Showing 21 posts in Did you Know?.
Time to Give Up the Keys? A Guide to Seniors and Driving
According to Michigan.gov, Michigan has over 1.2 million drivers that are age 65 and older. By 2025, it is expected that one in five drivers will be 65 and older. This is a trend that is sweeping across the country with more older drivers on the road than ever before. A person's ability to drive can mean everything to them; it serves not just as a means of getting from Point A to Point B, but it also represents their independence and personal freedom.
However data shows that driving gets riskier with age and while old age alone is not a reason to stop driving, a number of physical and mental conditions, such as dementia and vision/hearing impairment, can lead to an unsafe driver getting behind the wheel and possibly hurting themselves or others. So at one point does it become obvious that a senior driver must be told to give up the keys? Read More ›
Categories: Did you Know?, Elder Law
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Spending Time with Loved Ones During the COVID Holiday Season
A year filled with many challenges, the end of 2020 draws near. We are, however, still far from being out of the woods. It would be a massive understatement to say that the last nine months of adapting to the "new normal" have been exhausting. Read More ›
Categories: Did you Know?
Recent Legislative and Regulatory Developments Designed to Protect Seniors in Michigan
Various programs have recently been enacted in Michigan for the purpose of preventing and/or minimizing some of the challenges facing seniors in an effort to help them maintain a high quality of life. Read More ›
Categories: Did you Know?, Elder Law, Retirement, Senior Exploitation & Abuse
Can I be paid for taking care of my elderly parents?
As parents age and require more assistance, the adult children who care for them may find themselves in a complicated predicament. Read More ›
Categories: Did you Know?, Elder Law
Three Common Myths about Medicaid
In the state of Michigan, nearly 2.5 million people are provided health care under Medicaid. This includes low-income adults, children, senior citizens and people with disabilities that depend on the federal and state program for access to health care as well as long-term services which include basic life functions such as meal prep, bathing/dressing and administering medication. For those not familiar with the eligibility aspects of Medicaid, click here to view the video “An Introduction to Medicaid.” Read More ›
Categories: Did you Know?, Elder Law, Long-Term Care, Medicaid Planning
Gift Cards: A New Kind of Scam
Gift cards; while they are a great means of acknowledging someone's birthday, anniversary, or simply to say "thank you," they are also rapidly becoming a means for con artists to scam unsuspecting individuals, especially seniors. Read More ›
Categories: Did you Know?, Digital Assets, Elder Law, Fraud & Abuse, Senior Exploitation & Abuse
Worried about the Future? Here's what you need to do now
The problems that seniors face can erupt suddenly from out of nowhere or can start small and grow more serious over time. A crisis can occur when a senior family member is diagnosed with dementia, has a chronic illness or is admitted to a nursing home. Often after the crisis has already occurred is when the end-of-life documents are pulled out of the drawer and the family calls an elder law or estate planning attorney for help. Read More ›
Categories: Did you Know?, Elder Law, Estate Planning
Tips for Avoiding Conflict with Family
No family is perfect. Families will fight, not speak to each other for extended periods, or in some extreme cases, face each other in court.
This is especially true as parents advance in age and as they become more dependent on their children for assistance, old conflicts can come back to the forefront, leading to quarrels among siblings as well as between parents and their children.
Often these disputes begin not out of greed but for a variety of other reasons:
- Internal difficulty in coping with a parent in decline
- Conflicts, power struggles and rivalries that are dug up from the past
- Disparities and inequities in the burden of care
- Disagreements in both medical decisions and in living arrangements
- Financial concerns over the care of a parent
Categories: Did you Know?, Elder Law, Powers of Attorney
Financial Elder Abuse: Awareness and Prevention
10,000 Americans turn 65 every day. With an aging population, come a variety of new issues for society to address. One of those issues is elder financial abuse, which has been a growing problem over the past decade. According to a study in the American Journal of Public Health, 1 in 18 older “cognitively intact” adults falls prey to financial fraud or abuse in a given year. Read More ›
Categories: Did you Know?, Elder Law, Fraud & Abuse, Senior Exploitation & Abuse
Are Reverse Mortgages Wise for Seniors?
It would be wonderful to give you an absolute yes or no but like so many things, it is important to analyze how your specific circumstances factor into the answer. Read More ›
Categories: Did you Know?, Elder Law, Financing
E-book Covers Estate Planning Essentials
Engaging in estate planning, while essential, is often emotional and generates many questions. How do I protect my spouse and my children if something happens to me? What happens if I become disabled before I pass on? Who will take care of my pet after I'm gone? How do I pass my business on to my children? These questions and more are addressed in Jonathan David’s recently updated e-book, “Estate Planning: You Have to Start in Order to Finish.”
Survivor's Checklist:
Due to the shock of the death of a spouse or a loved one, the steps of what needs to be done first can be an overwhelming process for the survivor(s). To aid in the breakdown and to act as a tool amidst the emotional days ahead, estate planning Jonathan "Jay" David has assembled a "Survivor's Checklist" of some of the important things that need to be addressed when a spouse or loved one dies.
Resources and Support for Older Adults Living Alone: A Comprehensive Guide (2024):
Below is a comprehensive guide of resources for older adults living alone, empowering them to thrive independently and access essential services. This guide was created and provided with permission by the National Council on Aging (NCOA).
Resources and Support for Older Adults Living Alone: A Comprehensive Guide (2024) (ncoa.org)
Elder Organizer Tool:
Foster Swift has created a free ‘Elder Organizer’ digital notebook to provide seniors and their caretakers with a toolkit that helps organize doctors’ appointments, medications, and more that can be shared online. The tools below are also available on the Elder Law Resources page.
*For those trying to access these links by smartphone, it is best practice to copy/open the link in a separate tab and download the free Google Sheets app from Google Play or the Apple Store.
Need Help Planning?
For more tools, visit our Elder Law Resource page for additional content. Click here to view/download the Foster Swift estate planning brochure to see what our experienced team of attorneys can do for you.
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