Estate planning documents every young adult should have

Upon turning 18, a person is legally considered to be an adult, even if still dependent on his or her parents for financial support (or for making dental appointments!). This means that parents lose the ability to make certain financial and medical decisions on behalf of their child. Young adults can benefit from establishing a basic estate plan that includes:

• Durable power of attorney
• Health care proxy
• Will

What is a durable power of attorney?

In a durable power of attorney, the young adult (“principal”) grants a designated agent the authority to make decisions regarding his or her financial assets. The power of attorney becomes effective when it is signed and may be revoked at any time while the principal is competent. An agent can act in a principal’s stead in a wide variety of financial matters, such as withdrawing money from a bank account, paying bills and filing tax returns.

A power of attorney can be particularly helpful while a child is away at college, traveling or studying abroad for a semester.

What is a health care proxy?

A health care proxy allows the young adult (the “principal”) to name an agent (or “surrogate”) to make health care decisions on his or her behalf. A health care proxy does not become effective until the principal is incapable of making his or her own health care decisions, and the principal may revoke it at any time while living and competent.

In an emergency situation, the designated agent (typically a parent of the young adult) can make medical decisions on the principal’s behalf and will be given access to the principal’s medical information. This is important so that the agent can make informed decisions on the child’s behalf. Without a health care proxy in effect, parents may encounter resistance from doctors or other medical personnel when the need arises.

A health care proxy may also include a “declaration of wishes” or a “living will,” which provides guidance to the health care agent when acting on behalf of the young adult.  (Continue Reading)

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Estate planning documents every young adult should have

Ottawa County to streamline abuse investigations

A handful of Ottawa County agencies recently signed on to a plan outlining how to report and handle abuse cases.

Simply put, the document sets up a strategy for county agencies to follow in the event an abuse case is reported or investigated. It also outlines the proper way to conduct joint investigations, collect evidence and protect confidentiality.

“Reports of elder abuse are on the rise,” Ottawa County commissioner Jo Ellen Regal said. “If a standardized process is in place all cases will be handled the same from filing of an abuse report to the investigation and possible prosecution. It will also be helpful when cases cross jurisdictional boundaries.”

Regal said most of the response procedures are already in place but are solidified in the memorandum.

Ottawa County Job and Family Services director Stephanie Kowal said they are in the process of collecting signatures from numerous departments and law enforcement agencies in the county for participation.

Kowal addressed the memorandum during a question and answer session with the Register:

Q: What prompted Ottawa County agencies to begin adopting this memorandum? Is it necessary?

A: Ohio House Bill 64 passed in October 2014, which became effective in September 2015. There are several provisions in that legislation, one of which is the implementation of a memorandum of understanding between required parties in each county. The deadline for all provisions of the law is July 2016. Ottawa County has been working on the understanding and other processes, prior to the legislation

Q: How will this change the current way abuse cases are reported, prevented or handled? 

A: Ottawa County began working on how adult protective services cases are referred, investigated and coordinated, prior to the legislation. This memorandum is more of a tool to spell out our processes and protocols, rather than a change to how cases are investigated. It is an opportunity to make sure that anyone working with seniors is aware of the process, who to report suspected abuse/exploitation or neglect to, and how the responsible agencies will collaborate to meet the needs presented.

Q: When will this memorandum be implemented?

A: The memorandum is effective already, and again, solidifies how we treat reported cases of elder abuse, exploitation or neglect. For example, a law enforcement agency that has not yet signed the memorandum already makes reports to our agency when they suspect an elderly person is being neglected or abused. Those parties who have not yet signed off on the document already report incidents to our office. We have staffed our Adult Protective Services through our Children Services Division, and so there is the ability to report 24/7. During business hours, reports can be made to the office 419-707-8639 or 800-665-1677. After hours, calls go to the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office, and the on call worker is contacted.  (Continue Reading)

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Ottawa County to streamline abuse investigations

New Brain Institute Plans To Refocus Third World’s Attention On Dementia As ‘Societal Issue’

With dementia cases rising rapidly around the world, the University of California, San Francisco and the University of Dublin announced Monday the launch of an institute aimed at helping developing countries learn more about the disease and cope with the burden it places on patients, families and caregivers.

The Global Brain Health Institute, which will be housed both in San Francisco and Dublin, will train 600 neuroscientists, policymakers, economists and others over 15 years in an effort to help developing countries better understand dementia, as well as how to delay and prevent it. The institute plans to focus initially on countries in Latin America and the Southern Mediterranean region. Training is expected to begin next fall.

