As people age they are often less able to recognize scams and swindles designed to cheat them out of their money. Con artists know this, and as more people reach retirement age many criminals are trying to take advantage of elderly people through any number of scams. Here are a few tips that can help you prevent falling victim to some of these common schemes.

Never send money.

Con artists will say anything to get you to send them money, and are very good at disguising their attempts in any number of ways. Whether you are promised to win money through a sweepstakes, are sent a check and asked to return a portion of it for “processing fees,” or are ever asked to send cash: refuse to do so. Legitimate sweepstakes, contest, and refunds will never ask you to send money.

Never give out personal information over the phone.

Con artists will also try to convince you that they represent a legitimate business, government agency, bank, or other organization in an attempt to get you to hand over your personal information. Never provide this information over the phone, even if the caller is claiming to only want to “verify” your account information.

Contact your lawyer.

Even if you receive a letter in the mail, you can’t always be sure it is from who it claims to be from.  A lot of con artists will try to sound official and use official looking letterhead or symbols, so if you ever have a doubt you should contact your attorney and ask for assistance.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

These days everything comes at a price, including living longer. That’s right: living to a ripe old age is going to cost you the allegorical “arm and a leg,” and may even levy a price against your children. Humans may be living longer than ever, thanks to advances in science, medicine, and technology; but, by extending our life span, we have the likelihood of our succumbing to physical or mental afflictions such as Alzheimer’s. In turn, the elderly have to resort to assisted-care facilities and nursing homes to obtain the help they need, which costs money.

The cost for an assisted-care facility has risen over 17% in the last five years, to the point that the average monthly rent for a facility providing help with daily activities is $3,486. Part of the reason for this increase in costs is the adoption of “bundling” by these facilities. Bundling is where the facility charges one price for a number of services lumped together, and, on average, facilities bundle together six to nine services. This means that many residents are paying for services that they do not require.

The average, annual cost for a nursing home nationally is $73,000 a person; in the Western New York area it is over $134,000.  The largest increase in costs has occurred in the home-healthcare field, where spending by Medicare beneficiaries rocketed up 129% between 2000 and 2010.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

After deciding that transitioning to a nursing home or elder care facility is the right choice for you, you need to take a little time to plan how you want to select the appropriate facility. While matching the right type of facility to your needs is paramount, you’ll also want to make sure that you get to know the facilities closely enough so that you can make an informed decision. Here are a couple of tips to help you do that.

Tip 1: Make a list of questions.

Start your process by sitting down and writing a list of everything you want to know about each of the facilities. The list can contain questions about care, costs, and activities, but it should also include questions you might want to ask residents, such as how they view the quality of food and how friendly or attentive the staff is.

Tip 2: Schedule visits.

With your questions ready, you can then schedule individual visits with each facility. Visit all of the facilities you’ve identified and, once you have completed your formal visit, you might want to take the time to show up unexpectedly once or twice for an unannounced visit. These are typically acceptable, but you should try to visit around mealtimes so it is more convenient for both staff and residents.

Tip 3: Get first-hand information.

Always talk to residents and staff, but don’t make the mistake of talking to residents only in the presence of staff. You should try to speak candidly with residents without staff looking over your shoulder so you can be sure you receive candid answers.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

If you are ever asked to serve as an executor in New York, you should view this question as an indication the person asking you trusts you very much. Your job as executor will be to manage the property that person leaves behind after he or she dies.  And while the probate process in New York can be somewhat daunting, you should understand that there are some new problems you might have to face that executors in the past rarely had to deal with.

For identity thieves, stealing someone’s personal information is a way for them to obtain a financial advantage. Many of these thieves have recently been stealing the identities of deceased people in order to open fraudulent accounts or obtain other benefits.

According to one recent report, over 2 million deceased people had their identities stolen last year by identity thieves. Many of these thieves used the decedent’s personal information to open new credit cards and make fraudulent purchases.  After doing so, it often falls to the executor to have to sort out the problems left behind by the thieves.

Part of your duty as executor is to keep meticulous records, a task that will come in very handy if the estate is ever subjected to identity theft. You should always be prepared to contest any claim from a creditor that appears to have resulted from a fraudulently opened account. Additionally, notifying all relevant government agencies that the decedent has died is essential.

Of course, people unfamiliar with the probate process will want to speak to a probate attorney as soon as you learn that you have been nominated as executor.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Recent figures suggest that elderly Americans have come under increasing debt pressures during the past several years. The Employee Benefit Research Institute recently published an analysis of government information that studied death rates between 2007 and 2010. During that time, people age 75 and older increased their chances of falling under debt pressure.

While people in this age group are less likely to have debt than younger people, they have increased their chances of acquiring debt in recent years primarily due to unexpected medical expenses.

The study shows that between 2007 and 2010, the percentage of Americans age 75 and older who had any kind of debt at all rose from about 31% in 2007 to nearly 39% in 2010. Those seniors also saw a dramatic increase in the average amount of debt they held, from about $13,700 in 2007 to over $27,400 in 2010.

The study also showed the people between the ages of 55 and 75 either decreased the total amount of debt or had their chances of having debt remain steady during that same timeframe. Unfortunately, younger people have shown a significant difference in the way they acquire debt when compared to older generations. For younger people, it appears as if they acquire debt earlier, acquire more debt, and take longer to pay it off.

