I recently received an email from Norwell Police Chief Ted Ross warning South Shore residents about a utility billing scam. Fraudulent callers are targeting National Grid customers throughout New England. The scammers are demanding payment of alleged electric bill balances (that customers may not even owe) and are threatening to shut off their electricity...
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Michelle Singletary – She’s Done It Again
I love her columns, I really do. A few weekends ago, she nailed it once again. Read her column here where she tells older parents why they need to talk to their adult children about the care they would like as they age. Keep in mind that the cost figures she cites are...
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Caregiver Contracts – Tax Benefits
If you would like to care for your parents full-time, or close to it, and your parents want to pay you for this, then there are some tax issues that you need to be aware of.
Most importantly, if you are providing hands-on care, making meals, doing the shopping, taking your parents to doctors’ appointments,...
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Nursing Home Care & MassHealth – Eligibility Rules for the Single Person
As you well know, privately paying a nursing home bill is a very costly undertaking. Should you need nursing home care someday, typically Medicare and your supplemental insurance cover up to 100 days. After that, you either privately pay or look to Medicaid (MassHealth) to pay. This post explains the basic MassHealth rules for...
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Couples: Protect Your Assets from the Cost of Nursing Home Care
As you well know, privately paying a nursing home bill is a very costly undertaking. Should you need nursing home care, typically Medicare and your supplemental insurance cover up to 100 days. After that, you either privately pay or look to Medicaid (MassHealth) to pay.
For a married person to receive MassHealth assistance with paying...
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The Single Person: Protecting Your Assets from the Cost of Nursing Home Care
If your loved one is single and would like MassHealth to pay her nursing home bill, then the basic rules are these: (1) She medically requires nursing home level care, (2) she has no more than $2,000 in “countable” assets (that’s money in the bank, retirement accounts, life insurance, etc.), and (3) she has...
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Consider Using a Pooled Trust with MassHealth Nursing Home Planning
If a single person wants MassHealth assistance with paying for nursing home care, but has more than the $2,000 in assets that MassHealth will permit her to keep, one option is to transfer the excess assets to a pooled trust.
A pooled trust is a trust managed by a non-profit for the benefit of disabled...
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My Dad Died Owning Stocks – What a Pain That Was!
If you have ever had to deal with stocks that you inherited, then you know what a pain it can be to change ownership over to your name.
You probably had to:
Figure out which stock transfer agent was managing those shares (ex. Computershare),
Figure out which forms that transfer agent needed you to fill out,
Go to...
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Senator Elizabeth Warren Files a Bill to Raise the SSI Resource Limit
Another reason to love Senator Warren. As you likely know, an SSI recipient can have only $2,000 in her bank account. It’s an absurdly small amount to keep on hand. It can barely cover any emergencies (like car repairs) and causes a lot of anxiety among SSI recipients and their families as they perform...
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Veterans: Are You Getting Older, Need Care, and Want to Stay at Home?
Good news! The VA has several programs designed to assist elderly and/or disabled veterans who want to stay at home for as long as possible. Listed below are some of these programs. They each have different eligibility tests regarding income and assets, minimum age, level of disability, service-connected rating, and geography....
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