Incorporating Community Benefits into Your Elder Care and Estate Plan
As we age, our overall needs change. Our need for healthcare services may increase, our ability to tend to our own needs may decrease, and our finances may be limited. Government healthcare and retirement programs don’t cover the day-to-day issues many seniors and their families face, but careful estate planning can. When considering your needs for elder care and estate plan strategies, remember to include community senior benefits and senior caregiving in your estate plan.
Including Medicare and Medicaid in Your Estate Plan: An Overview
Have you considered including Medicare and Medicaid in your estate plan? Many people forget the importance of considering these government healthcare benefits as part of their wider estate plan. Read on to learn more about these two programs and why you need to consider government healthcare benefits in your estate plan.
WV Workers’ Compensation Statute of Limitations Addressed by Supreme Court
On May 17, 2018, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals issued a decision applying the WV workers’ compensation statute of limitations to bar an untimely. The court’s decision has broad implications for workers and employers across West Virginia. While it gives employers solace in that it is an employee's responsibility to initiate the claim process by filing a timely WC-1 form, it also reminds employers that a worker’s reliance on conduct by the employer or a claim administrator regarding the filing of a claim may prevent the employer from relying on the statute of limitation to deny an untimely filed claim.
Why You Should Discuss Social Security Disability Benefits with Your Estate Planning Attorney
Most people think of an estate plan as just preparing a will and designating where your assets go upon your death. Broader than that, estate planning is actually the process of taking inventory of your assets and determining how to dispose of them for the remainder of your life as well as upon your death. This blog is the third in a series of five blogs discussing five basic types of elder benefits in West Virginia. The first two blogs covered employee retirement benefits and Social Security retirement benefits. This blog turns to why you should discuss Social Security disability benefits with your West Virginia estate planning lawyer.
Arch Coal, Inc. v. Lemon: When Job Activity Worsens a Noncompensable Injury
In a very rare WV workers’ compensation rehearing, the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals has reversed its earlier decision denying a workers’ compensation claim for a secondary injury. In the first opinion, the court determined that the injury was not compensable because it was not work-related. On rehearing, the court withdrew its earlier decision, finding it was based on an inappropriate re-weighing of the facts. The court affirmed the determination by the West Virginia Workers’ Compensation Board of Review, which had concluded that when job activity worsens a noncompensable injury, the resulting new injury is compensable.