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Coastal Senior is a Georgia monthly periodical covering the South Carolina and Georgia low country.  Bob Mason is its legal columnist.

Elder abuse comes in many forms. Physical, emotional and sexual abuse immediately come to mind. So do neglect or abandonment. They’re all too common and sad. They’re also illegal.

So is financial abuse.

Because financial abuse is becoming more common, and may become more common with a deteriorating economy, this will be the first of a two part look at the issue.

Elder abuse occurs more in private homes than in nursing homes, and it is usually subtle. Exploitation can pass unnoticed for a long time and doesn’t have any overt signs like physical abuse.

Warning Signs

Exploitation can pass unnoticed for a long time and can be quite subtle. Family, friends, therapists, bankers and counselors (including lawyers) should look for:

  • Sudden changes in behavior – of either the possible victim or the suspected exploiter.
  • Someone continuously “running interference” for the victim.
  • Complaints from the victim that someone is taking advantage of him or her.
  • A close relationship with someone new in the victim’s life. For example, a sales person calls to “say hello” everyday. Or, an unusual person drops by every day to give the victim a ride to the bank (suspicious bankers have thwarted their share of abusive cases by alerting management).
  • A sudden infatuation – perhaps a female caregiver has suggested a romantic relationship with Dad.
  • Perhaps a daughter who hasn’t been seen in years appears without invitation, and shows a strong interest in the victim’s money or possessions.
  • Mom’s home environment changes drastically; favorite possessions start disappearing; Mom is short on food, medicine or heat although she has sufficient funds to pay for them; her house looks neglected although she has money for repairs.
  • Alternatively, the victim is getting more home services than are necessary, or someone convinces her to make unnecessary, costly home repairs.

And the list goes on. The important thing is not to ignore the problem. Mom (or Dad or the Customer or the Neighbor) deserves better.

Why?

Greed. An elderly person can have assets, be vulnerable, lonely, insecure. . . and very easy to isolate. And, of course, what goes on in the home is tough to spot.
More subtle, however, and perhaps more troubling, is the caregiver with a sense of entitlement (and an inflated sense of their own worth as a caregiver). Long nurtured resentment and anger driving the exploitation (after all, exploitation can be “great revenge”).

What Can Be Done?

Victims are reluctant to report abuse or ask for help. Also, it can be hard for an outsider to know that it is happening; family members, neighbors, friends, clergy need to be on their toes. Communication is key, both with the elder and with other family members.

Ask! If you don’t like the answers you are getting and continue to “feel buy acomplia funny” look for help. If you are not sure what to do, read next month’s column for some practical steps to take.

Filed Under: Coastal Senior, Miscellaneous Tagged With: ,

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Coastal Senior is a Georgia monthly periodical covering the South Carolina and Georgia low country.  Bob Mason is its legal columnist.

Most older readers with IRAs (and those who have inherited one) know that “minimum required distribution” rules force withdrawals every year. Battered by the economy, however, many are groaning at further depleting already shrunken IRAs.

To add insult to injury, the required buying acomplia distribution amount is a percentage of the balance from December 31, 2007. It would be a safe bet that the IRA balance was much higher a year ago.

Limited Help

Congress felt your pain . . . sort of. On December 11, Congress issued rules for 2009 that will allow older IRA owners and those with inherited IRAs to skip required withdrawals for 2009. President Bush is expected to sign.

Notice carefully: The rules apply for 2009. As things stand while this column is being written, these IRA owners remain on the hook for 2008 distributions. Pain remains.

For example, if the required minimum distribution is 10% (the actual percentage is age-based) of the December 31, 2007, balance of $100,000, a $10,000 distribution will be required. That hurts if the December 31, 2008, balance is just $50,000 (maybe because of all the GM stock that was in the IRA).

Normally a 50% penalty applies to amounts that were not distributed that should have been distributed.

Congress suspended the 50% penalty for 2009. If no penalty applies, the reasoning goes, then no withdrawal is required.

