Pooled Income Trusts
On occasion, we have clients that need to use Medicaid to cover their long term case expenses. One of our clients participates in a pooled income trust. It allows her to use her social security and pension to pay her living expenses, which exceed the amount of income Medicaid permits her to retain.
Last Wednesday, May 14th, Barbara Friesner of Age Wise Living hosted attorney Jeffrey A. Asher of Pryor Cashman LLP on a teleseminar to explain Pooled Income Trusts. As he said, Medicaid is sympathetic to the income needs of the elderly so Pooled Income Trusts are an approved method for keeping $725 a month and having living expenses covered by additional income. An elder law attorney can help clients plan ahead to shelter their assets, but there is no way to plan ahead for pension and social security income. When the time comes, the use of a Pooled Income Trust helps preserve income and qualify for Medicaid.
The process of choosing the right Pooled Income Trust and applying to the trust requires the help of an elder law attorney familiar with the laws of the state in which a client resides. Interesting for a financial organizer/ daily money manager was a comment by Mr. Asher that his legal fees are based on the level of work done (or not done) on the clients’ behalf by the family.
What Eddy & Schein have found is that either a client does not have family, the family lives far away, the family is preoccupied with work and children, or the process of collecting documentation is just too overwhelming (or fraught with emotional baggage). This, of course, is where a financial organizer/daily money manager’s services dovetail with those of the elder law attorney, the needs of the client and of the family. A financial organizer/daily money manager will do the in-home sleuthing, the hunting & gathering, the documenting that the attorney requires. To learn more about Pooled Income Trusts, listen to the AgeWise Living teleseminar by clicking this link:
http://agewiseliving.com/teleseminars.htm
Kiplinger's Retirement Report for May 2008
We are pleased to share that Eddy & Schein In-Home Administrators for Seniors™ is featured in this month’s Kiplinger’s Retirement Report. It describes the services of daily money managers and quotes one of our clients.
In addition to organizing documents, Eddy automated some of the bills, consolidated the CDs and recommended a lawyer to set up a trust. "The room full of papers is gone, replaced by two file boxes... It was extraordinary.”
Please feel free to contact us. We are happy to talk with you about how we can provide Life Keeping, Not Just Bookkeeping® for the seniors in your life.
