In Creamer v. Manley, decided March 14, 2024, the Court of Appeals affirmed summary judgment upholding the validity of a Will. In summary, Willifred Thompson executed a Will leaving substantially all of her estate to Mable Manley, her caregiver. Two second cousins, Barbara Creamer and Gordon Lowe, filed a caveat alleging that Thompson lacked testamentary […]
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On February 21, 2024, the Georgia Court of Appeals decided the case of In Re Estate of Anne Smith Florance. In that case, Florance had executed a revocable trust during her life and a Will pouring the remainder of her estate into the trust. The trust was first established in 1997 and amended several times […]
The Georgia Court of Appeals decided the case of In re Bessie Mae Blake on February 20, 2024. Willis Blake was appointed as his mother’s conservator in 2000, but he was a poor record keeper. Although he was required to set up a separate account for Bessie Mae, keep records of expenses and file annual […]
Effective April 1, 2024, the statewide averaged nursing facility private pay rate used in determining the penalty period for institutionalized individuals (nursing facility and home and community-based waiver programs) who transfer assets for less than the fair market value will increase from $9,584.00 to $10,025.00.
Recently we received a document we haven’t seen before which informs Medicaid recipients that their special needs trust accounting was approved. Obviously, there is probably a different form telling some individuals that their accounting was not approved, but we haven’t seen that form yet. The new form is below:
On March 27, 2024, the Social Security Administration published a final rule in the Federal Register which changes its calculation of In-Kind Support and Maintenance (ISM). Under the prior rule, if food and/or shelter is provided to a recipient of Supplemental Security Income (SSI), the income is deemed to the recipient, reducing his or her […]
In February 2024, Justice in Aging released a new report based on California’s “performance measure” data from the state’s Medicaid assisted living program. Aging in Justice concluded that the quality of care measures provide no meaningful information. A perfect score tells you nothing about the quality of care residents receive. The report concludes that the […]
Recently the Special Needs Alliance published a new handbook for individuals with disabilities and their advocates. The SNA states: “The intent of this handbook is to explain some of the terms related to services and supports for people with disabilities, to introduce the process of transitioning from child services to adult services, and to provide […]
Historically, unborn embryos have not been considered children. Recently, in LePage v. The Center for Responsive Productive Medicine, P.C., the Alabama Supreme Court found otherwise. Ordinarily this would not be an “elder law” issue, but the law considers unborn children to be potential heirs of an estate. For example, O.C.G.A. § 53-2-1(b)(1) provides: Children of […]
