Long Island Medicaid planning lawyers provide help to clients in making sure they do not spend their entire life savings because they get sick as a senior. Our legal team works to help you plan ahead to save enough money to live comfortably during your golden years, and we also provide you with advice on how to get your healthcare expenditures covered as you get older. While many people believe they will not have to worry about covering care costs once they qualify for Medicare, this is …
Three Facts That Will Impact Your Retirement Plan
When you envision retirement, you probably think about the spare time that you will have to enjoy all the things that you have been putting on the back burner throughout your working career. As you are devising a retirement plan, you may be thinking about travel, leisure activities, and the things that you will be able to do for your family. This is well and good, and you should certainly do everything possible to prepare yourself for an enjoyable retirement. At the same time, you may not be …
Social Security Administration: No COLA for 2016
If you want to be appropriately prepared for each succeeding stage of life as you craft a meaningful legacy to leave behind to your loved ones, you should act in a fully informed manner every step of the way. We specialize in estate planning and elder law, but these areas are naturally connected to retirement planning and long-term financial planning in general. When it comes to retirement, Social Security will be a major piece to the puzzle for most people. The monthly payout will certainly …
Should I Take an Early Social Security Benefit?
People sometimes think that sooner is better, but this is not always the case. When it comes to your Social Security benefit, you surrender some of what you have earned if you decide to take your benefit early. It is possible to start to draw a Social Security benefit when you are as young as 62 years of age, assuming you paid into the program sufficiently. You can earn up to four retirement credits per year, and most people do, because the requirements are modest. Once you have 40 credits, …
Retirement Planning FAQs: Will Medicare Cover All of My Medical Expenses?
Retirement planning involves careful long-term calculations. You do not have a crystal ball, so there is no way that you can anticipate every expense that may come your way during your senior years. At the same time, you can gain a thorough understanding of the benefits that you will have, and you can make projections. When it comes to health care, you will qualify for Medicare coverage when you reach the age of 65 if you have paid into the program sufficiently throughout your life. Just about …
Why Is Retirement Planning Important?
The existence of certain institutions can lead you to overconfidence when it comes to retirement. You may feel as though retirement planning is really not important, because there is already a system in place that will automatically provide you with a comfortable retirement. Retirement Benefits When you pay FICA taxes, you earn retirement credits. You can obtain as many as four credits in a calendar year, and you obtain eligibility for Medicare and Social Security when you accumulate at least …
What Can I Expect From Social Security?
We focus on elder law issues, and many people who are planning ahead for their senior years have questions about Social Security. You should certainly have a full understanding of this program when you are devising a long-term financial plan. Everyone does not automatically become eligible for Social Security. You obtain eligibility through FICA tax contributions that you make throughout your working career. These taxes are pesky, but you do get something in return if you are fortunate enough …
Are There Different Types of Individual Retirement Accounts?
Retirement planning is a long-term endeavor. It can be hard to wrap your head around a time when you will be in your late sixties when you are younger, but time marches on. Accumulating the resources that you will need to retire in comfort can be difficult, so you should start looking ahead as soon as possible. An individual retirement account can be part of the plan. In this post we will look at the two different types of individual retirement accounts that are widely utilized. Traditional …
How to Avoid Common Retirement Plan Mistakes
Americans hold huge sums in retirement plans; for many, their 401(k)s and IRAs make up the bulk of their retirement savings. You worked hard to build retirement savings – make sure you avoid these common mistakes: Failing to take distributions on time. Absent any other estate planning strategies, you must start taking distributions from an IRA at age 70 ½. If you don’t take the required distribution, you pay a 50% penalty on the amount you should have withdrawn. Delaying …
Fewer Affluent Individuals Prioritizing Inheritance Preservation
There is a bumper sticker that makes the rounds among retirees. The exact wording may differ a bit depending on the version that you see, but the gist of it is this: "We're spending our children's inheritances." Some people are of the mind that they have worked hard for their money and they really are not concerned about what they may or may not be leaving behind. Others do in fact have very specific ideas about what they would like to be able to do for their children and …
Top Three Retirement Planning Misconceptions
Retirement is something that is not going to be gift wrapped and handed to you when you reach a certain birthday. Unfortunately, there are those who buy into certain misconceptions. They believe that retirement is lying in wait, and they don't take any steps to proactively make financial preparations. We would like to take a look at three of these misconceptions here. 1.) Health care is a given because I'm going to qualify for Medicare coverage. Medicare is not entirely comprehensive; it is …
Useful Elder Law and Retirement Planning Links
Elder law and retirement planning go hand-in-hand. Making sure the you have the financial underpinning to enjoy your retirement years to the fullest is important. But then there is the elder law issue of long-term care and the expenses that are potentially incurred. Medicare doesn't pay for an extended stay in a nursing home or an assisted-living community. If you combine the average length of stay with the average cost of a year in a nursing home in New York you're looking at a figure …
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