Funeral and Cemetery Scams

Losing a loved one is hard enough on its own without also having to worry about fraud on top of it. The sad truth, however, is that there are two types of funeral and cemetery scams that target seniors, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The first act comes in the form of scammers and con artists reading obituaries or either calling on or attending a funeral service of someone they don’t know. Then they take advantage of the grieving family members and friends. The scammers may make claims that the individual had an outstanding debt with them in an effort to extort money from relatives.

The second type of scam comes from funeral homes that are in disrepute. These facilities will often take advantage of grief-stricken family members who do not know the prices associated with funerals. The staff at the funeral home may tack on hidden fees or upcharge the family of the deceased. One example we heard about was a funeral home insisting a casket (at great expense) was still needed even though the deceased was cremated.

For more information on the different types of scams that target seniors, and how to watch out for them, make sure to visit our free resources page to download of copy of Senior Shakedown: The Unknown Dangers of Getting Old, and How to Protect Your Loved Ones.

If you or someone you love needs assistance with Elder Care law issues, call 856-281-3131. Let us help ease your stress and give you a plan.

Fraudulent Anti-Aging Products

A harsh reality of today’s society is that many people feel an expectation or desire to look younger than their actual age. Consider how many anti-aging products are currently on the market.  Even people who don’t actually need anti-aging products are using them! Thus, it is not a great surprise that unsuspecting older adults and seniors can become easy targets for scammers promising the newest and best in anti-aging products. After all, there are some who may feel it is necessary to hide their true age via “miracle” products in order to feel more accepted in social circles or society in general.

Besides buying products, people often seek out other medical alternatives, like Botox or plastic surgery. Like many other services offered to the public, medicine is not immune from scammers. They may promise younger, better-looking skin through Botox scams or some type of homeopathic remedy that doesn’t actually fix anything at all.

Scams involving Botox can be quite dangerous, since many labs creating fake Botox are often working with the real root ingredient, botulism neurotoxin. This is, in fact, one of the most toxic substances available. These fake miracle products can often produce side effects far more dangerous to a person and their health than simply living with wrinkles or aging skin. A person’s life can literally be at stake, so it is important to be guarded and educated when it comes to any kind of beauty or anti-aging product that seems suspicious.

 

If you or someone you love needs assistance with Elder Care law issues, call 856-281-3131. Let us help ease your stress and give you a plan.

Top Ten Senior Financial Scams

There are many harsh realities when understanding why seniors and the elderly are targets for financial scams. One reason is that they are considered easy targets since many older adults are deemed less cognitively savvy than younger individuals. Also, older adults are less likely to report financial scams. They feel embarrassed and don’t want to share their misfortune with law enforcement, their friends, family members, etc.

Seniors are often targeted because there can be a misperception that the older you are, the more established you are – and the more money you have saved.  As stated, this is often a misperception. Many older individuals live off of pensions, Social Security, and limited retirement plans. However, this does NOT leave them immune from financial scams. The unfortunate truth is that financial scams and crimes can be difficult to prosecute, and, as such, are considered to be “low-risk” crimes. Many times those committing the crimes are loved ones or close friends of the family.

So, what are the top ten financial scams against seniors? Let’s take a look:

1. Medicare and health insurance scams

2. Counterfeit prescription drugs

3. Funeral and cemetery scams

4. Fraudulent anti-aging products

5. Telemarketing and phone scams

6. Internet fraud

7. Investment schemes

8. Homeowner and reverse mortgage scams

9. Sweepstakes and lottery scams

10. The grandparent scam

If you would like more information check out our book, Senior Shakedown: The Unknown Dangers of Getting Old, and How to Protect Your Loved Ones by visiting the Free Resources page of the site.

If you or someone you love needs assistance with Elder Care law issues, call 856-281-3131. Let us help ease your stress and give you a plan.

How to Set Up a Funeral Trust

There are multiple ways a funeral trust may be set up:

  • It may be set up directly through the funeral services provider.
  • You can find someone who deals with funeral trusts specifically via the Internet to walk you through the process.
  • Funeral trusts are also sold through insurance companies, and any such trusts are normally funded via single-premium whole life insurance.

