Adamsky Law Offices Blog

Medicare's monthly Part-B premium will be unchanged at $96.40 next year for most of the 44 million beneficiaries in the U.S. health insurance program for the elderly and disabled. This is the first time in eight years the rate won't rise. Medicare fees will stay the same partly because the program's reserves have increased, according to a statement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This is only the sixth time since Medicare was created in 1965 that rates held steady for two consecutive years, said Rick Foster, Medicare chief actuary. When asked if this had anything to do with the U.S. presidential election in November, Foster said, "There is no political manipulation." Every rate recommendation made by the chief actuary to Medicare administrators has been accepted without change, Foster said. "Lawmakers should not use today's announcement as an excuse to rest," AARP, the advocacy group for people 50 and older, said in an e-mai...

One part of Estate Planning that I cannot control is the beneficiary designations on your Life Insurance and Retirement Accounts (IRA, 401k, etc). No matter what I write in your Will or Trust, it cannot change who gets those retirement accounts. This is accomplished with a Beneficiary Designation form held by the account custodian. You should have filled one out when you opened the account, and you can do a new one any time to update it. The trouble is that you can mess things up if you don’t enter the right beneficiaries or if you don’t coordinate your beneficiary designations with your other estate planning documents (your Will or Trust). Worse, you can do what you know is right and the account custodian (the bank or financial company holding the account) can mess it up for you. One of the main problems that people encounter is poorly crafted beneficiary designation forms. You need to name a Primary Beneficiary for your accounts, and you also need to name a Contingent or Alterna...