Once a resident is settled in a nursing home, being told to leave can be very traumatic. Nursing homes are required to follow certain procedures before discharging a resident, but family members often accept the discharge without questioning it. Residents can fight back and challenge an unlawful discharge.

According to federal law, a nursing home can discharge a resident only for the following reasons:

• The resident’s health has improved
• The resident’s needs cannot be met by the facility
• The health and safety of other residents is endangered
• The resident has not paid after receiving notice
• The facility stops operating

Unfortunately, sometimes nursing homes want to get rid of a resident for another reason–perhaps the resident is difficult, the resident’s family is difficult, or the resident is a Medicaid recipient. In such cases, the nursing home may not follow the proper procedure or it may attempt to “dump” the resident by transferring the resident to a hospital and then refusing to let the him or her back in.

If the nursing home transfers a resident to a hospital, state law may require that the nursing home hold the resident’s bed for a certain number of days (usually about a week). Before transferring a resident, the facility must inform the resident about its bed-hold policy. If the resident pays privately, he or she may have to pay to hold the bed, but if the resident receives Medicaid, Medicaid will pay for the bed hold. In addition, if the resident is a Medicaid recipient the nursing home has to readmit the resident to the first available bed if the bed-hold period has passed.

In addition, a nursing home cannot discharge a resident without proper notice and planning. In general, the nursing home must provide written notice 30 days before discharge, though shorter notice is allowed in emergency situations. Even if a patient is sent to a hospital, the nursing home may still have to do proper discharge planning if it plans on not readmitting the resident. A discharge plan must ensure the resident has a safe place to go, preferably near family, and outline the care the resident will receive after discharge.

If the nursing home refuses to readmit a patient or insists on discharging a resident, residents can appeal or file a complaint with the state long-term care ombudsman. The resident should appeal as soon as possible after receiving a discharge notice or after being refused readmittance to the nursing home. You can also require the resident’s doctor to sign off on the discharge.

Contact Kristen Prull Moonan or Amy Stratton here to find out the best steps to take.

For more on protecting the rights of nursing home residents, see the guide 20 Common Nursing Home Problems–and How to Resolve Them by Justice in Aging.

Medicare covers preventative care services, including an annual wellness visit. But confusing a wellness visit with a physical could be very costly.

As part of the Affordable Care Act, Medicare beneficiaries receive a free annual wellness visit. At this visit, your doctor, nurse practitioner or physician assistant will generally do the following:

• Ask you to fill out a health risk assessment questionnaire
• Update your medical history and current prescriptions
• Measure your height, weight, blood pressure and body mass index
• Provide personalized health advice
• Create a screening schedule for the next 5 to 10 years
• Screen for cognitive issues

You do not have to pay a deductible for this visit. You may also receive other free preventative services, such as a flu shot.

The confusion arises when a Medicare beneficiary requests an “annual physical” instead of an “annual wellness visit.” During a physical, a doctor may do other tests that are outside of an annual wellness visit, such as check vital signs, perform lung or abdominal exams, test your reflexes, or order urine and blood samples. These services are not offered for free and Medicare beneficiaries will have to pay co-pays and deductibles when they receive a physical. Kaiser Health News recently related the story of a Medicare recipient who had what she assumed was a free physical only to get a $400 bill from her doctor’s office.

Adding to the confusion is that when you first enroll, Medicare covers a “welcome to Medicare” visit with your doctor. To avoid co-pays and deductibles, you need to schedule it within the first 12 months of enrolling in Medicare Part B. The visit covers the same things as the annual wellness visit, but it also covers screenings and flu shots, a vision test, review of risk for depression, the option of creating advance directives, and a written plan, letting you know which screenings, shots, and other preventative services you should get.

To avoid receiving a bill for an annual visit, when you contact your doctor’s office to schedule the appointment, be sure to request an “annual wellness visit” instead of asking for a “physical.” The difference in wording can save you hundreds of dollars. In addition, some Medicare Advantage plans offer a free annual physical, so check with your plan if you are enrolled in one before scheduling.

Contact Kristen Prull Moonan or Amy Stratton here to learn more.

