Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Domestic Partners Have the Same Financial Goals as Everyone Else

September 22, 2009 - 6:00 pm Webinar

An insightful and informative discussion about matters specific to our community featuring guest speakers:

Jane A. Bassett, Attorney at Law, Bassett & Associates, P.L.L.C.
Karl Schwartz, Regional Marketing Director, Lincoln Financial
Stacey E. Cassis, The Spickler Group, Merrill Lynch

What is the important financial concern on your mind right now? We know the problems we face. Join us via the web and tune in to join a conversation on possible solutions to legal status challenges, retirement and income planning needs, and having your wishes fulfilled for your beneficiaries and favorite charities.

Please R.S.V.P. to Stacey Cassis at stacey_cassis@ml.com or 888.645.7216 by September 17th. We will confirm by forwarding you the login information.

Questions? Please send your questions in advance to Stacey and we will address them during the webinar.

America Goes Back to School: A National Town Hall Meeting with Arne Duncan - Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Excerpt from Ed.gov: (click for entire article)

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is traveling throughout the country to engage a broad group of stakeholders—including parents—in an open and honest conversation about federal education policy in anticipation of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Already, the secretary has met with hundreds of mothers and fathers, students, teachers, principals, education support staff, superintendents, college professors, higher education administrators, and community leaders during his national tour, “Listening and Learning: A Conversation About Education Reform.”

One of the most important things policymakers can do is to connect with the people who are affected by the decisions they make. During his tour, Secretary Duncan has heard and noted that in order to prepare students for success in today’s globally competitive workforce, it is not enough simply to preserve the status quo. Parents and other education stakeholders across America want better schools, curricula, and teachers for their children and, through forums such as this National Town Hall Meeting, they are helping to shape future education policy.

Madeleine Meilleur's offer of assistance to those provinces "contemplating a move towards more community based supports"

Patti's Comments: Our neighbors to the south can do this, why can’t we? (Yes, the south, look at the map, and look at the Detroit Michigan area!)

Excerpt from Deinstitutionalization Watch: (click for entire article)

Dear: Gord

I am writing today to share Ontario's experience closing institutions for people with a developmental disability.

On March 31, 2009, Ontario reached a historic milestone as the last three government-operated
institutions for people with a developmental disability closed: the Huronia Regional Centre in Orillia, the Rideau Regional Centre in Smith Falls and the Southwestern Regional Centre in Chatham-Kent.

By closing these institutions, we officially ended the era of institutional living for people with a developmental disability in Ontario.

These closures were a long time coming. The government housed people with a developmental disability in institutions for more than 100 years. Ontario once ran 16 of these institutions in rural settings across the province.

With time, however, attitudes started to change. Society began to see that people with a developmental disability didn't need to be secluded in an institution. People with developmental disabilities, their families, and society at large benefit when everyone is included. For the last 22 years, the Ontario government has been closing institutions across the province. With each election, governments from all three political parties did their part to meet our shared commitment to social inclusion.

Trust as Beneficiary of IRA Is a Popular Strategy

From The Wall Street Journal: (click for article)

My wife and I are both over 65 and are doing some estate planning. Can I transfer funds from a traditional IRA to a trust without immediately being taxed? What would be the tax consequences of making the trust the beneficiary of my IRA?

Ken Hartmann
Omaha, Neb.

The reader's best bet would be the second strategy -- making the trust the beneficiary of his individual retirement account, says Natalie Choate, an estate-planning lawyer at Nutter McClennan & Fish LLP in Boston.

Still, there is a caveat we will get to in a moment.

To take the questions in order: Transferring funds from an IRA to a trust would "invariably cause immediate taxation," because the transfer would be considered an IRA distribution, Ms. Choate says.

Note: Investors might encounter a technique espoused by some estate-planning experts, which in theory would allow for a transfer without triggering taxes. But the Internal Revenue Service has never specifically "blessed" the technique, Ms. Choate says. So, "most estate-planning lawyers would say you shouldn't try it without getting a ruling from the IRS, which would be quite expensive."

Instead -- and here we turn to the second question -- the reader could name the trust as a beneficiary of his IRA. It is a popular estate-planning move for people who want to use a trust to avoid estate taxes or protect beneficiaries, such as children who are too young to manage the money themselves, or adult children with special needs, Ms. Choate says.

You would need to make sure that the trust is written to follow strict IRS guidelines known by estate planners as "see-through" or "conduit" trust rules. Also, the income-tax rates that trusts pay are generally higher than income taxes paid by individuals. But your heirs can avoid paying the high trust rate if the trustee can pass all the IRA distributions out to the individual trust beneficiaries. "So, you need to be sure, if you name a trust as beneficiary, that the trustee has the latitude to do this, and the IRA distributions won't get trapped inside the trust," Ms. Choate says.

