

Are you a veteran or a widow of a veteran applying for benefits to pay for assisted living or to help you stay at home? If so, a smart strategy is to coordinate your planning for this public benefit with others you may need down the road. What does this mean? How do you do it? Listen up!

Earlier this week, Lisa Nelson, our Outreach Coordinator, met with a local Veterans Service Officer (VSO) to discuss how to get the word out to veterans and widows of veterans about benefits available to assist with the catastrophic costs of long-term care. It is true, many do not even know that they can qualify. They think a service-related injury or in-country service is required. Not so.

Of those who are entitled to a monthly pension based on their service, many unfortunately do not receive those benefits because they don't know how to qualify. We learned that if they don't immediately qualify, the VSO can provide very little information about how they can qualify. While it is the job of the VSO to assist veterans or widows of veterans in applying for benefits, it is improper for them to advise applicants about how to get their assets in line to qualify, no matter how much the VSO would like to help. So what are you to do?

This is where an Elder Law Attorney can help veterans and their widows with recommendations and strategies so that everything is in order when they apply with their VSO’s help. Further, a qualified Elder Law Attorney will make sure that the techniques they use to qualify for veterans' benefits do not negatively impact their ability to qualify for other benefits such as those that pay for a nursing home stay at some future time.

In short, (1) if you are a war time veteran, there probably IS a way to qualify at some point for these benefits, (2) see us or another Elder Law Attorney to assist you in coordinating benefits to avoid any negative impact should you later go into a nursing home and also to (3) get your ducks in a row before you see your VSO to apply.