Social Security survivor’s benefits provide a safety net to widows and widowers. But to get the most out of the benefit, you need to know the right time to claim.

While you can claim survivor’s benefits as early as age 60, if you claim benefits before your full retirement age, your benefits will be permanently reduced. If you claim benefits at your full retirement age, you will receive 100 percent of your spouse’s benefit or, if your spouse died before collecting benefits, 100 percent of what your spouse’s benefit would have been at full retirement age. Unlike with retirement benefits, delaying survivor’s benefits longer than your full retirement age will not increase the benefit. If you delay taking retirement benefits past your full retirement age, depending on when you were born your benefit will increase by 6 to 8 percent for every year that you delay up to age 70, in addition to any cost of living increases.

You cannot take both retirement benefits and survivor’s benefits at the same time. When deciding which one to take, you need to compare the two benefits to see which is higher. In some cases, the decision is easy—one benefit is clearly much higher than the other. In other situations, the decision can be a little more complicated and you may want to take your survivor’s benefit before switching to your retirement benefit.

To determine the best strategy, you will need to look at your retirement benefit at your full retirement age as well as at age 70 and compare that to your survivor’s benefit. If your retirement benefit at age 70 will be larger than your survivor’s benefit, it may make sense to claim your survivor’s benefit at your full retirement age. You can then let your retirement benefit continue to grow and switch to the retirement benefit at age 70.

Example: A widow has the option of taking full retirement benefits of $2,000/month or survivor’s benefits of $2,100/month. She can take the survivor’s benefits and let her retirement benefits continue to grow. When she reaches age 70, her retirement benefit will be approximately $2,480/month, and she can switch to retirement benefits. Depending on the widow’s life expectancy, this strategy may make sense even if the survivor’s benefit is smaller than the retirement benefit to begin with.

Keep in mind that divorced spouses are also entitled to survivor’s benefits if they were married for at least 10 years. If you remarry before age 60, you are not entitled to survivor’s benefits, but remarriage after age 60 does not affect benefits. In the case of remarriage, you may need to factor in the new spouse’s spousal benefit when figuring out the best way to maximize benefits.

Contact Kristen Prull Moonan or Amy Stratton here to learn more.

The rules surrounding taxes on gifts often create confusion during tax season or any other time. Below are some of the nuts and bolts of the gift tax, including when a gift tax form needs to be filed.

The annual gift tax exclusion for 2018 and 2019 is $15,000. This means that any person who gave away $15,000 or less to any one individual (anyone other than their spouse) does not have to report the gift or gifts to the IRS. Any person who gave away more than $15,000 to any one person, however, is technically required to file a Form 709, the gift tax return. But just because you are required to file a Form 709 doesn’t mean you necessarily have to; this depends on your past gift-giving history.

The IRS allows you to give away a total of $11.4 million (in 2019, up from $11.18 million in 2018) during your lifetime before a gift tax is owed. This $11.4 million exclusion means that even if you are technically required to file a Form 709 because you gave away more than $15,000 to any one person last year, you will owe taxes only if you have given away more than a total of $11.4 million in the past. As a result, the filing of a Form 709 is irrelevent for most people because the vast majority of people do not have $11.4 million to give away.

For those who have the means, there are several ways to give away more than $11.4 million over a lifetime without owing taxes. Keep in mind that Form 709 is only required when you give away more than the annual exclusion. So a married couple with a married child can give away $60,000 in one year without having to report the gift: each parent gives the child and the child’s spouse $15,000 each. If a couple did this for 25 years, they would have given away $1.5 million without even having to report the gifts, much less having them count against their lifetime $11.4 million exclusion. Also it would be possible for the couple to give away $120,000 within a short span of time — $60,000 in December and $60,000 in January of the next calendar year. (Note that if both spouses have made gifts, each must file a separate Form 709.)

