New VA Pension Aid & Attendance Payments Announced for 2012

Posted on November 9, 2011 by admin

Happy Veteran’s Day!!!!
The first cost-of-living adjustment since 2008 has recently been made, bringing a 3.6% increase in pension benefits for aid & attendance recipients.
The new payments are effective December 1, 2011, for benefits payable January of 2012. The new monthly A&A pension payments are as follows:
Single Veteran: $1,704
Married Veteran: $2,020
Surviving Spouse of a Veteran: $1,094
Aid & Attendance is a very underutilized Federal benefit that was added onto (in addition to) a need-based pension offered through The Department of Veteran Affairs. It provides benefits for veterans and surviving spouses who need assistance with their activities of daily living and meet specific requirements. Care provided in home, in an assisting living facility, or in a nursing home qualifies.

These funds can be used by wartime veterans to pay for in-home care, assisted living costs, and nursing home costs. If you are a wartime veteran with at least 1 day of wartime service and a minimum of 90 consecutive days of service to our country, you may be eligible for this very valuable benefit.

Much of my practice involves helping vets to qualify for this pension benefit. As a child of a wartime retired vet and vet myself, I understand the process.

Robin M. Petersen is a Board Certified Elder Law attorney in Indialantic, Florida and is the principal at The Estate Planning and Elder Law Center of Brevard. 321/729-0087.

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VA Aid and Attendance Program Assists with Medical Care Costs

Posted on October 12, 2011 by admin

VA Aid and Attendance Program Assists with Medical Care Costs

By Robin M. Petersen, J.D., C.E.L.A.

Millions of veterans and their families are eligible for Veterans Benefits but do not take advantage of them. Why? There are many reasons, including confusion over the benefits available and eligibility requirements, as well as the complexity of the application process itself.

One of the most underutilized benefits available to eligible veterans is the Aid and Attendance Program, which can pay for a wide range of medical expenses and significantly enhance quality of life.

The VA Aid and Attendance pension program is available to veterans or their widowed spouses. This benefit is called Aid and Attendance Pension (A&A). This is not a traditional pension and it has nothing to do with service connected disability. The veteran had to serve 90 days or more of active duty, with one day during a period of wartime. The Claimant may qualify for this benefit if the service, financial and medical qualifications are met and can also qualify for medical supplies and medicines from the Department of Veteran’s Affairs (VA).

For an eligible veteran or widowed spouse, the A&A benefit pays a monthly amount up to $1,949 for the veteran or $1,056 to the surviving spouse—tax free—to assist with medical expenses and the cost of long-term care.

This benefit can help a veteran or widowed spouse pay anyone for home care, including their child. It can also be used to help pay for professional care in the home, assisted living rent, nursing home care, prescription drugs, insurance premiums, co-pay, medical equipment, hearing aids, and similar expenses.

Bottom line? The A&A Program can allow a veteran or widowed spouse to preserve their assets for as long as possible.

Eligibility Requirements:

• The veteran must have served 90 days or more of active duty, with one day during a period of wartime. There is NO requirement that any service be in a combat zone. The vet does not need to have left the continental United States during service.
• The veteran must have received a discharge other than dishonorable
• The veteran or spouse must have medical expenses or care needs, and
• Applicants must pass an asset and income test before getting A& A benefits.
• The household income, after deducting all unreimbursed recurring medical expenses, must be less than the maximum A&A Benefit.

The widow(er) must not have divorced the Veteran or remarried after the Veteran’s death. The Claimant must be certified by a doctor as needing assistance with their daily living activities. This can often be met even in an independent living setting. The basic information and forms are available at www.va.gov. However the VA website does not cover how to position assets in order to qualify.

While net worth and income are both factors, there are no specific income or asset limits set by the VA. It is important to work with a VA accredited attorney or agent in filing for this benefit to ensure that you receive the maximum you may be entitled to and to help your claim get processed as quickly as possible. As part of a long-term care plan, prepared by a skilled Elder Law attorney, most estates can be positioned so the veteran or widowed spouse qualifies for VA A&A benefits. Never assume your loved one is not eligible, despite what you may have heard from others.