If you or someone you love needs assistance with Elder Care law issues, call 856-281-3131. Let us help ease your stress and give you a plan.

Advantages and Disadvantages of a Funeral Trust

As we begin to age, there are many significant decisions to consider. A funeral trust is one of many choices you should make in advance with the assistance of professionals and loved ones. A funeral trust is a contract you create with a provider of a funeral home or burial services.

Advantages

If you already have a funeral trust in place, any other relative or person, or the funeral home will be able to handle any arrangements you have when needed. This eases a burden for grieving families and friends since all the decisions have been made in advance. Another advantage is the possibility of increasing your potential eligibility to receive long-term care benefits through Medicaid–thanks to the Medicaid Funeral Trust. If the trust is funded with life insurance, you will also have no taxable income to report, as life insurance cash values grow tax deferred. Also by “locking in” to set prices early through the trust, you have already settled upon a mutually agreed upon price.

Disadvantages

If you are considering using a funeral trust, you should ensure that an independent trustee is in place in order to make sure that the funeral bill is reasonable and to pay out any excess to the family. You’ll also need to make sure that the proceeds in the trust will be an acceptable form of payment prior to naming the funeral home as a trustee or beneficiary. Additionally,  make sure all of your information is current, like your financial information, contact information, etc.  Similarly, if you happen to move,  make sure to change the trustee and beneficiary to the new funeral home. Remember to provide either your executor or all of your heirs with a copy of the trust along with any contact information you have for the funeral home and beneficiary (if different).

If you don’t, any income from assets in the trust could be taxed to you as the creator.

If you or someone you love needs assistance with Elder Care law issues, call 856-281-3131. Let us help ease your stress and give you a plan.

What Expenses Are Paid For By a Funeral Trust?

The following expenses are paid for via a Funeral Trust:

  • Basic Services of Funeral Director and Staff
  • Other Professional Services
  • Embalming
  • Other Care of Deceased
  • Funeral Home Facilities and/or Staff Services
  • Casket
  • Cemetery Charges
  • Cemetery and Burial Plot
  • Other Funeral Merchandise

You can read more about Medicaid Funeral Trusts here.

If you or someone you love needs assistance with Elder Care law issues, call 856-281-3131. Let us help ease your stress and give you a plan.

What is a Medicaid Funeral Trust?

It is possible that, in your search for answers to questions regarding Medicaid, you may have seen the term Medicaid Funeral Trust come up at some point. But what exactly is a Medicaid Funeral Trust?

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) defines a funeral trust simply as a fund of pooled income that is set up either via the funeral home or cemetery. The trust is funded by any property (normally cash, bonds, or life insurance) that a person transfers into it with the express purpose of covering both funeral and burial costs.

More often that not, the funeral trust is entered into directly with the funeral home itself, and the funeral home may potentially agree to lock in costs for any future funeral or burial services at a predetermined (and agreed upon) price.

The funeral home may also serve as trustee for the trust as well.

A funeral trust may be either revocable or irrevocable. An irrevocable trust cannot be dissolved until all terms of the trust have been met. With an irrevocable trust, this means that the creator of the trust must die before the terms and assets in the trust can go to work—thanks to wording in the trust that states that assets cannot be paid until death. However, it is important to note that an irrevocable funeral trust CANNOT be dissolved by any person or entity (not even the creator of the trust) for any reason whatsoever. Neither can anyone have access to any assets placed in the trust at any time.

Conversely, a revocable trust can be created by anyone and then dissolved by the creator at a later date. When the trust is dissolved, any remaining assets in the trust will then go back to the ownership status they had prior to being placed in the trust.

If you or someone you love needs assistance with Elder Care law issues, call 856-281-3131. Let us help ease your stress and give you a plan.

Medicaid Liens

When Medicaid pays for benefits on behalf of their enrollees, they make that money back in the form of what is known as a Medicaid lien. For individuals ages 55 and up, states are required to recover payments via the person’s estate for things like nursing facility services, home and community-based services, and any and all related hospital and prescription drug services.