Another way for a gift to be exempted from reporting requirements, no matter the gift’s size, is to pay for someone else’s medical care or educational tuition. It is important to note that the money must be paid directly to the school, university, or health care provider to be exempt, and that pre-payments can often be made as soon as the person is admitted to the school (schools include not just colleges but nursery schools, private grade schools, or private high schools). However, if you contribute to someone else’s 529 college savings plan, you are subject to the $15,000 gift exclusion rule. A special regulation in the tax code enables a donor to use up five years’ worth of her exclusions and gift $75,000 (in 2019) to a 529 at one time.

Also note that gifts to a spouse are usually not subject to any federal gift taxes as long as your spouse is a U.S. citizen. If your spouse is not a U.S. citizen, you can give only $155,000 without reporting the gift (in 2019). Anything over that amount has to be reported on Form 709.

If you have given away property other than money, like stock, you have to report that on your gift return, too, if the value is more than $15,000. If the stock had gone up in value since you bought it, you report the value as of the date that you gave it away. You may want to inform the recipient that the basis, or the amount that you bought the stock for, becomes their basis. The basis is used when the property is sold to determine the profit or loss.

Finally, tax deductible gifts made to charities need not be reported on a gift tax return unless the donor retains some interest in the gifted property. Contact Kristen Prull Moonan or Amy Stratton here to learn more.

If you become incapacitated, who will make your medical decisions? A health care proxy allows you to appoint someone else to act as your agent for medical decisions. It will ensure that your medical treatment instructions are carried out, and it is especially important to have a health care proxy if you and your family may disagree about treatment. Without a health care proxy, your doctor may be required to provide you with medical treatment that you would have refused if you were able to do so.

In general, a health care proxy takes effect only when you require medical treatment and a physician determines that you are unable to communicate your wishes concerning treatment. How this works exactly can depend on the laws of the particular state and the terms of the health care proxy itself. If you later become able to express your own wishes, you will be listened to and the health care proxy will have no effect.

If you are interested in drawing up a health care proxy document, contact  Kristen Prull Moonan or Amy Stratton here.

Funerals are among the most expensive purchases many consumers will ever make, ranking only behind the purchase of a home and an automobile. A traditional funeral, including a casket and vault, can start at around $7,000, although “extras” like flowers, obituary notices, acknowledgment cards or limousines can add thousands of dollars to the bottom line. Many funerals run well over $10,000.

But it’s possible to spend much less if you don’t let funeral directors pressure you into buying goods or services you don’t want or need. To help consumers resist such pressure and become more informed, Bankrate.com has compiled a list of “10 things funeral directors don’t want you to know.” The list is summarized below:

1. Shopping around for funeral services can save you thousands of dollars.
2. Funeral directors are not clergy. Although consumers tend to trust them implicitly and believe everything they say, it is well to remember that funeral homes are in business to make money.
3. Embalming is rarely required when the person will be buried within 24 to 48 hours.
4. Seeing your loved one prior to burial without the benefit of embalming will not leave you with unresolved grief issues. “If more people knew what embalming entailed, they would not choose to do it,” says Joshua Slocum, executive director of the Vermont-based Funeral Consumers Alliance, a not-for-profit consumer information and advocacy group.
5. Sealed caskets, which add considerable cost, cannot preserve a body.
6. A funeral provider may not refuse or charge a fee to handle a casket you bought elsewhere.
7. You don’t need to spend more than $400 to $600 for a modest casket.
8. You do not have to buy the funeral home’s entire package of services. You may pick and choose the services you want.
9. You can plan and carry out many things on your own to honor your loved one without paying for services from a funeral home.
10. Local funeral and memorial societies can help consumers find ethical establishments and often negotiate discounts for their members. For example, the Funeral Consumers Alliance has 115 chapters in 46 states around the country.

All funeral homes must comply with the Federal Trade Commission’s Funeral Rule. The Funeral Rule requires all funeral homes to supply customers with a general price list that details prices for all possible goods or services. The rule also stipulates what kinds of misrepresentations are prohibited and explains what items consumers cannot be required to purchase, among other things. For more on the rule, click here.

For the FTC’s series of articles on Shopping for Funeral Services, click here. Contact Kristen Prull Moonan or Amy Stratton here to learn more.