There are drawbacks to leaving an IRA in a trust for your spouse, as opposed to other beneficiaries. A trust would have to draw down the IRA in installments every year over the life expectancy of the oldest trust beneficiary. In contrast, if you name your spouse outright as beneficiary, instead of using a trust, he (or she) can roll your IRA into his or her own IRA -- and possibly defer distributions and taxes for many more years, Ms. Choate says.

So, you may want to combine the strategies so that your IRA goes to your spouse upon your death, and then to a trust on behalf of your other heirs upon your spouse's death.

Students with disabilities could be evicted from Bloomfield Hills schools because of 1955 clause

Patti's Comments: This makes me so mad!

Excerpt from Metro Detroit Local News & Talk: (click for entire article)

An Oakland County Circuit Judge has ruled that Oakland County students with severe mental impairments can no longer attend class at a Bloomfield Hills elementary school.

The students, who are not from the Bloomfield Hills school district where the school is located, are in violation of a charitable trust which dates back to 1955.

Mae Callow granted almost 12 acres of land to Bloomfield Hills schools that year with one condition: the site can only be used for students who live within the district.

Pine Lake Elementary School was built on the site and was primarily serving K-5 students. The Bloomfield Hills school board voted to close Pine Lake this year due to budget cuts, but it also began renting out space to the Kingsley Montgomery program, which serves children with special needs.

Now, because of Judge Michael Warren's order, the students may not have a classroom on September 8, the Detroit Free Press reports.

"Based upon two independent legal opinions, Bloomfield Hills Schools continues to believe the Court of Appeals will rule that no charitable trust exists and that the deed restriction "for School purposes only", which applies to only half the Pine Lake site, should be liberally interpreted according to the school code," the school board wrote in a statement.

Social Security Struggles With Disability Backlog

Patti's Comments: The folks waiting struggle even more while they wait.

Excerpt from NPR: (click for entire article)

Last year, David Richards was at his job as a cook at Kentucky Fried Chicken when he got a call from his doctor's office. After routine blood work, Richards was told to go to the hospital. There was a serious problem with his test results.

"I needed a blood transfusion," he says. "Between June 13th and probably around June 16th, I had around eight of them."

Further testing showed that Richards, who was just 40 years old, had Stage 3 colon cancer.

He started chemotherapy. Then radiation. Then a second round of chemo. He hasn't worked in over a year.

Someone at the welfare office told him about Social Security disability income.

When someone gets sick or disabled and can no longer work, they can turn to Social Security and ask for disability benefits. For Richards, it would pay him about $1,000 a month.

Hooray! An ADA Accommodations policy at DHS

SOME VERY GOOD NEWS:

Thanks to the advocacy of a number of  organizations representing persons with disabilities and low income folks, DHS has (finally) issued a policy on “Nondiscrimination in Service Delivery”, which is available online at  http://www.mfia.state.mi.us/olmweb/ex/ahj/1313.pdf

It is part of the DHS Administrative Handbook, which is available on the DHS website that has DHS policy and procedure manuals  (http://www.mfia.state.mi.us/olmweb/ex/ahj/1313.pdf)

The Bulletin issuing the new policy is at http://www.mfia.state.mi.us/olmweb/ex/AH-2009-005.pdf. 

Although it is not perfect, by any means, the policy is a HUGE step forward.   PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT THE POLICY AND BEGIN USING IT TO HELP YOUR CLIENTS!!!

The publication that DHS has issued to inform clients about their rights under the ADA is not written in plain language and contains some misinformation (e.g. says you must use their form to file a complaint).  You can see it at  http://www.michigan.gov/documents/dhs/DHS-Pub-0259_276107_7.pdf  According to the policy, it also is supposed to be in your local DHS office lobby.  You might want to look for it and ask where it is.

Policy also requires a new poster  (the standard issue nondiscrimination poster will not meet the requirements of the new policy).  I have not seen a draft or final version poster, and you may want to check your local office to see if its there – please let me know what you find!

I suspect that DHS has not done any training on this, since they have been in the midst of the Bridges rollout, so you may have to educate caseworkers about it.

I’m off on vacation tomorrow through Labor Day but will send out an Issue Alert with more details when I return—

Jackie Doig
Center for Civil Justice
320 S. Washington - 2nd Floor
Saginaw, MI 48607
(989) 755-3120
Fax (989) 755-3558

Elder Law and Disability Rights Section State Bar of Michigan Conference

The ELDRS annual conference is one of the most relevant events of the year for the elder law practitioner.  I understand that some budgets may be tight but I think this years conference agenda is as good as if not better some of the national programs.  The programs are current and on point and the opportunity to meet other advocates is another valuable part of the conference.  I know many of us comment that the programs are great but we also enjoy the opportunity to spend time with each other and discuss issues. Please join us in September for "Biting the Bullet".     

The 12th Annual Interdisciplinary Conference

on Law, Aging and Disability

Biting the Bullet

September 23-25, 2009

At

Crystal Mountain Resort and Spa

Thompsonville, MI

The conference no elder law attorney can afford to miss.

Join Robert Fleming, author of The Elder Law Answer Book and a host of other great presenters for the annual conference, held this year at the beautiful Crystal Mountain Resort.  Robert is a regular speaker for NAELA and is both informative and entertaining.  He will be speaking on topics which include Diminished Capacity and End of Life Decision Making; Tax Issues with Special Needs Trusts and Technology in the Law Office.  

Other featured speakers include:

• Ann M. Soden, AdE, Montreal, Canada, Executive Director, National Institute of Law, Policy and Aging
• David M Godfey, JD, Washington, D.C., Senior Attorney, ABA Commission on Law and Aging
• Jeffrey Geller, MD, MPH, Worcester, Massachusetts, Professor of Psychiatry; co-author, Women of the Asylum
• Jack G. Devine, Michigan Dept of Military & Veterans Affairs-Adjutant of the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans, Vice President, Vietnam Veterans of America.

Some of the Topics this year will include:

Drafting special needs trusts; end-of-life decision-making; determining capacity; consumer problems and debt collection; extending waiver services to AFCs and HFAs; Olmstead issues; the panoply of veterans benefits; administrative appeals; technology and the small elder law firm; estate planning; involuntary nursing home discharges; working with the difficult client; Medicare and Medicaid eligibility and benefits; and proposals for national health care reform. 

Registration: 

·       online with the State Bar of Michigan at http://www.michbar.org/elderlaw/calendar.cfm

·      by mail attached are the registration forms for both the conference and Crystal Mountain.

See attached agenda for program details.

Download Biting the Bullet Agenda 8-25-09

Download FallConfReg

Why Seniors are Health Reform Winners, Not Losers

Patti's Comments: He is right, especially about Medicaid.  But he is also asking us to trust those that created the problem to fix it.

Excerpt from Kaiser Health News: (click for entire article)

Opponents of health reform have targeted seniors with a blunt message: You will be big losers if “Obama-care” is enacted. In the words of Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele: “Senior citizens will pay a steeper price and will have their treatment options reduced or rationed.”

Scary words. But, in truth, seniors are likely to be big winners if responsible health reform passes and prime victims if it fails. The casualties will not only be today’s elders, but the Baby Boomers, who are the next generation of seniors. They will all pay the price if the existing health system is allowed to fester.

It is true that, today, seniors have a pretty good deal; nearly all those over 65 already have insurance through Medicare--a government program. Seniors and younger people with disabilities who are both very poor and unable to care for themselves are also eligible for long-term care benefits through Medicaid, which is run jointly by the federal government and the states.

So if seniors already have coverage, don’t they have everything to lose from change? Isn’t cost control just a fancy euphemism for cutting benefits? And what about those bureaucrats deciding who gets care and who doesn’t?

Project teaches people with disabilities to stand up for themselves

Patti's Comments: The Arc doing great things as usual!

Excerpt from Star-Telegram: (click for entire article)

 David Swallow has been called retarded all of his life.

"I hate that word," said Swallow, 54, of Fort Worth.

But instead of dwelling on negative stereotypes, he has tried to educate others, including lawmakers, about more positive alternatives. This year, he pushed for a bill that would ban the word from state statutes.

"People tell you that you can’t do anything, but I have proved them wrong every time," he said. "I have a car, I pay insurance, I drive, I’m my mother’s caregiver, and I am contributing to the community."

Swallow is among the first graduates of a new project designed to teach people with developmental and intellectual disabilities how to stand up for themselves. The Arc of Greater Tarrant County received a $75,000 grant from the Texas Council of Developmental Disabilities to deliver the program over three years. It will serve adults in Tarrant, Johnson, Parker, Hood and Wise counties.

The project, which focuses on advocacy and leadership skills, was developed to give people the tools they need to ask for what they want and start a grassroots effort, said Erinn Hall Inman, project coordinator."The purpose is to help them achieve their dreams and the highest quality of life possible," she said.