One problem, of course, is that many retirees must take out something to live on.

Another problem is that 2009 tax relief will not “feel good” for another year or so. That is something like telling GMChryslerFord that Uncle Sam will help . . . next year sometime.

Treasury To The Rescue?

Treasury might step in. Rumors are swirling around that it may. By the time this issue of Coastal Senior hits the stands it might even be a fact.

Treasury cannot simply issue a blanket suspension of a penalty the way Congress can (and did). However, Congress gives the IRS (a division of the Treasury Department) great flexibility in how it goes about collecting the no-distribution-penalty.

IRS could declare a new valuation date. Instead of maintaining the current rule that requires distributions for 2008 to be based on December 31, 2007 values, it could issue an emergency rule that 2008 penalties would be based on December 2008 values. It might even be tempted to give folks a bit longer to take a required distribution.

So what of people who have already taken 2008 required distributions? First, unless the IRS has changed the rule for 2008 after I wrote this column, I hope you did. Otherwise a penalty will apply. Second, if the IRS does come up with some relief, my guess is that there will be some provision to allow people to “payback” to their IRAs excess distributions that were taken.

So what is the definitive word? In 2009, IRA owners get a break. In 2008, the rumor mill says “maybe”. Check after you’ve read this column!

Filed Under: Coastal Senior, Miscellaneous Tagged With:

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Coastal Senior is a monthly periodical published in Savannah, Georgia and circulated throughout the Georgia and South Carolina low country. Bob Mason is its legal columnist.

On a hot and steely south Pacific day 64 years ago 18-year old Ensign John Mason earned a Navy Cross doing some extraordinary things in the cockpit of a Navy Grumman Avenger. To be sure, a hero. 

But the thing I loved about my Uncle Jack was that he was one of the gentlest, most self-effacing men I’ve known. The only time I ever pressed him on the particulars of that Navy Cross he chuckled and said, “What I REALLY deserved was a medal for raising five good kids!” 

Uncle Jack seemed quite ordinary and spent most of his life, I believe, puzzled by recognition he got for twenty minutes of fancy flying he did as a teen.

I do not believe it is necessary to be recognized to be a hero. I suspect in the military there are many acts of unnoticed bravery for every medal awarded.

Nor, do I believe, is it necessary to do something truly extraordinary to be a hero. We often hear of a parent shelving Big Dreams to work quietly and tirelessly to educate a child and set that son or daughter on a brighter path. 

It puzzles me when I hear people moan “where are all the heroes?” because the answer is: They’re all around us. Have you ever noticed that when the times urgently call for sacrifice or leadership (even on a small scale), or some great character, someone always seems to step up? The times and conditions don’t make heroes, because the people that we might eventually call “hero” are already in place. 

Thousands of years ago the Greeks and Romans carefully analyzed the characteristics needed to make a “virtue-laden” or virtuous person. The virtues fell under four headings: Prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude. The Christians (and maybe others) threw in three more: Faith, hope and charity.

Charity is a big one. Often translated from Latin (caritas) or Greek (agape) as “love”, it is much more than February 14-type Luv. What sets it apart is its sheer intentionality and lack of sentimentality. It’s the “love thy neighbor when tadalafil buy you’d rather punch his lights out” sort of love. 

So how does this tie into heroics? The more I ponder it, the more I believe heroes are those who can muster their will to combine caritas with one or two other virtues and apply those to the situation at hand (dramatic or mundane).

As an elder law attorney I get a ringside seat. I have the honor of serving many of these people. 

Thus my admiration for the heroes I work with every day. The wife of 55 years who has nursed her husband with Alzheimer’s disease the past several years. The couple that has devoted their entire adult life together to the child with Downs syndrome. The frail 90-year old who has maintained a positive outlook and continues to look at life with wonder. 

The spirit of any of these folks would easily fit inside any warrior. 

They’re my heroes. 

