John W. Callinan Elder Law Attorney

02/08/2018

Law Offices of John W. Callinan - Certified Elder Law Attorney

A colleague of mine recently had a victory for individuals applying for that bears mentioning. Medicaid is a health payment plan for needy individuals. Medicaid is a federal and state program. The federal pays for, at least, 50% of the costs associated with Medicaid. In order to participate in the Medicaid program, a state must agree to be bound by the federal rules governing the program. Read more here…

Certified Elder Law Attorney

02/02/2018

Shared Files - Acrobat.com

A client might come to me and ask how they go about administering a deceased family member’s . With most estates, the of the estate is fairly straightforward. The problem is, life is not always as simply as it should be. Read more here...

02/02/2018

John W. Callinan Elder Law Attorney's cover photo

01/12/2018

Shared Files - Acrobat.com

With the ringing in of the New Year, New Jersey’s estate tax is now completely repealed. In short, there is no New Jersey estate tax, irrespective of the value of your estate. New Jersey continues to have an inheritance tax, but the inheritance tax is only imposed if you leave a portion of your estate to someone other than a spouse, parent, child, grandchild or other lineal descendant. Read more here...

11/28/2017

Law Offices of John W. Callinan - Certified Elder Law Attorney

One of the most important estate planning documents that a person can have is a financial power of attorney. A power of attorney permits one person—called the agent or attorney-in-fact—to make decisions for someone else, called the principal. Without a power of attorney, no one can make financial decisions for you, not your spouse, not children. No one. Read more here...

Certified Elder Law Attorney

10/20/2017

Law Offices of John W. Callinan - Certified Elder Law Attorney

One of the biggest impediments to an individual writing a last will and testament and other, important estate planning documents is procrastination. People simply put it off to another day, then it never gets done. If you die without a , your property may pass to unintended individuals. The law determines who receives your , and who that is may differ from who you wanted. Read more here...

Certified Elder Law Attorney

10/05/2017

Shared Files - Acrobat.com

Recently, President put forth a proposal to repeal the federal estate tax. Under existing law, estates with a gross value in excess of $5,490,000 are potentially subject to federal estate tax. A married couple can easily shelter twice that amount (or $10,980,000) from the . Read more here...

09/21/2017

Shared Files - Acrobat.com

Can an adult child be held responsible to pay for the long term care costs of his parent in New Jersey? This is a concept called filial responsibility. The short answer is, yes, under certain circumstances, an adult child could be held responsible for the care of his adult parent. Read more here…

09/13/2017

Shared Files - Acrobat.com

Recently, the New Jersey estate tax was modified. Prior to 2017, an estate with a gross value greater than $675,000 was potentially subject to New Jersey . After January 1, 2017, the gross estate must be in excess of $2,000,000 in order to be subject to New Jersey tax. Starting on January 1, 2018, the New Jersey estate tax will be completely repealed. Read more here...

08/30/2017

Shared Files - Acrobat.com

Recently, the state of New Jersey increased the amount of money that a beneficiary can retain from his income when he is living in a nursing home. Medicaid is a health payment program for needy individuals. To qualify for Medicaid, an individual must have very limited assets and must have insufficient income with which to pay for the cost of his care. Read more here...

08/09/2017

Shared Files - Acrobat.com

When an estate is insolvent, the must file an action in court to have the declared insolvent. So, if you are named as the executor of an estate and if the estate has insufficient assets with which to pay its debts, then one of the first questions you might want to ask yourself is, Do you want to become the executor of the estate? Read more here...

07/19/2017

How to Apply for Medicaid Benefits

Medicaid is a government health payment plan for needy individuals. If a person qualifies for , it will pay for many of the costs associated with long-term care. Applying for Medicaid benefits is a lot of work. By law, the Medicaid Office is supposed to process an application for Medicaid benefits in forty-five days. In practice, that almost never happens. Read more here...

07/12/2017

The Fruits of a Lawyer's Advocacy

Recently, the New Jersey Medicaid program issued a letter increasing the uncompensated asset transfer penalty divisor. The penalty divisor figure is used to calculate the period of time an applicant for Medicaid benefits is ineligible for benefits when he makes an uncompensated asset transfer during the lookback period. Read more here...

06/12/2017

Protecting Privacy

In my practice, I deal with clients’ estate planning needs. Many issues affecting involve addressing events that will happen after the client dies. Some people cherish the idea of privacy even after their passing. Once a Will is “probated,” it becomes a public record; any member of the public can go to the surrogate’s office and look at a copy. Read more here…

05/17/2017

Protecting Your Assets with a Trust

For years, I have been using irrevocable to transfer a client’s assets to her children. The benefits of transferring assets to a trust, instead of transferring the assets directly to the client’s children, are many. Find out more here...

05/10/2017

Senior Planning Can Be a Criminal Act

Recently, companies have emerged with the purpose of assisting people to qualify for benefits, typically when the person resides in a nursing home or assisted living residence. The companies are commonly known as non-attorney Medicaid advisors. Unlike a lawyer who is responsible to maintain client confidentiality and advocate only for the client, a non-attorney advisor is not bound by a code of ethics. In some cases, the advisor provides written monthly reports to the nursing home as to the status of his customers’ Medicaid application, sharing confidential information with the nursing home. Read more here…

05/02/2017

Planning in Changing Times

A large percentage of people do not have a last will and testament. If you are included in that group, you should get a Will. Of those who do have Wills, many put their Will in a secure location and never review it again. If you are in the latter camp, you might want to take your Will out and give it a quick review. Recent changes to laws may make your current Will outdated. Read more here...