Study authors say that many of the elderly people who acquired debt between 2007 and 2010 did so because of costs associated with medical care. Even though Medicare and Medicaid paid for many expenses, there are still out-of-pocket expenses that can often impose significant hardships.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

The time may come when you decide it’s best to transition to a retirement home environment. But before you begin looking at individual homes, it’s a good idea to gain a basic understanding of the types of elder care facilities that are available. Each different type will offer specific amenities and services, and you will want to match your needs and desires with those offered by the appropriate type of facility.

Independent Living

These retirement homes give seniors the opportunity to live as independently as possible while still receiving some assistance from the facility staff. Independent living centers are often organized in a similar way to upscale college dormitories or village-like resorts, providing a wide range of social interactions and recreational options, as well as personal care assistants and even some medical assistance.

Assisted Living

For those who need a little more assistance than independent living centers can offer, assisted living centers may be the best choice. These facilities provide a higher level of personal and even medical care, while still providing seniors with reasonable independent living options.

Nursing Home

Of the three main types of retirement homes, nursing homes provide the most possible care. They have staffs that can provide 24-hour medical and personal assistance to those with the most serious medical conditions or personal limitations.

The Fourth Option

Of course, the fourth option is to remain at home and adapt your home environment to meet your needs. Although this is not always possible, it is something you should consider if your abilities allow for it.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

From figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau, the workforce is becoming an increasingly grey place.  As more Americans reach the age of 65, more of them are also choosing to stay employed and are significantly altering the demographics of the modern labor force.

About one out of every eight Americans is a senior citizen, but by 2040 that number is expected to rise to more than one out of five, or greater than 20%.  As the recent recession has also taken a toll on birth rates, that percentage could be even larger if fewer people are having children.

In 2010, about 16% of senior citizens remained in the workforce. That’s a 4% increase from 1990 when 12% were doing the same.

For seniors between the ages of 65 and 69, a group referred to as “young seniors,” the numbers are even greater.  Almost 31% of these seniors continued working in 2010, up from only 22% in 1990.

Of all seniors, men tend to remain in the workforce more than women, though both groups are seeing a rise in the number who stay in the labor force. In 2010, about 21% of senior males remained working, while 12.5% of women also remained in the workforce. In 1990, those numbers were at 17.6% for men and about 8% for women.

Surveys have shown that one of the main reasons older Americans are choosing to work is because they need to. They simply do not have enough money to retire comfortably and have had to rearrange their priorities in the wake of the recent economic downturn. Other data, mostly anecdotal, has also said that seniors are choosing to work more because they enjoy it and because they are remaining active into their old age.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

The beginning of the year often marks a time when many adult children with elderly parents start looking for assistance to assist their parents in their day-to-day lives. This phenomenon often occurs because adult children have recently spent time with their families during the holidays and because New Year’s resolutions often make helping their parents find elder care a priority.

For some people, however, it’s harder to determine if an elderly parent requires assistance. It’s also hard to determine how much help they need. For anyone in such a situation there are a couple of pointers you may want to keep in mind.

Find a good geriatric care specialist.

Even if your parents get a yearly physical you should help your parents schedule an evaluation with a geriatric care physician. You should also try to accompany your parent to the geriatric assessment and ask the doctor about any concerns you have.

Work together as a team.

Transitioning from an independent life to one that requires regular elder care assistance is not something that many elderly people find easy to do. You need to realize that your parents have been independent for their entire lives and even bringing up the subject of elder care can be difficult for them. It’s sometimes a good idea to approach this topic by telling your parents about your own concerns and how you are willing to help. If there are specific problems you, your parent, and  other family members can work on them together.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled this past summer that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) could not require states to expand Medicaid, there have been dozens of stories about which states will or will not choose to accept the PPACA’s Medicaid expansion. But, according to the results of a survey by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured, along with the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families, regardless of which way a state is leaning over expansion, almost every state has taken advantage of federal funds, offered under the PPACA, to upgrade their dilapidated systems for Medicaid enrollment.

With about 15 to 20 states being almost certain to reject the Medicaid expansion, the acceptance of federal funds to modernize enrollment systems seems somewhat incongruous, but that incongruity is more than just a precautionary measure, should a state reject the expansion now and acquiesce at a later date, since all states will have the new health insurance exchanges. These exchanges are intended to create an easy enrollment experience, as well as allow for the enrollee to compare the benefits offered by various plans, and that is what is prompting the upgrades to these enrollment systems. Even if a state rejects the expansion now, the upgrades can be seamlessly integrated to the exchanges later.

At this point, online applications for Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) have become available in 37 states, and 45 states have linked verifications for those programs with the Social Security Administration.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

When the Supreme Court overturned the portion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that required states to expand Medicaid or risk losing federal dollars, it paved the way for states to choose whether they wanted to expand the program or not.  At the time, many Republican state governors expressed their opposition to the expansion, while Democratic governors generally supported it.

Now, in the wake of last year’s presidential election, more state governors have now begun voicing their acceptance of the proposed expansion of Medicaid services. So far, six Republican state governors have indicated that they are no longer opposed to expanding Medicaid in their states. Though states have until January 1, 2014 to make their final decision, states will have to develop their budgets before that deadline, and it appears now as if a majority of states will eventually expand Medicaid under the terms of the healthcare law.

The law directs that anyone who earns an income of up to 133% of the poverty line will be eligible to receive Medicaid health care coverage. That expansion is expected to bring at least 16 million additional people under the Medicaid umbrella, people who had previously gone without any kind of health care coverage because they were too poor to afford private insurance and also did not qualify for Medicaid.

Each state sets its own requirements for who qualifies for Medicaid, but under the terms of the healthcare law, qualification requirements would be nearly identical in any state that adopts the expansion.

The Law Office of Michael Robinson, P.C. is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.