Carmel, CA Estate Planning In A Coronavirus World : By Derek Baine

AARP Bulletin in their November 2020 issue (page 22) had an interesting article about more and more couples looking at estate planning now that the coronavirus is making the future outlook uncertain.  Keep in mind that you can write a will at any time, even if you are sick in the hospital.  Most estate planners recommend setting up a living trust, which gives you a lot of flexibility on how your assets are distributed following your death.  Experts warn that doing a joint will for a couple is a terrible idea—they aren’t even legal in some states.  Leaving more to one child than another almost guarantees that the will could be challenged.  Stepchildren aren’t automatically treated as children for legal purposes.  There are a lot of moving pieces in an estate plan so consult with your attorney.

Pebble Beach, CA Estate Planning In A Coronavirus World : By Derek Baine

AARP Bulletin in their November 2020 issue (page 22) had an interesting article about more and more couples looking at estate planning now that the coronavirus is making the future outlook bleak.  Keep in mind that you can write a will at any time, even if you are sick in the hospital.  Most estate planners recommend setting up a living trust, which gives you a lot of flexibility on how your assets are distributed following your death.  Experts warn that doing a joint will for a couple is a terrible idea—they aren’t even legal in some states.  Leaving more to one child than another almost guarantees that the will could be challenged.  Stepchildren aren’t automatically treated as children for legal purposes.  There are a lot of moving pieces in an estate plan so consult with your attorney.

Salinas, CA Aging At Home Is Now In Vogue : Assisted Living On The Outs : By Derek Baine

A caregiver posing with the old woman in wheelchair

coronavirus is changing the way Americans face retirement by “accelerating developments already under way,” physician Bill Thomas said to the reporter.  “It’s going to make people rethink retirement altogether,” Laura Carstensen, director of Stanford University’s Center on Longevity said.  Most people will age at home, and remain independent, she said.  I believe that her view is true.  With roughly 40% of COVID-19 being staff and residents of nursing homes, nobody wants to go into a facility these days.  We have been getting a number of calls from fearful children who want to get their parents out of assisted living and back home, where they can reduce the risk of coronavirus exposure.  Although COVID-19 will eventually be wiped out, there will clearly be more devastating diseases in the future which makes these facilities dangerous.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-covid-19-will-change-aging-and-retirement-11605452401

Pebble Beach, CA Aging At Home Is Now In Vogue : Assisted Living On The Outs

A caregiver posing with the old woman in wheelchair

COVID-19 has made aging at home in vogue.  The Wall Street Journal recently wrote an article on how coronavirus is changing the way Americans face retirement by “accelerating developments already under way,” physician Bill Thomas said to the reporter.  “It’s going to make people rethink retirement altogether,” Laura Carstensen, director of Stanford University’s Center on Longevity said.  Most people will age at home, and remain independent, she said.  I believe that her view is true.  With roughly 40% of COVID-19 being staff and residents of nursing homes, nobody wants to go into a facility these days.  We have been getting a number of calls from fearful children who want to get their parents out of assisted living and back home, where they can reduce the risk of coronavirus exposure.  Although COVID-19 will eventually be wiped out, there will clearly be more devastating diseases in the future which makes these facilities dangerous.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-covid-19-will-change-aging-and-retirement-11605452401

Pacific Grove, CA Aging At Home Is Now In Vogue : Assisted Living On The Outs

A caregiver smiling and holding the woman

COVID-19 has made aging at home in vogue.  The Wall Street Journal recently wrote an article on how coronavirus is changing the way Americans face retirement by “accelerating developments already under way,” physician Bill Thomas said to the reporter.  “It’s going to make people rethink retirement altogether,” Laura Carstensen, director of Stanford University’s Center on Longevity said.  Most people will age at home, and remain independent, she said.  I believe that her view is true.  With roughly 40% of COVID-19 being staff and residents of nursing homes, nobody wants to go into a facility these days.  We have been getting a number of calls from fearful children who want to get their parents out of assisted living and back home, where they can reduce the risk of coronavirus exposure.  Although COVID-19 will eventually be wiped out, there will clearly be more devastating diseases in the future which makes these facilities dangerous.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-covid-19-will-change-aging-and-retirement-11605452401

Carmel, CA Aging At Home Is Now In Vogue : Assisted Living On The Outs

COVID-19 has made aging at home in vogue.  The Wall Street Journal recently wrote an article on how coronavirus is changing the way Americans face retirement by “accelerating developments already under way,” physician Bill Thomas said to the reporter.  “It’s going to make people rethink retirement altogether,” Laura Carstensen, director of Stanford University’s Center on Longevity said.  Most people will age at home, and remain independent, she said.  I believe that her view is true.  With roughly 40% of COVID-19 being staff and residents of nursing homes, nobody wants to go into a facility these days.  We have been getting a number of calls from fearful children who want to get their parents out of assisted living and back home, where they can reduce the risk of coronavirus exposure.  Although COVID-19 will eventually be wiped out, there will clearly be more devastating diseases in the future which makes these facilities dangerous.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-covid-19-will-change-aging-and-retirement-11605452401

