Adamsky Law Offices Blog

A bipartisan bill that would peg the estate tax to the 2009 level under current law has been introduced in the Senate. The legislation, S3284, was introduced July 17, 2008, by Sens. Tom Carper (D-DE), Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and George Voinovich (R-OH). It would create a lifetime estate tax exemption of $3.5 million, indexed for inflation, and impose a top tax rate of 45 percent. Two days earlier, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) introduced an estate tax reform bill in the House. HB6499 would leave the current $2 million estate tax exemption in place, and up the lifetime gift exemption to the same $2 million. Under the Economic Growth and Tax Reconciliation Act of 2001, the estate tax will expire for the year 2010, followed in 2011 by an individual exemption of $1 million and a top tax rate of 55 percent, unless Congress acts in the interim.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick has vetoed language in the state's 2009 Budget that would protect nursing home residents from discharge due to a change in MassHealth clinical criteria. Without this language in the budget, frail elderly residents are at risk of being inappropriately discharged or being denied admission to a nursing home. Currently MassHealth will reimburse the nursing home costs of residents who have a combination of care needs known as “Score 3.” If an individual cannot be safely cared for in the community then nursing home care is the appropriate choice for that individual. Inclusion of Score 3 protective language in the budget has prevented previous attempts to “raise the bar” for MassHealth nursing home care and deny coverage to frail and ill individuals who don’t meet higher levels of required assistance. Since 2004 the protective language has allowed elders to receive nursing home care when it is needed and has spared families from struggling to provide

The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys has announced to its members that the Board has decided to move its headquarters to Washington, DC from its current location in Arizona. NAELA has over 5000 attorney members from all over the country who are the leaders in Elder Law and Special Needs representation. The Academy was started by members in the Arizona area and had been headquartered there for its first 20 years. Now with its growth and ability to be a bigger influence on legislation and benefits for elders and the disabled a location in the nation's capitol is the best place for NAELA. NAELA will also hire a new staff that will be directly employed by the academy and not an association management firm as in the past. This change should provide direct and specific support for NAELA's goals and services to its members. NAELA President, Craig Reaves, sent an annoucement to all members on July 14, 2008. He promised that the transition would go well and that the change s