Roberson Law Focusing on Estate Planning, Trust, Probate and Elder Law

Newsletter

NEWS ALERT:

Ohio Health Care Directives Get Updated For The First Time In Four Years

The Ohio Statutory Forms for the Health Care Power of Attorney (HCPOA) and Living Will have been updated for the first time since 2010. Three significant changes have impacted the new forms.

The first change is that two full pages have been added to the HCPOA for designating a person's choice for a guardian if a guardianship is necessary. The guardianship designation is not new language for the Powers of Attorney that our office prepares, however. Our office has included a guardianship designation in our General Durable Power of Attorney (GDPOA) for years, so if you have a GDPOA prepared by our office, choosing a guardian is not necessarily a reason for updating your HCPOA to the new forms.

The second change on the new HCPOA is that the form now enables the "Agent" to sign a HIPAA statement on the person's behalf. Once again, we have all of our clients sign a separate HIPAA form, so this is not a reason for updating your HCPOA if you have previously signed a HIPAA form at our office.

The third and most significant change is that there is a section on the new HCPOA that revokes all previously signed HCPOA forms.

Clients who call us from this point on to update or prepare new estate planning documents will receive the new HCPOA forms from our office; however, it is our opinion that clients who currently do not have any updates to their documents do not need to update their HCPOA to the new form.

As always, if any of your estate planning documents are more than ten years old, you should have your documents reviewed and updated to ensure that your estate plan still reflects your wishes and the current laws.

Elderly Woman

Elder Law Update: Does Mom Live With You? The Importance Of A Personal Services Agreement And Lease When Applying For Medicaid

Two documents that we often prepare in conjunction with Medicaid planning are the Personal Services Agreement and Lease. Both documents can be very important proof for substantiating the money paid to a caregiver, who is often a family member, so that the money paid to the family member does not have to be repaid in order for the Medicaid application to be approved.

Without a Personal Services Agreement or Lease in place, the money paid to a family member for living expenses, caregiver fees, or other expenses could be determined to be a gift that must be paid back before the applicant could qualify for Medicaid.

As a reminder, we suggest that you schedule an appointment with us to assist you in developing a game plan to address long term care and caregiver expenses. We

do not recommend attempting the Medicaid application process before having "all of your ducks in a row." Don't do it alone; one wrong transfer may disqualify the recipient from receiving Medicaid.

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Did you know that we have a department dedicated to senior services?

Preserve your savings from nursing home costs
Keep your home in the family
Know when to apply for Medicaid
Receive help finding the right nursing home

Check out our web page on Elder Law!

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News You Can Use

In This Issue:

NEWS ALERT: Ohio Health Care Directives Get Updated For The First Time in Four Years
Beware of Non-Profit Solicitors Who Prey on the Elderly During the Holidays
Annual Roberson Law Christmas Letter
Elder Law Update: Does Mom Live With You? The Importance of a Personal Services Agreement and Lease When Applying For Medicaid
Nancy Roberson Receives Award
Helpful Hints: How To Transfer Frequent Flyer Miles After A Person Dies
The Benefits Of Using The Dayton Foundation
Widows' Support Groups
Need A Speaker For Your Next Event?

Beware of Non-Profit Solicitors Who Prey on the Elderly During the Holidays

Over the years, we've fielded panicky phone calls from seniors about charitable solicitations they were receiving and from children whose parents were making inappropriate or excessive charitable contributions. Nancy Roberson remembers an "emergency" meeting with an elderly lady terrified that she was going to be arrested if she didn't send her check by the deadline in the solicitation! As a result, we included a link to the Ohio State Bar Association's 11/30/14 article about "Telephone Solicitations from Charitable Organizations" that we hope you will find helpful, especially before the end of the year when charitable solicitations proliferate.

Annual Roberson Law Christmas Letter

Every year we mail a holiday letter to stay connected with our past and current clients. This is a 21-year tradition in our office. The letter is mailed through the United States Postal Service to everyone in our client database for whom we have a current mailing address, and for some people it is the only correspondence that they receive from us all year.

The holiday letter takes a lot of effort to get mailed. This year we mailed 2,350 letters, which means that we had to go to the post office and purchase 2,350 stamps and mailing labels, go to the office supply store and purchase 2,350 sheets of holiday paper, and stuff 2,350 envelopes. We estimate that it takes 32 staff hours to complete all of the activities required to mail the Christmas letter, so it's quite an undertaking!

Although this email newsletter gets emailed to over 3,000 people, we do not have everyone's snail mail address in order to send our holiday letter. For that reason, we have included a copy of our holiday letter in this newsletter for anyone to read who may have not received our holiday letter in the mail. Read a copy of the letter here and enjoy!