Filed Under: Coastal Senior, Miscellaneous, Veterans

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Coastal Senior is a monthly periodical published in Savannah, Georgia and circulated throughout the Georgia and South Carolina low country. Bob Mason is its legal columnist.

Big Veterans Benefit Often MIA

Time for a riddle. What do less than 25% of eligible people ever receive, can be worth up to $1,842 a month, and can provide an incredible benefit for a veteran (or a widow of one) who is homebound, in an assisted living facility or in a nursing home?

Answer: Aid and Attendance through the VA. Very few people know about this program, and those who do know about it often do not understand it. Improved Pension or “Aid & Attendance” might be available to boost monthly income by as much as another $1,842 for a veteran or $998 for the widow of a veteran.

Better known VA cash benefit programs are restricted to vets who were wounded or injured while serving in the armed forces. But Aid & Attendance benefits might be available to any veteran 65 years or older or his or her widow if the veteran served at least 90 days active duty, with 1 day of that 90 days during a VA defined period of hostilities.

There are financial qualification rules, and there also are physical qualification rules. To qualify physically, the veteran (or widow) must be physically homebound (not able to get out under her own power), or confined to a nursing home or assisted living facility.

The exact amount of the benefit depends upon monthly adjusted income. The benefit can never be more than the difference between $1,842 (or $998) and adjusted income. If monthly adjusted income is more than $1,842 (or $998) then there can be no benefit.

If you haven’t caught it already, the most important word in the preceding paragraph is this: ADJUSTED.

The income cap is properly calculated by adjusting monthly income downward for a variety of medical, insurance and long term care expenses, before determining the amount of benefit available.

For example, Kenny Kilroy entered the Army in 1945. He spent a few months in a replacement pool at Ft. Benning before the end of WWII. Discharged from the Army in 1946, Kenny returned to Savannah, and went to work as a realtor. During the early part of 2008 Kenny’s health declined some and he now lives in an assisted living facility in Savannah.

Kenny’s Social Security benefit pays $1,500 monthly, and he has a small qualified annuity that pays $300 month. $1,800 monthly will not cover the $3,000 monthly assisted living facility bill.

Time to panic? Not at all.

Kenny’s ADJUSTED income will be at least a negative $1,200 (and maybe more if he has other medical or health-related expenses). Under that scenario Kenny Kilroy should qualify for $1,842 in Aid & Attendance and he will have more than enough to cover the assisted living facility bill.

There are asset restrictions. As with Medicaid, some assets count, some assets don’t (the lists aren’t the same for Medicaid and Aid & Attendance). Generally speaking the applicant can’t have more than $80,000 in countable assets. It could well be less . . . the VA uses no “bright buy tadalafil line” amount.

Unlike Medicaid, it is fairly easy to “reconfigure” assets to qualify.

By law, the only people that can help compile an application for a veteran or a widow are:

A licensed attorney

A veterans service organization (such as the VFW, AmVets, American Legion), or

A state Department of Veterans Affairs office.

By law, it is illegal to charge a veteran for compiling and submitting an application.

On the other hand, it is not illegal to charge a veteran for the planning involved in qualifying for the benefit and implementing that plan.

Further, veterans, or the widows of veterans, do not live in a vacuum. They likely have other concerns. That is why it is important to seek the help of an advisor who understands this important benefit.

An advisor who may not know what he or she is doing may succeed in qualifying someone for VA benefits and hopelessly disqualify the veteran for Medicaid or other needed benefits in the process of qualifying for Aid & Attendance. This is tricky business.

Correctly approached, however, and correctly integrated as part of an overall plan, this particular VA benefit can be Heavy Artillery.

Filed Under: General, Veterans Tagged With: ,

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Coastal Senior is a monthly periodical published in Savannah, Georgia and circulated throughout the Georgia and South Carolina low country. Bob Mason is its legal columnist.

