Protecting Adult Children with Disabilities
Adults with disabilities are living much longer than in the past, which means their aging parents must plan for the day when their dependent children outlive them.
Ethan Huizenga February 14, 2020
Read More »
The 2020 Social Security Increase Will Be Smaller than 2019’s
The Social Security Administration has announced a 1.6 percent increase in benefits in 2020, nearly half of last year’s change. The small rise has advocates
Ethan Huizenga October 23, 2019
Devils, Details, and Deadlines: SSI vs. SSDI – What’s the Difference?
Some of the most impactful work we do involves setting up financial protections for disabled individuals. Part of that process includes exploring federal income benefits,
Ethan Huizenga February 5, 2019
Watch Your Language: Beneficiary
The beneficiary is what it sounds like: the person who receives the benefit from a trust. [Read More]
Ethan Huizenga September 11, 2018
Watch Your Language: Trustee
A trustee has legal title to assets subject to certain conditions and requirements that are spelled out in the trust document. [Read More]
Ethan Huizenga September 4, 2018
Watch Your Language: Grantor
The grantor is the person who creates a trust. No matter what type of trust you have, the grantor is always in charge because they set the trust’s terms. [Read More]
Ethan Huizenga August 28, 2018
Watch Your Language: Snapshot Date
When you first submit a Medicaid application for nursing facility care (and Elderly Waiver, in Iowa), DHS takes a “snapshot” of your financial status as of the date you first moved into the nursing home. This is called the “snapshot date.” [Read More]
Ethan Huizenga August 7, 2018
Watch Your Language: Resource
The third test in the Medicaid application process considers whether the applicant has too many resources. But what is a resource?[Read More]
Ethan Huizenga October 18, 2016
Watch Your Language: Income
The Medicaid definition of “income” comes from federal law and reads as follows: Income is “[a]nything a person receives either in cash or in kind that can be used to meet the person’s basic needs of food, clothing, or shelter.” [Read More]
Ethan Huizenga September 21, 2016
The Medicaid Planning Hoax: 3 Myths
Nursing homes are incentivized by the state to perpetuate the hoax because the daily nursing home rate paid by the state is lower than the private pay rate. Lawyers who don’t know anything about the Medicaid regulations are telling people they have no options for planning for Medicaid eligibility. How do you overcome misinformation or a lack of information? You get educated. Here are three myths, rooted in the Medicaid Planning Hoax, that are all wet. [Read More]
Ethan Huizenga December 1, 2015