“A lot of these countries are the ones that are about to really see major shifts in their aging populations,” said Kristine Yaffe, a professor of neurology and psychiatry at UCSF. “And there are very limited dementia experts, or any kind of aging brain experts.”

An estimated 46.8 million people are living with dementia worldwide and that number is expected to nearly triple by 2050 as lifespans increase, according to Alzheimer’s Disease International. Nearly 60 percent of all cases are in developing countries.

The disease is also increasingly a financial strain for communities and governments. Its estimated cost around the world is expected to reach $818 billion in 2016, according to the organization.

Dementia is becoming as important as communicable diseases and needs a global response, said Bruce Miller, a behavioral neurologist at UCSF who will co-lead the new Global Brain Health Institute. “We are really looking at a massive epidemic,” he said.

The institute is being funded with a $177 million gift from Atlantic Philanthropies, which was created by businessman Chuck Feeney. President Christopher G. Oechsli said he is hopeful that over time the institute will help improve the quality of life of people living with dementia; support families and caregivers; and change public policy. The institute will also aim to reduce the incidence of the disease across the world, he said.

“This is not just a health/science issue,” he said. “This is a societal issue.”  (Continue Reading)

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New Brain Institute Plans To Refocus Third World’s Attention On Dementia As ‘Societal Issue’

Volunteer advocacy group works to protect the elderly

Bloomington will soon welcome a new volunteer guardianship program for the elderly community to help combat legal and financial troubles.

According to an Area 10 Agency press release, Indiana is one of the few states that “does not have a state-supported public system of providing adult guardianship services for the indigent.”

 

The release goes on to state that though the need for these services is increasing in Indiana, support from the state has yet to rise, which will leave the elderly with limited resources through private institutions and volunteer pro bono attorney services.

“We have seen a huge need in our community to expand greater access to guardianship services for vulnerable at-risk people with nowhere else to turn,” Monroe County Prosecutor Chris Gaal said in the release.

In order to help make services more readily available, Indiana created the Adult Guardianship Task Force, which pushed for legislative reform concerning senior care. The legislature responded with funding for the Indiana Supreme Court to “implement a Volunteer Advocate for Seniors or Incapacitated Adults or VASIA program.”

This program is run by volunteers trained by a guardianship program who are then designated by a judge to 
advocate for elders struggling with their affairs, according to the press release.

To attain a guardianship, the court will appoint a guardian to a person of need, and he or she will be responsible for handling the financial and legal proceedings. The appointed guardian will help elderly community members who are unable to make decisions for themselves due to ailments such as dementia or brain injury.

The presence of a guardian is meant to assure safety and respect for the person in need as well as to keep the person in need from getting financially and legally exploited, abused or neglected.

An appointed advisory board for the project helped raise the funds necessary to commence plans for the project, securing a grant from the Office of State Court Administration along with 25 percent of the grant in local matching funds from the Perry Township Trustees, the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office and the Monroe County Council’s Sophia Travis Community Service Grant Program.

“We are now pleased to announce $38,500 in-state grant funding that we will use to create a volunteer guardianship program that will serve our local community,” Area 10 Executive Director Kerry Conway said in the 
release.

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Volunteer advocacy group works to protect the elderly

Anti-Hacking Duties Don't Include Replacing Stolen Client Funds

By Joan C. Rogers

Nov. 17 — Lawyers who have taken reasonable security measures to safeguard their computer network aren't ethically obligated to replace client funds when hackers break in anyway and steal client money, the North Carolina bar's ethics committee concluded Oct. 23.

However, lawyers do have to restore client funds if they failed to take reasonable steps that could have prevented the theft, the committee said. It added that lawyers must help clients in several ways when a theft occurs.

Online Banking Hack

The opinion considers a lawyer's professional obligations in several scenarios when a third party steals funds from a trust account. It doesn't address a lawyer's potential legal liability for these losses.
In one scenario, a hacker gains illegal access to a lawyer's computer network and electronically transfers the balance of the funds in the client trust account to a separate account controlled by the hacker.

The lawyer doesn't have to replace the stolen funds, the committee advised, provided that she has taken reasonable care to minimize the risk to client funds by implementing reasonable security measures in keeping with the fiduciary obligations in the North Carolina Rules of Professional Conduct on safekeeping property.

As explained in North Carolina Formal Ethics Op. 2011-7 (2012), safety measures for online banking include strong password policies and procedures, the use of encryption and security software, hiring a technology expert for advice and making sure relevant firm members and staffers are trained on and abiding by the security procedures.