There are certain situations in which any money remaining in a trust after a Medicaid enrollee passes away can be used to reimburse Medicaid. However, states cannot reimburse money from the estate of a deceased person if he or she has a spouse that’s still alive, a child under age 21, or one who is blind or disabled, regardless of age. The states are also required to waive estate recovery when not doing so would cause undue hardship.

However, states may also impose some liens for Medicaid benefits that had been paid incorrectly in an effort to receive judgment by the court. They may also impose liens on any real property during the lifetime of a Medicaid enrollee who is institutionalized permanently. Exceptions are as follows: a spouse, child under age 21, a blind or disabled child (regardless of age) are living in the house, or there is a sibling who has an equity interest in the home.

It is required by law, however, for states to remove the Medicaid lien when the enrollee is discharged from the facility or hospital and returns home.

If you or someone you love needs assistance with Elder Care law issues, call 856-281-3131. Let us help ease your stress and give you a plan.

Financial Documents and Care Planning

It is vital to begin preparing for any potential long-term care needs now, even if the need is not imminent. When it comes to planning for long-term care, there’s a lot to consider. You’ll want to make decisions on things like:

  • Housing
  • Health-related matters
  • Legal matters
  • Financial matters

There are a multitude of documents related to each of those decisions, and it can be quite confusing figuring out exactly what documents you actually need. To make legal decisions, there are three documents that are highly recommended. They are:

  • Health Care Power of Attorney
  • A Living Will (also called an Advanced Directive)
  • A DNR (do-not-resuscitate order), if desired.

Health Care Power of Attorney

Also known as a durable power of attorney for health care, this document is one that names and gives someone the ability to make medical decisions on your behalf. Whomever you choose needs to both understand and respect any values and beliefs you have regarding your health care. It is important to talk with the person before naming them as your agent in order to make sure they are comfortable assuming the role.

Living Will

This document is also called a health care directive, and it keeps track of any of your wishes for medical treatment approaching the end of life. It should clearly state which types of life-sustaining treatments you do or do not wish to receive if you are considered terminally ill, permanently unconscious, or are in the end stages of a fatal illness. For instance, a living will can state whether you want to receive artificial breathing if you can no longer breath on your own. You can learn more about living wills by clicking the link.

Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR) Order

A DNR order informs health care providers you do not wish to be revived through CPR or other forms of life support if you stop breathing or your heart stops beating. It should be signed by a health care provider and inserted in your medical chart. Hospitals and long-term care facilities have these forms that a staff member can assist you in filling out. A DNR order is not required.

If you or someone you love needs assistance with Elder Care law issues, call 856-281-3131. Let us help ease your stress and give you a plan.

Financial Planning and Budgets

Financial issues are a sore spot for a lot of folks, and many of them often have trouble in planning out their finances and properly managing a budget. You might not even know there’s a difference between the two, but in fact there is:

Budgets

A budget is simply something that people can use that lets them break down each of their expenses into categories over a certain time period (like weekly, monthly, or yearly). It is a guideline to follow in order to help with spending.

Each individual expense is placed into the budget and then added together for the total. This is then subtracted against the total amount of income made during the same time period. What results is the amount of money that can be saved during that period. To save more money, for example, expenditures can be changed or dropped from the budget altogether (if possible).

Financial Plans

A financial plan is a tool that people use to help them achieve their long-term financial goals. Since it breaks down expenditures as well, it is similar to a budget in this manner. However, a financial plan is much more focused on the end goal(s) and is oriented toward achieving them.

As an example, if you want to save a certain amount of money in order to retire, a financial plan would be the outline you would use in order to reach that goal. While indeed similar to budgets, financial plans differ in that they are focused more on income and assets—things like bank accounts, pensions, home equity, etc. A financial plan can also provide an estimate for how much money can be made with stocks, bonds, mutual funds, 401Ks, and the like.

If you or someone you love needs assistance with Elder Care law issues, call 856-281-3131. Let us help ease your stress and give you a plan.