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Helpful-tips-300x199This is the second installment in our three-part series on becoming your parent’s healthcare advocate. In the first part, Being Your Parent’s Healthcare Advocate: How to Get Started, we learned how to lay the groundwork for a smooth transition. In part two, we tackle how to manage documentation and record keeping. In part 3, we explore how to Best Engage with Healthcare Professionals.

As you embark on your journey as a healthcare advocate for a loved one, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got as much information at your fingertips as possible.

Emergency can strike at any time, and you want to be prepared; but even simple routine care can require a high level of organization and knowledge. It’s best if you give yourself time (by starting early) to pull all the information together. Don’t wait until something happens.

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red-phone-300x150According to the Senate Special Committee on Aging, American seniors lose almost $3 billion annually to financial scammers. The Federal Trade Commission puts the median amount stolen at between $600 to $1,000 (the lower figure for seniors aged 70 to 79, the higher figure for seniors over 80), but there are many cases where people lose much, much more—hundreds of thousands of dollars and sometimes their entire life’s savings.

The people who perpetrate these crimes are the worst kind of criminals—people who take advantage of peoples’ vulnerabilities in a most heinous example of “preying on the weak.”

The best way to stay safe from such financial predators is to get up to speed on what kinds of scams are out there, the kinds of language to look for, and how to handle the situation if you are targeted. As the saying goes, forewarned is forearmed.

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AdobeStock_207729475-300x200Over the course of our lives, we feel a sense of purpose and pride for a variety of reasons, but most of them have to do with helping others. Whether we are parenting children, caring for aging parents, serving in a professional role, or fulfilling a philanthropic mission, we feel good when we are actively engaged in doing good work out in the world.

As we get older, it can feel like our worlds become a lot smaller. Opportunities to feel productive and useful start to dwindle. Kids move out, parents pass on, and we retire. Piece by piece, whole areas of our life are reshaped in a way that can—if we’re not careful—lead to social isolation and loneliness. 

Older adults who find themselves in this position are often at a much greater risk for a variety of serious mental and physical health issues, including anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, heart disease, obesity, high blood pressure, and a weakened immune system. 

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compassYour child with special needs is getting older – and so are you. Perhaps your child has always had special needs, or maybe he had a life-altering event such as an accident or the onset of mental illness.  Whatever the reason, he will need help long after you’re gone.

We imagine your goals are two-fold:

1. Your deepest desire is to help your special needs child maintain his quality of life when you’re no longer here.

2. You also want to protect your child’s eligibility for government programs designed to support people with disabilities.

What is the best way to achieve these goals? Continue reading

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If a trust is part of your estate plan, you should pay attention to a new Connecticut law that went into effect January 1st.

Chances are you would not be interested in reading the recently adopted Connecticut Uniform Trust Code (UTC), which is over 100 pages long!  But there are provisions in this legislation that we feel you should be aware of.

Some of the changes provide you additional benefits of having a trust, and others may cause you to consider updating the trust you have in place.

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The loss of a pet is heartbreaking. But have you thought about what happens to your pet, when you die?

Your pets depend on you, they are loyal to you. They know they can count on you. You can only imagine their sense of loss when you’re no longer in their lives.

The Humane Society estimates that between 100,000 and 500,000 pets end up in shelters

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Weddingrings-300x199What is “Divorce Monday”?

The first working Monday of the New Year is the day many couples decide it’s time to call it quits. January has become for divorce attorneys what April is to tax attorneys – the busiest month of the year.

By some reports, the volume of business for divorce attorneys increases by 25% practically over night beginning in January.

So why is January such a popular time to file for divorce?

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By Carmine Perri

iStock_000016746886SmallImagine yourself in this situation: As a favor, you agree to help your spouse’s parent get settled into a nursing home.

If you’re like most people, you’d be emotionally stressed and feeling a bit guilty. Not exactly the best mindset for absorbing complex information nor for making legally-binding decisions.

But that’s exactly what some nursing home admission coordinators encourage people to do when they ask them to sign an admissions agreement while they’re at the nursing home for the first time.

This often ends up being a painful mistake. If you don’t completely understand Continue reading

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By Paul T. Czepiga

Connecticut residents are exposed to both a federal estate tax and a Connecticut estate tax if their net worth at death exceed a certain level.

Unfortunately, the net worth level at which these taxes apply, and how they apply, is different for the federal estate tax and for the Connecticut estate tax. (Watch Paul spell it out in this video.)

Here is a quick walk through of how these taxes work and the tension that is created by having two different thresholds:

The federal estate tax threshold is $11.18 million (it is indexed for inflation and will likely increase each year). This means that Continue reading

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iStock_000007924623SmallYou did well financially, and when the time came to move to assisted living you never considered the possibility that you might run out of money.

But you didn’t expect to live this long! And now that you need more help, it’s even more expensive to live.

What do you do?

The State of Connecticut created the Private Assisted Living Pilot Program – available for up to 125 qualifying individuals in Connecticut who have spent down their assets as a result of living in private assisted living facilities. Continue reading

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Contact Information
Berlin Office
15 Massirio Dr
Berlin, CT 06037
Simsbury Office
92 Hopmeadow St
Simsbury, CT 06089
South Windsor Office
1741 Ellington Rd 2nd Floor
South Windsor, CT 06074
New Milford Office
15 S Main St
New Milford, CT 06776
Madison Office
64 Wall St
Madison, CT 06443
Phone: (860) 236-7673 Fax: (866) 540-4616

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