Halloween is tomorrow, so this is the perfect time to share this year’s most petrifying articles. From those who had to endure the intrusive, expensive nightmare of probate to a screening tool that can accurately predict risk of dying within the next 6 months, we have uncovered some scary ground. To celebrate Halloween, we’ve ranked our spookiest articles from least to most scary (but you be the judge) for you to revisit, if you are brave enough to do so. As always, thank you for reading our newsletter and blog!
Note to our readers: If you’re someone who doesn’t like thinking about scary topics, such as spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on long-term care, then you might want to stop reading or proceed with caution. But if you’re curious, please read on. . .
10. What Happens and Who Inherits When You Die with No Will or Living Trust? Typically, an all-around nightmare, dying without a Will or proper Estate Planning documents in place means your estate will go through probate. In other words, your state’s probate court will force the distribution of your assets according to the intestate succession laws in your state, which can be a time-consuming, intrusive, expensive process. This article details the intestacy laws in Virginia, Maryland, and DC and explains what you can do to avoid the nightmare of probate.
9. Beware of “Forgotten Assets” When Applying for Medicaid. And Beware of Bankers Trying to Be Helpful. There are not too many things more complex than applying for Medicaid. Yet there are some who insist on applying for Medicaid on their own or with the help of someone who isn’t qualified to assist in this area. This can result in a horrifying experience, because when applying for Medicaid, failure to report all resources can land you in federal prison for up to 10 years and subject you to a federal fine of up to $250,000. With proper planning and with the help of a Certified Elder Law Attorney such as Evan Farr, families can obtain Medicaid assistance without having to deplete their life savings and without the fear of omitting anything important and unknowingly committing health care fraud.
8. The Darker Side of Medicare Advantage Plans. Currently, more than half of seniors are enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans. What makes this particularly scary is that the plans have been known to hide some serious problems that the enrollees learned about later on, after signing up for them!
Medicare Advantage plans are private insurance plans that theoretically combine the benefits of Original Medicare along with a Medicare Supplement policy. But, don’t let the word “advantage” in Medicare Advantage fool you. As this article explains, these so-called Medicare Advantage plans rarely offer a true “advantage” over Original Medicare with a Medicare Supplement plan. And if you ever try to switch back from a Medicare Advantage plan to Original Medicare, you can be denied because of pre-existing conditions. So do your research, and proceed with caution when it comes to Medicare “Advantage!”
7. Strokes in Younger People Are Increasing Even as New Stroke Prevention Guidelines Are Released. Strokes are the fifth-leading cause of death in the United States and the leading cause of disability. They result in nearly 160,000 deaths annually, and every year, more than 600,000 people in the US have a first stroke. And new research from the Centers for Disease Control shows that the rate of stroke has been steadily rising among Americans younger than 49 for the past 30 years. Imagine being under 50 and experiencing a stroke! There is hope, however, because if a stroke is identified early, and you get prompt medical intervention, you are more likely to have a good outcome. That’s why it is important for you to maintain a healthy lifestyle and to recognize the signs of stroke and know when to get help.
6. Say Goodbye to the Burdens of Timeshare Ownership. Nearly 10 million households own some sort of timeshare. And, about 850,000 of them would like to sell their timeshares within two years! Many people are desperate to exit their timeshares but feel helpless when it comes to finding ways to do so. The nightmare in all this is that they aren’t so easy to get rid of because with expensive, ongoing fees, no one wants them!
At the Farr Law Firm, we understand that timeshares are not actually assets, but burdensome financial liabilities. This is true when you’re alive and when you leave them to your children or grandchildren after your death. A timeshare is “the gift that keeps on taking” because of the required annual maintenance fees associated with timeshare ownership. On a positive note, to alleviate the nightmare of off-loading a timeshare, the Estate Planning attorneys and Elder Care lawyers at the Farr Law Firm have developed an expertise in efficiently and legally disposing of timeshares, providing you with a multipronged timeshare exit strategy tailored to your needs.
5. Comparing Financial Powers of Attorney: Badly Drafted DIY vs. Well-Drafted Documents. When it comes to Elder Law and Estate Planning, DIY may save money, but it almost always turns out to be a nightmare! You or your spouse may think it’s a good idea to draft your own Power of Attorney or to hire an inexperienced and low-cost attorney to draft it. But being frugal while preparing the most important legal document in your life is generally not a smart move. Saving money may be good for DIY projects around the house, as there are always YouTube videos to refer to! However, DIY Estate Planning done wrong can have disastrous consequences that can cause nightmares for years to come, as this article explains.
