Medicare hospice benefit, Medicare covers costs of daily care and permits a
hospice to provide appropriate custodial care, including homemaker services
and counseling.
Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs)
–
An IRA is a tax-deferred investment and savings
account that acts as a personal retirement fund for people with employment
income. In a traditional IRA contributions may be deductible or
non-deductible, and the earnings may grow tax-deferred until withdrawal
(assumed to be retirement), at which time they are taxed as ordinary income.
IRAs are designed for individuals with earned income or married couples in
which only one of the spouses has earned income and the couple files a joint
return. (See Roth IRA.)
Inter Vivos or Living Trust
–
In this type of trust generally established as a
revocable trust, the maker places his/her assets into the trust and is the
trustee of the trust. A successor trustee may manage those assets if the
maker of the trust becomes incapacitated and will distribute the assets of
the trust when the maker dies. The successor trustee is the fiduciary, and
has a legal duty to follow the terms of the trust as set out by the maker.
This type of trust may allow the maker to avoid probate at death and
conservatorship in the event of incapacity.
Keogh Plans
– A Keogh is a tax-deferred
retirement plan designed to help self-employed
workers or individuals who earn self-employed income establish a retirement
savings program.
There are two different types of Keogh’s, profit-sharing or money purchase
plan. Under Keogh regulations the money purchase plan contribution is
mandatory and the same percentage contribution is made each year, whether
there are profits or not. The profit sharing contribution may change each
year, and individuals may contribute to both types of plans in the same
year. The most attractive feature of Keogh plans is the high maximum
contribution (currently up to $40,000) and it will now be indexed for
inflation. The self-employed person makes contributions, and these along
with investment earnings grow tax-deferred until withdrawal (assumed to be
retirement), at which time they are taxed as ordinary income Last Will
and Testament – A Will is perhaps the most well-known means of disposing
of property at death. Every state has its own rules for the making of a
valid Will, but at the very least, they involve a written document that is
1. Signed by the person making it (called the testator or, if female,
the testatrix), and
2. Witnessed by at least two disinterested witnesses (those who do not stand
to inherit under the Will.)
The person nominated by the testator to wind down the affairs of the
decedent is called the executor or, if female, the executrix.
When a person with a Will dies, he/she is said to die testate. This
means, simply, that the Will governs the disposition of that person's
property. The "alternative" to dying testate is dying intestate. A
person dying intestate has no Last Will and Testament.
Living Wills
– A living will is a directive to physicians allowing an individual to
express his or her desire not to be kept alive by extraordinary means in the
event he or she is determined to be in a terminal condition. This document
directs the physician to give or withhold life sustaining medical care. The
principal should state in the living will the conditions under which
treatments should be continued or discontinued and what types of life
sustaining efforts should be made.
Long-Term Care Insurance
–
Long-term care insurance covers an individual for many of the costs of home
health care, the costs of community-based care (such as assisted
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