All posts by Janet Colliton
Accounts For The Disabled – The ABLE Act Passes
The year 2014 ended with a significant change in federal law affecting the disabled community. The ABLE Act, otherwise known as “Achieving a Better Life Experience,” is a law that allows states to establish programs modeled after 529 plans but for disabled individuals. ABLE received sizable bipartisan support with co-sponsorship from 380 members of the […]
Continue readingWhat Happens When You Sign A Stack Of Unread Papers
Penn State University Dickinson School of Law Professor Katherine Pearson, in a year-end e-mail message and article, reminded elder law attorneys of one of the reasons we came into this field. Professor Pearson has made a name for herself particularly as a final word on the issue of “filial responsibility” in Pennsylvania, the question of […]
Continue readingWhat Happens To the House With Medicaid
A client recently brought me an old newspaper clipping of one of my columns saved by her father. It dealt with the age old question of what happens to the family home when a parent or spouse goes on Medicaid. I was flattered and appreciative that he kept the column and then realized that the […]
Continue readingOpen Enrollment, Age 65 and Medicare
If you find health insurance over age 65 to be confusing, you have lots of company. This autumn season with the falling leaves is just the time to reacquaint yourself with Medicare as you approach Open Enrollment, the period from October 15 to December 7. If you are just now approaching age 65, and wonder […]
Continue readingOpposing a Sales Tax on Legal Services
Taxation always has the ability to rouse people to action. One current tax proposal, voted last week out of the Pennsylvania Senate Finance Committee and receiving a lot of attention now would eliminate school property taxes but replace them with a combination of new higher taxes on personal income and sales taxes. It would also […]
Continue readingSpecial Needs Trusts Can Help Children With Addictions
Suppose you are a parent with children close in age but one is addicted to alcohol or drugs. People can check this hyperlink, if they need the best alcohol or drug abuse treatments. You have tried, over the years, to encourage rehabilitation but have generally been unsuccessful. He may have even served time in prison. […]
Continue readingAnswers When House Rich and Cash Poor
House rich and cash poor is a common expression that describes a number of seniors who benefited by appreciation in home value since they purchased but need cash to handle property taxes, repairs and daily living expenses. For the person who has been wise enough and fortunate enough to stay out of debt there are […]
Continue readingTechnology Is Great When It Works
Technology is wonderful. Sometimes it works as we hope. Sometime it does not but we likely have reached the point where we depend on our smart phones, our laptops (you can visit homepage if you need more information about laptops and computers), our tablets or i-phones as almost extensions of our hands, eyes and ears. […]
Continue readingWhen Trusts Work for Planning Purposes – and When They Don’t
Whenever a thorny problem arises, whether for Medicaid planning purposes or estate planning, one predictable question has been “Can’t this be solved by establishing a trust?” The answer is not as direct as it might seem. There are different kinds of trusts and the laws and regulations change. Even when they work, Congress or a […]
Continue readingColumnist Expresses Gratitude For #1 Recognition -Again
For the second year in a row our office received a call from Main Line Today magazine this summer requesting a “head shot” and, despite having experienced the same call last year, I was amazed again at opening the August issue of MLT and finding that I had once more been named as the #1 […]
Continue readingWhy Do You Need a Will?
If you have attended any programs on financial planning or read up on planning for your estate, you probably have heard the expression more than once that you must have a Will. The thought is that a Will can resolve all issues concerning distribution of your assets on your death. Unless all of your assets […]
Continue readingReasons Why Estates Might Take Longer to Settle
With all of the hype regarding living trusts, one claim frequently made is that a living trust will settle an estate faster than probate, probate being the process of filing the Will with the Register of Wills office and then administering the estate. Actually, the length of time it takes to settle an estate depends […]
Continue readingTwo Different Disability Benefits Have Very Different Results
Two different Social Security benefits for disabled participants, Social Security Disability (SSD) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), have very different income and asset requirements and lead to very different planning results. The irony is that many, perhaps most, of the participants in these programs, when asked, do not know which program is the reason for […]
Continue readingWhat Happens to Debts When You Die
A question posed to “Elder Law Answers,” a popular online elder law reference site, captioned “What Happens To Your Debts When You Die?” drew my attention recently. The answer was intended for a general national audience but Pennsylvania has some twists and bends of its own. The question is worth asking. Here are some answers. […]
Continue readingMedicaid, Long Term Care and Second Marriages
When illness strikes you do not usually think of legal relationships but when a spouse needs serious care and is married to a second wife or husband, family relationships can bring with them unexpected problems and conflicts both for the second spouse and for children by a prior marriage. This is what sometimes happens. Since, […]
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