when someday arrives

142 Pages·2015·1.06 MB·English

WHEN SOMEDAY ARRIVES
How to protect your loved one from ending up in
a nursing home and what to do if you can’t
James P. Shields, Esquire
Thomas J. Boris, Esquire
WHEN SOMEDAY
ARRIVES
How to protect your loved one from
ending up in a nursing home and
what to do if you can’t
James P. Shields, Esquire
Thomas J. Boris, Esquire
JAMES P. SHIELDS, ESQUIRE
THOMAS J. BORIS, ESQUIRE
The Elder Law Offices of Shields & Boris
109 VIP Drive, Suite 102
Wexford, PA 15090
724-934-5044
724-934-3080 Fax
1-800-879-0984 Toll Free
Copyright ©2015 by James P. Shields
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced
in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author.
Printed in the United States of America.
ISBN: 978-1-63385-079-8
Cover design by:
Madeline Sciullo and Jenna Beneski
Published by
Word Association Publishers
205 Fifth Avenue
Tarentum, Pennsylvania 15084
www.wordassociation.com
1.800.827.7903
CONTENTS
Introduction .................................................................................1
1 Acknowledgements .....................................................................3
2 The Hidden Woman’s Issue:
Why the Coming Long-Term Care and Tax Crisis
Could be Catastrophic to your
Legacy and to your Wife or Daughter ......................................5
3 Things Have Changed: Estate Planning 101 .........................25
4 Guardianship: Living Probate .................................................29
5 Wills and Probate: What’s All the Fuss? ................................39
6 Pennsylvania Inheritance Tax .................................................49
7 Federal Estate Tax .....................................................................53
8 In-Laws and Outlaws and Capital Gains ...............................55
9 The Hidden Risks ......................................................................59
10 Income and the Social Security Shuffle .................................63
111 Caring for an Aging Adult – Give Yourself a Break ............71
12 What Should My Estate Plan Accomplish to
Protect My Family’s Legacy? ...................................................77
13 The Old Solution: Giving It All Away, Medicaid and
Long-Term Care Insurance ......................................................79
14 The New Solutions: Asset Based Protection Combined
with Powerful Legal Documents ............................................87
15 Conclusion: Take Action and Take Charge .........................107
About The Elder Law Offices of Shields & Boris ...............133

INTRODUCTION
THIS BOOK is written for those con-
cerned about long-term care. Today’s primary caregiver is
a woman, either the spouse of an ill husband or a daugh-
ter. Daughter caregivers are typically called the “sandwich
generation.” They are still raising their own children while
caring for aging parents. In fact, in 2013, 31.3% of children
aged 18 to 34 were still living with their parents.
We write this book for retirees and child caregivers as
a tool to allow you to stay at home as long as possible and
as a guide of what to do if you or a loved one cannot stay
at home.
We believe every family has a legacy to protect and
it is our job to protect that legacy. The greatest risk to
today’s retiree is a long-term care health crisis. We hope
you find this book helpful as a tool to prepare for what
the future holds.
Our firm was created in response to the sudden pass-
ing of partner James P. Shields’ mother in 1992. She died
with nothing in place. We began our firm to help people
plan ahead. We have helped thousands of families plan
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2 SHIELDS & BORIS
ahead. Over the years we have created strategic alliances
to become an integrated multidisciplinary firm dedicated
to helping our clients to protect their family legacy, to
leverage their assets and make their money last for a life-
time.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
JIM AND I have been partners now for
over a decade and have learned so much from so many dif-
ferent people. We wish to personally thank the following
people for their contributions to our inspiration, knowl-
edge and other help in creating this book.
First we thank God for giving us the natural abilities
to do what we do; our families who have always been there
from our home offices when we first started to our five of-
fices across Western Pennsylvania, that we now have; our
staff for helping us keep our heads on straight and keep-
ing us organized and on top of everything; our clients for
putting their trust and faith in us to create plans to protect
their families legacy; our current and past business coach-
es and business associates (John D. Laslavic and Wendy O.
Lydon of ThistleSea; Julieanne Steinbacher, Esq. of Stein-
bacher & Stahl; Don Quante of Wealth Protection Advi-
sors, LLC.; and Greg Miller of Guardian Capital, LLC).
Finally I want to tell my business partner, who I con-
sider my brother, thank you for being my mentor, always
being there for me over the past several years while I was
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dealing with my different health issues and ultimately
helping me reach my dreams of being a successful compre-
hensive estate planning and elder law attorney.
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THE HIDDEN
WOMAN’S ISSUE:
WHY THE COMING LONG-TERM
CARE AND TAX CRISIS
COULD BE CATASTROPHIC TO
YOUR LEGACY AND TO YOUR
WIFE OR DAUGHTER
THE LIFE EXPECTANCY of today’s
retiree is much longer than that of their parents. We live
longer now, which puts us at greater risk for needing help
or care along the way. To develop an effective plan for you
and your legacy, you need to identify the issues that will
have the greatest financial impact. The cost of disability
and long-term care is the number-one offender, so let us
explore what has now become the greatest financial threat
to middle-class Americans today.
The biggest and most obvious question for retirees and
for long-term care needs is usually money. How are we
going to pay for long-term care?
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