4. What Are the 15 Factors Linked to a Higher Risk of Young-Onset Dementia? If you’re in your 70s or 80s, and you’ve noticed that you’re experiencing some forgetfulness, it may be reasonable to be concerned about memory loss that may or may not be dementia. But what if you’re in your 60s, 50s, 40s, or 30s … surely those ages would be too young for Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, right? Although dementia usually develops in people aged 65 years and older, young-onset dementia (also called early-onset dementia) occurs in people younger than age 65. Find out the factors and signs of young-onset dementia and what to do if you are experiencing them!
3. Consumer Protection Week: Record Losses of $10 Billion Due to Scams Were Reported to the FTC Last Year! Rich Brune, a 75-year-old Navy veteran living in Virginia, recently fell for an online scam that cost him nearly $800,000. Sophisticated criminals posing as Microsoft workers contacted him online and told him that his computer had been hacked, his financial accounts were compromised, and that he needed to take urgent action. Over a five-month period, he was instructed to transfer much of his life savings into a cryptocurrency account that the scammers told him was safe from hackers. Instead, he was being robbed of his nest egg. Crypto fraudsters frequently cheat their victims out of thousands and often hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Unfortunately, scammers are continually becoming more creative and are therefore finding more and more ways to cheat investors out of their money. About 80 percent of Americans targeted by crypto and investment scams last year lost thousands last year, the BBB reported. The median dollar amount lost was $3,800, but many people lose much more than that in crypto scams. This article describes what you can do to become more aware so you aren’t the next victim of a crypto scam.
2. Yes, Probate Really Is That Bad! Probate is such a nightmare that 2 of our top 10 scary articles are about it. Again, if you die without a Last Will, or with a Last Will but without a funded trust, the probate court will oversee distribution of your property. Probate is a lengthy, public, and expensive process, among other things. To explain it simply, the after-death probate process involves: proving the authenticity of a decedent’s will (if they had one); appointing a personal representative (either an executor nominated in a Last Will and Testament or an individual asking to be appointed as the administrator of the intestate estate, which can result in many people fighting over who gets to serve in that role); identifying and inventorying a person’s assets; paying debts and taxes; identifying heirs; and eventually, after everything else is done, distributing property according to the Will or, if the decedent died intestate, according to state law. If that isn’t a nightmare, I don’t know what is! But it’s one you don’t have to have if you have proper Estate Planning in place!
1. A Screening Tool Exists that Accurately Predicts End-of-Life. Although it sounds like a ghoulish April Fool’s joke or Halloween prank, a computerized tool called the Geriatric End-of-Life Screening Tool, or GEST, can accurately identify if seniors visiting the emergency department have a high risk of dying within 6 months, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association. GEST identified 2.6 percent of people without any diagnosis of serious illnesses as having a significant mortality risk, and more than one-third of this group (34.3 percent) died within 6 months. This finding indicates that GEST may be able to identify undiagnosed or worsening conditions that put a person at greater risk of dying within the next 6 months. The hope is that GEST could help medical professionals assess a medical condition and improve end-of-life care by automatically flagging high-risk individuals for care-planning discussions and end-of-life planning they may not have done otherwise.
Scared Yet? If Not, Here’s Something Really Scary!
If all those articles weren’t enough to scare our readers, here’s something really scary: Nursing homes in the DC Metro area cost $14,000-$18,000 a month, an amount that will quickly wipe out all of the money you have worked your entire life to earn — if you don’t properly prepare for long-term care.
If you are now even a little bit frightened, please know that we can help you eliminate these fears. At the Farr Law Firm, we specialize in Medicaid Planning, also called Medicaid Asset Protection Planning, Lifecare Planning, and Long-term Care Planning — all designed to help people like you overcome these legal and financial fears associated with aging. We give our clients the well-deserved peace of mind knowing that their entire estates won’t be wiped out if nursing home care is necessary. If you haven’t done Medicaid Planning, Estate Planning, or Incapacity Planning yet, please call us to make an appointment:
Fairfax Medicaid Planning: 703-691-1888
Fredericksburg Medicaid Asset Protection: 540-479-1435
Rockville Elder Law: 301-519-8041
DC Elder Care: 202-587-2797
About Evan H Farr, CELA, CAP
