Posted on September 4, 2016 by Hawkins Elder Law.
Nursing home bills usually turn a person’s world upside down when his or her spouse requires nursing home care (the average Indiana nursing home bed costs $7,167 per month in 2022). This article begins a two-part series about state and federal law can save a nursing home resident’s spouse from poverty, and how an experienced […]
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Posted on August 29, 2016 by Hawkins Elder Law.
We often hear from married couples during estate planning conferences that they do not plan to go to a nursing home. Our half joking reply is that lines rarely form for people wanting to enter nursing homes unless they are visiting nursing home residents. Unfortunately, according to the Indiana Long-Term Care Partnership Program, “individuals living […]
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Posted on August 4, 2016 by Hawkins Elder Law.
[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] Clients and people that attend our estate planning presentations during our tours around Southern Indiana often ask whether they can give money to their family members. A common version of the question is, “Is it true that I can give $10,000 (or slightly larger value) […]
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Posted on July 24, 2016 by Hawkins Elder Law.
[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] People ask us to explain the difference between wills and trusts from time to time when we are speaking to groups about advance health care directives and other estate planning topics. We have tried many ways to answer the question over the years, but we […]
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Posted on April 22, 2016 by Hawkins Elder Law.
[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] Revocable trust plans have been around for fifty years or more. Revocable trusts were quite the rage when we began practicing law in the early 1990s. Most people wanted the privacy advantage that revocable trusts held over last wills and testaments. Some people believed mistakenly […]
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Posted on March 30, 2016 by Hawkins Elder Law.
[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and other health crises send thousands of people to nursing homes each year. People often want to protect assets from expensive healthcare costs when they discover that the average annual cost of Indiana nursing home care exceeds $71,000. Legitimate asset protection strategies […]
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Posted on February 28, 2016 by Hawkins Elder Law.
The State of Indiana has published that Indiana nursing home care costs an average of more than $71,000 per year. Fortunately, federal law protects most spouses of nursing home residents from impoverishment. Here are some Indiana’s spousal impoverishment rule features: The Spousal Impoverishment Protection Law applies for nursing home admissions occurring on or after September […]
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Posted on February 12, 2016 by Hawkins Elder Law.
[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] We have written articles about estate planning and long-term care for more than a decade to debunk myths and misconceptions that may lead people into unnecessary problems. This article addresses some of those myths and misconceptions about Indiana Medicaid for the elderly. Permitted Annual Gifts. […]
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Posted on January 16, 2016 by Hawkins Elder Law.
[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] The US Department of Veterans Affairs (also known as the “VA”) expresses some of our nation’s respect and gratitude to US military veterans by providing various benefits to veterans, their surviving spouses, and dependent children. Unfortunately, many veterans follow bad advice to pursue the VA’s […]
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Posted on December 31, 2015 by Hawkins Elder Law.
[See our Disclaimers page about relying on this website’s contents.] All of our ancestors conducted business by paying with cash. When we were younger, our parents told us that it was irresponsible to live without carrying substantial amounts of cash. Those beliefs may have been valid in the past, but doing business without keeping a […]
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