Do you enjoy paying legal fees? I don’t . . . and I am one (a lawyer, that is, not a fee). As an attorney, however, I regularly witness situations in which a client (or perhaps a deceased client) attempted to save a few bucks on legal fees (at my expense, I guess) and succeeded only in creating a situation that cost the family many times what the fee would have been.

Ever heard the old expression “Penny wise and pound foolish”? It means, of course, that attempting to save money by cutting corners or “doing it yourself” may end up costing you more in the long run.

The most expensive plumbing job I ever paid for began one beautiful autumn Saturday. The leaves were golden, the sun was absolutely sparkling in a crisp blue sky . . . and the commode was running. Obviously the flapper-thingy wasn’t flapping and it would be a simple matter for a smart guy like me to fix it. First a trip to the Home Improvement Emporium for a left threaded tank wrench. Wouldn’t seat right. Next a trip to HIE for a polyvinyl noncorrosive self-seating throcket seal. Wouldn’t seal. Return to HIE for a new mop to clean the inch of water on the floor from the tank. Water continues to leak from tank. Elapsed time 8 hours, money spent $60. Monday, I paid a plumber $100 to fix the mess I made. Told me it would have been $50 if I had left it alone.

So I’ve made my point. I stay out of plumbing and Mack stays out of lawyering.

Next point: Be careful of what you read in columns (including this one). A client once read a Sunday newspaper real estate column written by a guy in California, and the client asked me if I REALLY knew what I was doing with a certain deed I was preparing. Seems the column made him very nervous. I explained that we were in Savannah not San Francisco.

Next point: Be careful of what you read in books and on the internet. It astounds me the number of people who believe that because Suze Orman says that a certain type of trust is a good/bad idea the lawyer/financial advisor/accountant they are paying must not know a thing if they disagree with Ol’ Suze.

Hint: California Real Estate Dude and Suze Orman have never met you, do not practice law/accounting/financial advising in Georgia or South Carolina, and they will be very hard (in fact, impossible) to find when things go leaky on you.

Next hint: Would you really attempt to diagnose yourself on WebMD after finding that funny lump? Or would you go see your doctor?

I am not suggesting you ignore columns (especially this one!), books, the internet, and talk shows. I find that clients who have made an effort to orient themselves are easier to work with.

I am telling you, however, not to let these sources become a “cost-saving” substitute for face-to-face time with a reputable advisor.

I am also telling you not to expect quality advice and services for free. The person you are seeking out, if truly qualified, will have spent years becoming an expert. Check them out and check their credentials.

Final hint: Buy the best advice and skill in a professional you can possibly afford. It will end up saving you a pile of cash in the long run.

Now for a good joke: It was a sweltering Sunday afternoon when the AC broke down. In a panic the family pawed through the phone book looking for a repair company. They called “Jake’s AC Service”.

Ring . . . ring. “Yep!”

“Is this Jake’s AC?”

“Yep. This is Jake.”

“Can you get right over here? It is boiling in this house, my wife has fainted, the baby is crying.”

“Yep.”

Old Jake rattles up in a 1980 truck about 45 minutes later and shuffles around to the back of the house lugging an ancient toolbox.

“Holy smokes! Looky there. That’s an Arctic 3A . . . haven’t seen one in 25 years.” Jake rummages around in his toolbox and retrieves an old rubber mallet and with the skill of a surgeon carefully selects a spot on the side of the Arctic 3A and taps it twice . . . exactly three inches from the top grating.

The machine instantly whirs to life.

“AMAZING, Jake!!” Dad exclaims. “How much do I owe you?”

“Hundred anna quarter.”

“ONE TWENTY FIVE!!??? FOR A 10 MINUTE SERVICE CALL!!???”

Whereupon Jake fixes Dad with a level gaze, sighs patiently, and says “I shoulda broken it out for you. $25 for the service call. $100 for knowin’ where to hit it.”

Filed Under: Coastal Senior, Miscellaneous Tagged With: