Category Archives: VA Aid & Attendance Attorney Walnut Creek

Medi-Cal Recovery Will Be Limited to Probate Estates after January 1, 2017

We have recently blogged about the new legislation Governor Brown signed, effective January 1, 2017, which changes the rules regarding recovery by the state for payments it has made to nursing homes for Medi-Cal recipients. Under the old law, the only way we could avoid recovery was to ensure that there was nothing in the […]

John Hancock Has Dropped Traditional Long Term Care Insurance – But All Is Not Lost!

Forbes Magazine has recently reported that John Hancock is the latest insurance company to drop out of the traditional long term care insurance market. John Hancock has been one of the largest providers over the years, having sold some 1.2 million traditional long term care insurance policies. It is estimated that there are now less […]

2017 Medi-Cal Recovery Against Surviving Spouse

Governor Brown has signed new legislation, effective January 1, 2017, which changes the rules regarding recovery by the state for payments it has made to nursing homes for Medi-Cal recipients.  Under the present law, the state can recover against the surviving spouse or domestic partner of a Medi-Cal recipient, from whatever was in the Medi-Cal […]

The New Transfer On Death Deed (TOD)

On January 1, 2016, a new California law became effective which creates a Revocable Transfer on Death Deed. (“TOD Deed”). The deed is designed to transfer residential property to named beneficiaries upon the death of the grantor. There is no transfer of title during the life of the grantor. The legislative purpose of the TOD […]

When Can The State Recover Medi-Cal Payments?

If you die after having been on Medi-Cal, the state will want to recover from your estate. They will want to recover what they paid for your nursing home care while you were on Medi-Cal. If there is nothing in your estate when you die, there will have nothing in your estate for them to […]

Medi-Cal and Life Insurance Recovery

If you die after having been on Medi-Cal, the state can only recover what is left in your estate at the time of your death. Whatever is in your revocable living trust when you die, is recoverable by Medi-Cal because that is part of your estate. That is why we reserve powers in the revocable […]

Do-It-Yourself Estate Plans

If you do an on-line search, you will immediately find websites that will help you create estate planning documents like revocable living trusts and wills. The selling point of these websites is that you will save on legal fees. Accordingly, you do not receive legal representation from these web sites. But, are you being “penny […]

How Much Does The Surviving Spouse Receive In Social Security Benefits?

In a previous post, we discussed what you should do about Social Security benefits after someone dies. But with regard to married couples, how much will the surviving spouse receive? Generally speaking, the surviving spouse will receive 100% of the deceased spouse’s Social Security benefit, as long as that amount is greater than the surviving spouse’s […]

Plan For Incapacity Now

Planning for incapacity should take place now, while you still have good mental capacity. If you lose mental capacity, you will not be able to make good decisions regarding your financial and personal affairs. For seniors, incapacity can occur for instance, as the result of a head trauma, dementia or as a consequence of Alzheimer’s […]

Be On The Lookout For Sweepstakes Fraud

There are thousands of companies that use sweepstakes offers in an effort to lure people into sending them money. This has been reported by the Office of the Attorney General in California. The report says that many of these companies have been prosecuted by the California Attorney  General, attorneys general in other states, by the […]