Ombudsman Office Unable To Enter Assisted Living Facilities, Making Some Lax

A caregiver smiling and holding the woman

An investigative reporter unveiled an expose on a chain of nursing homes in California called Country Villa which has 18 nursing homes that have been unlicensed for years.  Two of their facilities lost over a dozen of residents due to COVID-19.   The Staye of California requires that nursing home operators be licensed by the California Department of Public Health, which oversees nursing homes.  But the Department has allowed the owner to operate with a “pending license” for years.  The owner, Shlomo Rechnitz, has acquired 81 nursing homes with 9,000 beds, making him the largest operator in California.  “I’m just a little speechless when it comes to this ownership nightmare in California and now it’s gotten to this point,” said Molly Davies, the Los Angeles County long-term care ombudsman.  In Monterey, our ombudsman said that they have not had in-person access to assisted living facilities during the pandemic, a situation which is just making things worse.

https://calmatters.org/projects/california-oversight-nursing-homes/?campaign_id=49&emc=edit_ca_20210407&instance_id=28956&nl=california-today&regi_id=52105769&segment_id=55031&te=1&user_id=7052b81671c57203c64c377c7522baa7

End Of Life Planning Must Be Addressed In This Pandemic

A woman in Floral dress sitting in the chair and smiling

At Family inHome Caregiving, we always encourage our clients to have a nutritional diet, get enough exercise and do estate planning like setting up a living trust, signing a POLST and power of attorneys for both medical and financial.  However, getting exercise in this coronavirus environment is difficult and you would be surprised how many people have not set up end-of-life paperwork.  Kate De Bartolo, director of the Conversation Project, believes that end-of-life-care planning is something that more and more Americans will embrace dearly in light of the pandemic, even younger people.  Traffic and downloads of end-of-life planning material have surged this year, she noted.  One thing that has been highlighted in the pandemic has been that many people may change their mind about asking for all available life saving methods in their POLST and medical power of attorney.  Given that COVID-19 victims are isolated and can’t see their family and friends before they pass away may make living pointless under those lockdown conditions.

https://www.facebook.com/TheConversationProject/posts/end-of-life-care-planning-is-something-many-put-off-says-kate-debartolo-director/3651234638270719/

California Sues Brookdale Nursing Home Chain

A senior woman sitting and looking out from the window

Salinas), claiming that they have manipulated the Medicare ratings system to make their nursing homes look more attractive than they actually are.  The lawsuit is among the first of its kind to accuse nursing homes of submitting false information to the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, which uses data on the amount of time spent with residents and pairs it with in-person examinations by state health inspectors.  The facility is then ranked based on stars, allowing consumers to choose which facility they want to put a loved one in.  The lawsuit accuses Brookdale of falsifying its payroll-based journal entries, effectively stating that they have more staff than they do.   Prosecutors also are accusing Brookdale of illegally evicting or transferring residents so the chain could replace them with clients that generate more revenue.  A former Brookdale nursing assistant said in a deposition that her supervisors told her to falsify medical records to make it look like patients received more care than they did.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/15/business/california-lawsuit-brookdale-senior-living-nursing-homes.html?campaign_id=49&emc=edit_ca_20210316&instance_id=28107&nl=california-today&regi_id=52105769&segment_id=53505&te=1&user_id=7052b81671c57203c64c377c7522baa7

https://www.brookdale.com/en/communities/brookdale-salinas.html?cid=yext

L.G.B.T Seniors Fear Going Back In The Closet As They Enter Retirement Homes

A senior woman sitting and looking out from the window

The New Yorker had a sad article about a Brooklyn retirement home which featured twelve of the country’s 3 million L.G.B.T. seniors, many of whom fear going back into the close as they enter assisted living or senior communities.  34% of those surveyed fear having to hide their sexuality when entering a retirement facility, but a national chain called Watermark is trying to change that.  It is pursuing a platinum accreditation from SAGE, an organization that serves L.G.B.T. seniors.  This is a sad story which, hopefully, will have a happy ending eventually.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/03/08/tallying-the-lost-years-for-lgbt-seniors?utm_source=nl&utm_brand=tny&utm_mailing=TNY_Daily_030621&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_medium=email&bxid=5d9650350564ce3ac11dd859&cndid=1617543&hasha=7052b81671c57203c64c377c7522baa7&hashb=5708aa7994855c44974ae69faa48e3e4bacb03a0&hashc=cbd2b1a310c325a9dac49d86de69a91a6d69f6980ca8166044e7444b94298971&esrc=Auto_Subs&mbid=CRMNYR012019&utm_term=TNY_Daily