June is Gay Pride Month
On Thursday June 6, 2013 I presented at The Pride Center in Wilton Manors for National Gay Pride Month. I spoke about important legal developments for the LGBT community. In case you were not able to attend here’s a recap: February 2013 The Department of Defense issues a memo stating that military departments will now…
Lessons Learned About Life Care Planning – An Anecdote
I just returned from three great days at Disney World with my daughter. It’s great to be a kid and see the world through a child’s eyes – ah the wonder and joy. Have you ever noticed how almost every Disney movie begins with something tragic happening but ends happily ever after? If real life…
Medicaid & Holocaust Reparations: Know Your Legal Rights!
Federal Medicaid law protects Holocaust reparations from being considered as countable resources or countable income when applying for Medicaid assistance. It is suggested that reparations not be commingled with other assets but rather, kept in a separate account. This will make it easier to get through the Medicaid application process. It can be difficult to trace…
Is Your Child Graduating High School? Read this!
Are you planning your child’s graduation celebration? Thinking about what present to give your child for graduating with good grades? Look no further – give the gift that is priceless (as the MasterCard commercial says). Give your child, and you, the peace of mind of creating a legal plan now that they are adults. Yes, even…
Long Term Care Planning: Divorce Is Not Your First Option
A hotly contested issue in the Florida Legislature this month concerns spousal refusal. ‘Spousal refusal’ is both a federal and state law that enables a married person to obtain Medicaid assistance when one spouse refuses to make their assets available to the spouse who requires long-term care. The person applying for Medicaid must sign a form that assigns…
Have We Forgotten Terry Schiavo?
April 16th is National Healthcare Decisions Day (NHDD) and I wonder how many people still have not signed medical advance directives since Terry Schiavo died. The answer would probably shock many of us. The one lesson we all should have taken from the Terry Schiavo case was that life altering events can happen at any…
Why The U.S. Supreme Court Should Hold DOMA Unconstitutional: Don’t Forget the Children!
This is a time in history of great significance as our Supreme Court is charged with deciding whether the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution. There is no doubt that DOMA treats LGBT individuals different from people whose marriages are recognized by law. More importantly, DOMA hurts the children…
Protecting a Minor’s Settlement Proceeds with a Settlement Annuity
Does your case involve a minor? As you are aware a judge in most jurisdictions will assist in the determination of the settlement and settlement funds when you have a personal injury or wrongful death case where one of the claimants is a minor. In most of these cases there are a couple of options to…
Don’t Forget About Medicare: New Easy to Use Tools on CMS Website
We all know by now that we have an affirmative duty to notify CMS of the initiation of a third-party liability lawsuit as well as the settlement of that action. Unfortunately it takes an extremely long time to get CMS to provide the amount of its conditional liability payment. A few years ago CMS announced its (delayed)…
Healthcare Decisions vs. “Death Panels”
MSN Money contributor Anthony Mirhaydari discusses the country’s debt problem as it relates to healthcare and more specifically the cost of Medicare [given the growing number of retiring baby boomers] in his article Why we need ‘death panels’. April is Healthcare Decisions month. If you haven’t already done so, we suggest that you communicate your end of life wishes…