The number of older Americans with student loan debt – either theirs or someone else’s — is growing. Sadly, learning how to deal with this debt is now a fact of life for many seniors heading into retirement.

According to a study by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the number of older borrowers increased by at least 20 percent between 2012 and 2017. Some of these borrowers were borrowing for themselves, but the majority was borrowing for others. The study found that 73 percent of student loan borrowers age 60 and older borrowed for a child’s or grandchild’s education.

Before you co-sign a student loan for a child or grandchild, you need to understand your obligations. The co-signer not only vouches for the loan recipient’s ability to pay back the loan, but is also personally responsible for repaying the loan if the recipient cannot pay. Because of this, you need to carefully consider the risk before taking on this responsibility. In some circumstances, it is possible to obtain a co-signer release from a loan after the loan recipient has made a few on-time payments. If you are a co-signer on a loan that has not defaulted, check with the lender about getting a release. You can also ask the lender for payment information to make sure the borrower is keeping up with the payments.

If the borrower defaulted and you are obliged to pay the loan back or you are the borrower yourself, you will need to manage your finances. Having to pay back student loan debt can lead to working longer, fewer retirement savings, delayed health care, and credit issues, among other things. If you are struggling to make payments, you can request a new repayment plan that has lower monthly payments. With a federal student loan, you have the option to make payments based on your income. To request an “income-driven repayment plan,” go to: https://studentloans.gov/myDirectLoan/index.action.

Defaulting on a student loan may affect your Social Security benefits. If you have a private student loan, a debt collector cannot garnish your Social Security benefits to pay back the loan. In the case of federal student loans, the government can take 15 percent of your Social Security check as long as the remaining balance doesn’t drop below $750. There is no statute of limitations on student loan debt, so it doesn’t matter how long ago the debt occurred. If you do default on a federal loan, contact the U.S. Department of Education right away to see if you can arrange a new repayment plan.

If you die still owing debt on a federal student loan, the debt will be discharged and your spouse or other heirs will not have to repay the loan. If you have a private student loan, whether your spouse or estate will be liable to pay back the debt will depend on the individual loan. You should check with your lender to find out the discharge policies. Depending on the loan, the lender may try to collect from the estate or any co-signers. In a community property state (where all assets acquired during a marriage are considered owned by both spouses equally), the spouse may be liable for the debt (some community property states have exceptions for student loan debt).

For tips from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to help navigate problems with student loans, click here. To learn more, contact Kristen Prull Moonan or Amy Stratton.

Donor-advised funds are a growing trend in giving that may get more popular due to the new tax law. These funds allow you to donate money, receive a charitable tax deduction, and continue to grow the money until you are ready to distribute it to a charity or charities of your choice.

A donor-advised fund is established through a charity or nonprofit. The way the fund works is that you donate assets (it can be cash, stocks, or real estate) to the fund. The gift is irrevocable – the nonprofit controls the assets and you cannot get the assets back. You may then take an immediate tax deduction for the gift to the fund. Once the fund is established, you can tell the fund where to donate the money, and when.

These funds are becoming more popular in part because the new tax law enacted in 2017 doubled the standard deduction to $12,000 for individuals and $24,000 for couples. This means that if your charitable contributions along with any other itemized deductions are less than $12,000 a year, the standard deduction will lower your tax bill more than itemizing your deductions. For most people, the standard deduction will be the better option and they will get no deduction for their charitable contributions.

A donor-advised fund allows you to contribute several years’ worth of charitable donations to the fund at once and receive the tax benefit immediately, making it more likely that itemizing would be more advantageous than taking the standard deduction.

There are different types of donor-advised funds. Some are spinoffs of large financial investment firms like Fidelity and Schwab. Others may be smaller community funds. Some universities and faith-based organizations also have funds. Each fund has its own rules on how the money is distributed. There may be limits on how much you can donate each year or a requirement that you donate a certain amount. Some funds are single-issue funds that may require that at least some of the donations go to a particular charity or cause. Each fund also has its own rules on whether the fund can be passed down to heirs.

Before deciding to give to a donor-advised fund, you should investigate the fund’s rules, fees, and how established the fund is. It is best to consult with your financial advisor before making any major donations.