Nancy Roberson Receives Award

In October, Nancy Roberson was elected as a Five Star Estate Planning Attorney! Over 500 estate planning attorneys were originally looked at and then narrowed down to 108 nominees. Only 19 winners were chosen after surveys were conducted and scored to determine the estate planning attorneys who provide exceptional service and overall satisfaction, resulting in an elite

group of professionals. Nancy Roberson has been selected, and is named, as one of these elite professionals in the October issue of Cincinnati Magazine.

To read the entire press release, click this link.

The Benefits Of Using The Dayton Foundation

"Giving Tuesday" last week was a social media campaign used by non-profits around the globe to encourage end-of-year giving. One of our favorite charitable organizations that we encourage our clients to use for their giving needs is The Dayton Foundation, a public charity that benefits many different citizens, organizations, and communities, not just one particular nonprofit.

There are many benefits to using The Dayton Foundation for charitable gifts. According to the foundation's website, donations made to the foundation qualify for the maximum available deduction for charitable contributions in the year when the gift is made. The website also states that The Dayton Foundation can offer solutions to help reduce your federal estate tax liability. "When donating appreciated stock or other assets, you can receive a tax deduction for the full fair-market value of the stock on the date of the gift and avoid paying long-term capital gains tax on the increased value."

Read this link to obtain more facts and gain a better understanding of The Dayton Foundation.

Helpful Hints: How To Transfer Frequent Flyer Miles After A Person Dies

With the proliferation of credit cards that offer frequent flyer miles and hotel points, a topic of interest to many people is who gets points or miles that are leftover in an account after one dies. According to an article in the New York Times titled "The Afterlife of Your Frequent Flier Miles" by Susan Stellin, the airlines that allow a transfer from the decedent's account to another person's account are American Airlines, US Airways, and JetBlue. All of these airlines require a death certificate and an affidavit or other form signed by the authenticated estate representative before the miles can be transferred, but at least they allow a transfer of the miles.

If you have a lot of miles that could have significant value, you may want to designate in your will who gets the miles after your death. The way to ensure that a beneficiary can use the miles is to simply give the executor named in your will the user name and password to your frequent flyer account to be given to the beneficiary for his or her own use after your death. Since most points are redeemed online and do not have to be redeemed by or for the person whose name is on the account, just having the information to access the account online can be good enough to allow you to use the miles for yourself or someone else. Obviously, unused miles would then be voided in the event that they were not transferred to another person's account, but that method is one way to use a decedent's points for an airline that does not allow points to be transferred to another person's account.

Roberson Law Dayton Ohio

Need a Speaker For Your Next Event?

Nancy Roberson had a busy year giving speeches to various non-profits, clubs, civic organizations, and businesses every month this year. Nancy spoke over twenty times this year on the importance of planning for death and disability, which often includes her heartfelt, personal story of the tragedy in her life that propelled her to pursue her practice area of law.

Rob Moyer, President and CEO of Rexarc, a business where Nancy spoke this Fall, wrote the following testimonial about Nancy's speech:

"As a committed community contributor, Nancy Roberson has spoken to the Rexarc organization to communicate the importance of thinking ahead and planning for the inevitable. Through her insightful presentations, many individuals have shared that Nancy's thoughts have stimulated their review or proactive development of their estate planning. Through the support of personal and professional development by Rexarc, driven by Nancy's presentations and encouragement, the Rexarc workforce has become more prepared through awareness of the need to have a personal estate plan."

If you would like Nancy to speak at your next event, please call 937.643.2000 or email Amy Cary at acary@dayton-attorney.com to book your event. Nancy has an inspiring story that captivates and motivates audiences to get their personal and legal affairs in order.

As always, we do not charge a fee for our professional speaking services as long as you confirm that at least ten people will attend. If fewer than ten people attend the event, then we just request that a donation be made to the Young Widows or Widows Support Group. You may also go to our speaking engagements page on our website to read some testimonials from past attendees and to obtain more information about speaking topics.

Widows' Support Groups

This is a reminder that the Young Widows' Support Group (under age 50) meets on the first Thursday of each month from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and the Widows' Support Group (over age 50) meets on the first Friday of each month from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Both groups meet at Normandy United Methodist Church, located at 450 West Alex-Bell Road, Centerville, Ohio. Dates may change, however, due to holiday conflicts.

For more information about the Young Widows' Support Group, visit the website, call Pam Walker at 937.672.8810, or email DaytonYWSG@aol.com.

For further information about the Widows' Support Group, call or email Sherry Matsel at 937.878.9707 or imboo25@yahoo.com.

Our mission is to provide excellent, compassionate legal services to help people plan for the unexpected and prepare for the inevitable.