Fall Estate Planning Special

FALL ESTATE PLANNING SPECIAL

 
Happy Fall! I hope you are enjoying the cooler weather. I am pleased to announce a new addition to my practice and a special offer for the month of October.  Amy Perlack, who has interned with me since last summer, has recently graduated from Northeastern University School of Law and has taken the bar exam.  She will be working with me as a paralegal (alongside Mary Cretella) until she obtains her bar results and is sworn in as an attorney. Once Amy is sworn into the bar, we hope that she will be able to join my practice as an associate. Amy is very fun, and enjoys fitness and cooking in addition to elder law and estate planning.

Why a Special Offer?
 

With the new addition of Amy as a full-time employee, I am making a limited-time offer in order to increase business.  I hope that this offer will help me train Amy and will increase my work flow to support her over the next couple of months.

Fall Estate Planning Special Offer

During the month of October, I am offering my basic estate planning package at a reduced rate. This offer requires the client to commit to the plan during the month of October, 2012, with drafting and signing of the plan to be completed by November 30, 2012. Basic estate planning documents include Wills, Durable Powers of Attorney, Health Care Proxies, HIPAA Releases and Advance Directives (otherwise known as Living Wills).

I am offering the full set of basic documents for a flat fee of $1,500 for a single person and $2,000 for a couple. This offer is hundreds of dollars less than my regular fee ($1,800 for a single person and $2,800 for a couple). Any additional planning or other documents, such as trusts, would be outside this offer’s scope but could be implemented under my standard fee schedule.

Who Can Take Advantage of This Offer

The offer applies to any new client.  If you have family members or friends who would like to take advantage of this offer, they may do so provided that everyone is okay with my representing both you and your family member or friend.

Estate planning is not just for seniors or the wealthy.  At any age, it is important to ensure that you plan for what happens when you are no longer able to manage your own affairs. My practice has grown by supplying this kind of assurance to clients with a full range of needs, from simple estate documents to complex elder law and long-term care and tax planning.

Please Spread the Word

If you know anyone who could benefit from completing an estate plan at a reduced fee, please let them know about this special offer.  This should be a “win-win” for both the new clients and my office.  The client will receive an excellent estate plan expeditiously and at a reduced rate, and I will have a temporary increase in basic estate plans to help train Amy and to support her position here. 

Health Care Reform and Elders:

I have been so busy representing my clients that I fell behind with my blog posts. The White House has been busy as well with big news items like financial reform and the recent oil spill, which quickly eclipsed health care reform in the public eye.

However, health care reform is here to stay and it is important to understand how it will change the lives of elders. Health care reform will impact elders in many different ways, from closing the Medicare Part D doughnut hole to creating a national long-term care insurance option. Below are some important provisions of the new law as it relates to elders. Follow the links at the end of this post to learn more.

Medicare:

• Creates a $250 rebate to Medicare Part D beneficiaries who hit the doughnut hole* (or as we Massachusetts folks like to say, the donut hole) in 2010.
• Closes the Medicare Part D doughnut hole by 2020, including phased-in mandatory drug discounts for prescriptions filled in the doughnut hole.
• Provides a free annual wellness visit and prevention assessment for Medicare beneficiaries.
• Extends the life of the Medicare Trust Fund by about nine years, now projected to be depleted in 2026 (as opposed to 2017, which was the projected depletion date before health care reform). 
• Ties Medicare Part D Premiums to income, resulting in higher premiums for many beneficiaries.

Medicaid:

• Creates a new community based care option and creates incentives for states to offer the option. Massachusetts already has a community based care option, and it is not yet clear whether the new option will be any better.
• Mandates that states include spousal impoverishment protections (Massachusetts already has these protections in place).

Other:

• Creates a national long-term care insurance program which will be funded through voluntary payroll deductions. Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) program.
• Creates a number of care coordination programs and options.
• New nursing home regulations, including mandating training for workers who care for residents with dementia.
• Creates a number of new protections against elder abuse, including creating the Elder Justice Coordinating Council, and provides dedicated funding to Adult Protective Services.

Find Out More:

CBS: http://bit.ly/cCJKxi

Wallet Pop: http://bit.ly/cfw3y0

The Christian Science Monitor: http://bit.ly/aAyYba

The White House: http://bit.ly/9A1Fxi

AARP: http://bit.ly/9TCFqK

The Boston Globe: http://bit.ly/9E5xam

* for those of you unfamiliar with the term “doughnut hole”, it is the unofficial name for the Medicare Part D coverage gap. The coverage gap is a period of time during which the Medicare recipient has exceeded his or her drug coverage limit, but has not yet incurred enough drug expenses to reach the catastrophic coverage threshold. The elder is responsible for paying his or her own prescription drug costs out of pocket during this period, and such costs can run to thousands of dollars each year.