“There are only four kinds of people in the world. Those who have been caregivers. Those who are currently caregivers. Those who will be caregivers, and those who will need a caregiver.” –Rosalyn Carter
These prescient words by the former first lady remain as relevant and true as ever.
According to a 2020 report from the AARP:
For those who are new to the game, ABLE accounts are tax-free savings accounts for individuals with qualifying disabilities that began before age 26.
Created in 2014 as the ABLE Act, there are now over 20 ABLE programs to choose from, including Connecticut, which has its own ABLE plan!
How does an ABLE account work?
By Kevin Riedel
Ever find yourself in this situation? You get seated in a dimly-lit restaurant, the server hands you a menu, and you immediately realize with dread, “I forgot my reading glasses.”
Or maybe you discover a new food item in the grocery store. You turn the package over to read the ingredients label to find it’s written in microscopic text.
In 2022, Americans with disabilities will receive a significant increase in their Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and in other Social Security benefits.
According to the Social Security Administration, monthly SSI payments are going up 5.9%, a change that started as of December 30, 2021 for SSI payments and Social Security benefits paid in January 2022.
The increase is a result of the yearly COLA (cost-of-living) adjustment and inflation and based on the Consumer Price Index determined by the U.S. Department of Labor. (The COLA increase is the largest since 1982!)
It’s a nice thing to be able to give someone you love a gift, especially when that gift can help ensure their security, wellbeing, and even happiness. But you have to be careful when giving gifts—either cash or property.
The annual gift tax exclusion is $16,000 per recipient in 2022, or—if you and a spouse are making the gift jointly—$32,000 per recipient. If you want to give gifts in excess of those amounts, you need to be strategic about your approach so that you can maximize the gift while minimizing the tax liability.
Here are a few tips that can help you do just that:
Your daughter accompanies you to a doctor’s appointment for moral support, and the doctor addresses all his questions to her instead of to you.
Nothing like feeling invisible!
The nurse talks to you the way Kindergarten teachers speak to their students, sometimes using the “royal we” and often using inappropriate terms of endearment like “young lady” or “young man.”
We’ll only be hours into the New Year, and most of us will already be steeling ourselves for the annual guilt trip about abandoned resolutions! It never fails. We start out with the best intentions, but as the world cranks back into gear after the holidays, we find ourselves slipping back into old habits and making old excuses.
Don’t feel too bad. You’re definitely not alone.
The trouble with most New Year resolutions is that keeping them requires consistent effort over the long term. It can be exhausting just thinking about it.
We are pleased to announce once again our attorneys have been named to the Connecticut Super Lawyers list for 2021!
Attorneys Brendan Daly and Carmine Perri were among the recipients of this recognition in the Elder Law practice area, and Attorney Andrew Veale was named a “Rising Star” in recognition of his work in the Estate and Trust Litigation practice area.
As a firm, we take pride delivering top-notch client service to Connecticut residents and have done so for over 20 years. We are delighted to work with such a strong team of attorneys who have been recognized by New England Super Lawyers Magazine, year after year over the past decade.
Just as keeping physically fit is important as we age, so is keeping mentally fit. More research is being done on how adults can work out their “mental muscles” to keep their minds sharp and possibly put off or avoid the onset Alzheimer’s and dementia.
1. Engage in physical exercise
Surprised that physical exercise tops the list? You shouldn’t be. Exercise is arguably the single most effective way to keep the mind sharp and the memory strong. Any type of physical exercise that gets the heart rate up is good for the brain as well as the body.
There are some life experiences that you just can’t understand until you have lived them yourself. For example nothing can truly prepare you for becoming a parent.
Read all the books you want and watch all your friends have their own kids—you will never really get it until you’re the one doing the 2 a.m. feeding or calling the pediatrician about how, exactly, one might safely extract a Lego from a child’s right nostril.
A similar you-can’t-understand-until-you’ve-been-there rule applies to the often poignant transition from being your parent’s child to being their caregiver.
Connecticut Estate Planning Attorneys Blog