For more information about donor-advised funds from the Chronicle of Philanthropy, click here.

To learn more, contact Kristen Prull Moonan or Amy Stratton.

Paying for day care is one of the biggest expenses faced by working adults with young children, a dependent parent, or a child with a disability, but there is a tax credit available to help working caregivers defray the costs of day care (called “adult day care” in the case of the elderly).

In order to qualify for the tax credit, you must have a dependent who cannot be left alone and who has lived with you for more than half the year. Qualifying dependents may be the following:

• A child who is under age 13 when the care is provided
• A spouse who is physically or mentally incapable of self-care
• An individual who is physically or mentally incapable of self-care and either is your dependent or could have been your dependent except that his or her income is too high ($4,150 or more) or he or she files a joint return.

Even though you can no longer receive a deduction for claiming a parent (or child) as a dependent, you can still receive this tax credit if your parent (or other relative) qualifies as a dependent. This means you must provide more than half of their support for the year. Support includes amounts spent to provide food, lodging, clothing, education, medical and dental care, recreation, transportation, and similar necessities. Even if you do not pay more than half your parent’s total support for the year, you may still be able to claim your parent as a dependent if you pay more than 10 percent of your parent’s support for the year, and, with others, collectively contribute to more than half of your parent’s support.

The total expenses you can use to calculate the credit is $3,000 for one child or dependent or up to $6,000 for two or more children or dependents. So if you spent $10,000 on care, you can only use $3,000 of it toward the credit. Once you know your work-related day care expenses, to calculate the credit, you need to multiply the expenses by a percentage of between 20 and 35, depending on your income. (A chart giving the percentage rates is in IRS Publication 503.) For example, if you earn $15,000 or less and have the maximum $3,000 eligible for the credit, to figure out your credit you multiply $3,000 by 35 percent. If you earn $43,000 or more, you multiply $3,000 by 20 percent. (A tax credit is directly subtracted from the tax you owe, in contrast to a tax deduction, which decreases your taxable income.)

The care can be provided in or out of the home, by an individual or by a licensed care center, but the care provider cannot be a spouse, dependent, or the child’s parent. The main purpose of the care must be the dependent’s well-being and protection, and expenses for care should not include amounts you pay for food, lodging, clothing, education, and entertainment.

To get the credit, you must report the name, address, and either the care provider’s Social Security number or employer identification number on the tax return. To find out if you are eligible to claim the credit, click here.

For more information about the credit from the IRS, click here and here.

To learn more, contact Kristen Prull Moonan or Amy Stratton.

Whether it’s an honor or a burden (or both), you have been appointed trustee of a trust. What responsibilities have been thrust upon you? How can you successfully carry them out?

Here are nine do’s and one don’t to get you started:

1. Do read the trust document. It sets out the rules under which you will operate, so you need to understand it completely.
2. Do create a checking account for the trust. All income and expenses should go through this account. While you can and should invest the money, a checking account will enable you to make distributions and payments and keep track of them.
3. Do keep the best interests of the beneficiaries in mind at all times. You have what’s called a “fiduciary” duty to them, which is an extremely high standard.
4. Don’t have any personal financial dealings with the trust. For instance, you cannot borrow money from the trust or lend the trust money to anyone.
5. Do provide the beneficiaries and anyone else indicated in the trust with an annual account of trust activity. This can be a copy of the checking and investment account statements or a more formal trust account prepared by an accountant or attorney.
6. Do invest the trust funds prudently and productively. You cannot simply leave the trust funds in a savings account. And you can’t put them all into a promising new company. You need to diversify the trust portfolio among stocks and fixed income securities. It is wise to get professional investment advice.
7. Do keep in regular contact with the beneficiaries to understand their needs.
8. Do be aware of any public benefits the beneficiaries may be receiving and make sure you do not jeopardize the beneficiaries’ eligibility.
9. Do file annual income tax returns for the trust.
10. Don’t fly solo. Get professional advice to make sure you are correctly fulfilling your role.

To learn more, contact Kristen Prull Moonan or Amy Stratton.