Planning Opportunities in Order to Qualify

In order to qualify for A&A Benefits, the Adjusted Household Income and the Allowable Countable Assets must be below the Threshold Limits. With proper planning, the Claimant can qualify for A&A while preserving their household assets. This will aid the family in paying for medical care and postpone the depletion of the claimant’s assets and the need to rely upon Medicaid for care.

At the present time, unlike Medicaid, the VA does not have any rules that restrict the proper use of trusts to preserve and protect the assets or the gifting away of assets to reduce the net worth of the Claimant before qualifying for A&A. Therefore, everyone with the service requirements and unreimbursed medical costs should assess the possibility of qualifying for these benefits. We offer a free telephone interview to determine if you qualify for A&A or can qualify with some planning.

Robin M. Petersen is a vet and military brat. He is an attorney in Indialantic and is the principal at The Estate Planning and Elder Law Center of Brevard. 321/729-0087. www.ElderLawCenterBrevard.com

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New Florida Power of Attorney Act is a Big Change

Posted on September 16, 2011 by admin

New Florida Power of Attorney Act is a Big Change

By Robin M. Petersen, J.D., C.E.L.A.

The new Florida Power of Attorney Act becomes effective October 1, 2011 and affects many elements of existing powers of attorney (“POA”) and all of those signed after October 1, 2011. This is a very complex piece of legislation making big changes. I can only summerize the basics of the changes here.

The “principal” is the one who creates a POA. The “agent” is the person nominated to carry out the principal’s wishes.

The new Act requires very specific authority granted to the agent. This alone will take many pages in the new POA to describe. The old language of “my agent can do everything I can do myself” will not work in POAs created after September 2011. As a practical matter, most current POAs probably won’t work in a few years if they lack the new changes described in this article. In a few years, the new law will become the standard operating procedure and that is what the financial institutions will be looking for, no matter when the document was signed. For this reason, it is important to update your current document before your agent needs to rely on them when you might need them most in the future.

The Act eliminates “springing” powers of attorney: those that spring into action only upon the incapacity of the principal. The change is probably a good thing because they are a good idea in the abstract, but unwieldy in action. The new Act requires all POAs to be effective when they are signed.

POAs have often been referred to as a “license to steal”. Under the Act, even where the POA requires 2 or more agents to act jointly, there is a special exception for banking transactions to allow any one of the agents to sign checks or handle banking matters with a single signature. This is a huge change that will affect the oversight function that many people want in their POAs. If you want oversight protection of more than one agent, you may need to investigate a voluntary guardianship or properly drafted revocable living trust.

The Act states that the agent under the POA will have no authority over assets held in the principal’s revocable living trust. This alone requires forethought and careful planning.

Another big change: if you want your agent to have power over your banking, investments, and/or estate planning, you will need to have some very special language covering those actions and sign or initial next to each of those provisions in the document at the time you sign your document. This cannot be done later without executing a new POA. This can be a trap for the unwary, since these are the very actions that most folks want their agent to be able to perform.

If a bank or other third party rejects a POA, there are now very specific guidelines. This is a good thing, given the widespread problems in the past. On the other hand, as mentioned above, the new POAs will now have to contain special language and signature requirements to be enforceable, so rejection will probably be much more common when and if the bank wants to question the sufficiency of the document’s language. Therefore, once your new document is executed, you should present it to the bank and have them accept it before the document is needed.

The new law states that the filing of divorce proceedings will automatically terminate the authority of an agent who is married to the principal. This did not used to be the case.

The Act also imposes several new limitations if you want to compensate your agent. I would suggest you discuss this with knowledgeable legal counsel for further clarification.

In short, the POA cannot be reduced to a preprinted form any more and must be much more tailored to the principal’s individual needs. One size fits all forms will soon be obsolete.

　

　

 

Robin M. Petersen is a vet and military brat. He is a Board Certified Elder Law attorney in Indialantic and is the principal at The Estate Planning and Elder Law Center of Brevard. 321/729-0087.

www.ElderLawCenterBrevard.com

Posted in Durable Power of Attorney | 7 Comments