04/21/2017

John W. Callinan Elder Law Attorney

04/21/2017

Office Locations in Wall and Middletown - Estate Planning and Certified Elder Law Attorney in New Jersey

Call to schedule a consultation.

Serving New Jersey clients throughout Monmouth, Middlesex and Ocean Counties from our offices in Wall Township and Middletown, NJ. Some towns in our area include Spring Lake Heights, Red Bank, Union Beach, Hazlet, Keansburg, Aberdeen, Matawan, Keyport, Monroe Township, Brick Township, Holmdel and Co...

04/20/2017

Reviewing Gift Tax Laws

It’s income tax time again, so are on everyone’s mind. As an elder law attorney, the one question or comment that I hear the most has to do with gift taxes. The federal gift engenders more misconceptions than any other issue of which I am presented. Most people tend to believe that if they gift more than $14,000 in any one year, they—or the recipient of the gift—will pay a tax, a gift tax. But knowing the annual exclusion amount is really only part of the story, the small part actually. Read more here…

04/11/2017

Beware Non-Attorney Medicaid Advisors

The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs has issued a bulletin advising New Jersey residents of a potential for abuse by non-attorney advisors. Elder law attorneys are frequently the attorneys who assist clients with Medicaid planning. There are, however, non-attorneys who assist people in qualifying for Medicaid. The Supreme Court of New Jersey has issued an opinion holding that providing Medicaid planning advice is the practice of law. Read more here…

04/06/2017

Planning with Retirement Accounts

As the Baby Boomer generation ages, more plans need to incorporate language that accommodates qualified retirement accounts, such as individual retirement accounts and 401(k) plans. Qualified accounts are tax deferred accounts, meaning that are deferred until the owner or the designated beneficiary of the account removes the money from the account. Read more here…

03/22/2017

Preventing Your Children from Fighting

Administering an is a lot of work. It also involves the assumption of a lot a liability since the executor has a duty to perform his job with the utmost care. What makes the administration of an estate even more difficult is when the beneficiaries are fighting. But what makes beneficiaries fight and what can you do to reduce the likelihood that the beneficiaries of your estate will fight? Read more here...

03/08/2017

Blocking the Needy

There has been a lot of talk coming out of Washington, D.C., in the past several months about making a “block grant” program. The new administration is telling us that by making Medicaid a block grant program they are giving more control over Medicaid to the states. The States, the Administration tells us, are in a better position to administer their Medicaid programs and to w**d out fraud and other abuses. Read more here...

03/02/2017

Time to Review Your Will

In the last several years, the laws governing estate taxes have changed at both the state and federal levels of government. The short of it is, unless you are quite wealthy, you no longer need to worry about . Read more here...

02/15/2017

Death Panels and the Death of Reality

A Republican congressman from Florida this week told a number of assembled constituents at a town hall meeting that the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) contained a provision that created federal death panels. According to the death panel myth, these panels consist of government bureaucrats who decide whether or not a sick person will receive a given medical treatment or procedure. Read more here…

02/01/2017

More Choices, Less Coverage

There are some interesting conversations occurring with respect to , and I think many people don’t quite understand the parlance that is being used in those discussions. Since before its passage, Republicans have been taking about repealing the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as . Because of Obamacare, approximately 20 million Americans who did not have health insurance now have health insurance. The uninsured rate in this country is at an all-time low of approximately 9%. Read more here…

01/18/2017

How Much Money Can I Keep?

Long-term care costs are exceptionally high. A nursing home in our area costs between $10,000 and $13,000 per month. An assisted living residence costs between $5,000 and $9,500, depending upon the level of care that the resident requires. Few people could afford to pay these costs for an extended period of time without completely depleting their life’s savings. Read more here…

01/13/2017

Medicaid Companies

In the past several years, I have seen a growing number of companies that assist people in qualifying for benefits. I can tell you that I have heard the fees these non-attorney companies charge their customers, and the fees are either higher than or equal to the fees I would charge to assist a family in qualifying their loved one for Medicaid. If the fees these companies are charging are equal to or higher than the fees I would charge, a question becomes, are the services these companies are providing equal to or better than the services I am providing? Read more here…

01/04/2017

Bloodline Trusts

Last year, NJ adopted its version of the Uniform Trust Code (Code). The Code solidifies the usage of a spendthrift clause in a trust. A spendthrift clause is a clause in a trust that prevents the creditors of a beneficiary from accessing the assets of the trust to pay the debts of the beneficiary as long as the assets are held in the trust. Read more here...

12/21/2016

New Special Needs Trust Law

President Obama signed into law an amendment to the special needs trust that permits a competent disabled individual to establish his own special needs trust. The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) lobbied very hard for this amendment to the law. Read more here...

12/14/2016

New Medicaid Figures

The new spousal impoverishment figures have been published, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to review the meaning of the figures. Many people would be surprised by the generosity of the Medicaid program when dealing with a married couple. Read more here...

12/07/2016

The State of Estate and Gift Taxes

With recent changes to the federal and state estate tax laws, the impact of estate taxes, as well as federal gift tax laws, have been greatly reduced. In fact, the impact of these laws on the vast (vast) majority of individuals is non-existent. Read more here…

12/01/2016

Planning with Retirement Accounts

As the Baby Boomers age, the practice of elder law is changing. One significant change is a result of how the Baby Boomers invest their assets. Read more here...

11/21/2016

Benefits of a Trust

A trust is a fiduciary relationship. The Trustee is a fiduciary to the beneficiary because the trustee owes the beneficiary the duty to hold the property with the utmost care. A trust can have all types of purposes. A trust can protect assets being held in the trust from the creditors of the beneficiary. Read more here...