The lawyer whose network was hacked may be professionally obligated to replace the funds if she didn't use reasonable care in trust accounting and staff supervision and that failure was a proximate cause of the theft, the committee said.

‘Spoof' E-Mail in Real Estate Deal

In another scenario, a hacker gets a lawyer to send him funds the lawyer has received for a real estate closing by hacking the e-mail of one of the parties to the real estate transaction and then using a “spoof” e-mail address to send the lawyer instructions for wiring funds owed in the deal.

The lawyer doesn't notice that the e-mail address has one different letter, and she follows the instructions in the e-mail to wire the money without calling first to see why the e-mail instructs her to wire the money instead of mailing a check as previously arranged.

Under these circumstances, the committee said, the lawyer has a professional responsibility to replace the funds because she did not follow reasonable security measures to verify the disbursement change by calling the sender at the phone number listed in the lawyer's file or confirming the seller's e-mail address.

In yet another scenario, a third party unaffiliated with a lawyer creates counterfeit checks identical to the lawyer's trust account checks, makes checks payable to himself, and cashes them.

The committee advised that the lawyer is not ethically required to replace the stolen funds if she substantially complied with the ethics rules on trust accounting and staff supervision but was nevertheless victimized by the third-party theft.

However, the committee said the lawyer must promptly investigate and take steps to prevent further thefts and “must seek out every available option to remedy the situation,” including researching the law to determine whether the bank is liable; communicating with the bank about its liability and whether it has insurance to cover the loss; considering whether to close the affected trust account and transfer funds to a new account; and working with law enforcement to recover the funds.

Duties to Affected Clients

The opinion says that with regard to all these situations, the lawyer owes it to the affected clients to take steps that could include the following:

• Notify the clients of the theft and advise them about its consequences for the representation.

• Help the clients identify any source of funds, such as bank liability and insurance, to cover the losses.

• Seek a continuance or otherwise defer the clients' matter if necessary to protect their interests.

• Explain what happened to third parties or opposing parties to the extent necessary to protect the clients' interests.

• Take protective steps if stop payments are issued against outstanding checks.

• Report the theft to the state bar. 

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Anti-Hacking Duties Don't Include Replacing Stolen Client Funds

Five myths about baby boomers

By Sally Abrahms

Sally Abrahms is a freelance writer on baby boomers and aging.

There are 75.4 million baby boomers in the United States, people from 51 to 69 years old. They are the largest generation in American history, raised during the economic prosperity that followed World War II. Media and marketers have treated the generation as one enormous, monolithic group since their youth. But larger than the entire population of France, America’s baby boomers are a far more diverse demographic than any of their many stereotypes convey. The oldest boomer, born in 1946, was 18 years old when the youngest was just entering the world. It’s time to debunk some generalizations about the original Me Generation.

1. Boomers are wealthy.

Rather than downsizing, many empty nesters are snapping up second homes or moving into bigger quarters, seeking more prestige and space for friends and relatives to visit. For instance, the Lake Weir Preserve retirement community in central Florida offers custom homes with garages as huge as 3,000 square feet, to fit RVs, boats and classic-car collections. Increasingly, “retirement isn’t all about being practical,” Ken Dychtwald, founder and chief executive of the consulting firm Age Wave, told U.S. News & World Report this year.

Such stories of big spending have dominated popular perceptions of boomers in their later years.

But many boomers couldn’t be further from living that dream. While some benefit from multiple income streams, members of this sandwich generation often are saddled simultaneously with their children’s eye-popping college tuition payments and health expenses for their aging parents. Some have to leave their jobs to be full-time caregivers. A 2013 AARP study found that about 1 in 5 workers between ages 45 and 74 had either taken leave or quit a job to care for an adult family member in the past five years. That amounted to an average $303,880 in lost income (including pension and Social Security benefits) per caregiver, according to a MetLife estimate.

On top of that, there’s a mounting number of “gray divorce” couples who, in their 50s and 60s, suddenly have to divide assets they had counted on. Given boomers’ longer life expectancy, that translates into a lot more bills for many more years.

Savings aren’t helping them much. A Wells Fargo study released last month shows that working Americans age 60 or older have median savings of just $50,000, about $250,000 short of their goal. And plans to keep their jobs longer might not work. In the same study, 49 percent of retired respondents said they left the workforce earlier than expected, frequently because of health problems or an employer’s decision.

Boomers know that their financial situation is more precarious than others think. “When I talk to audiences around the country, I hear this palpable fear that boomers will outlive their money,” says personal finance expert Kerry Hannon, author of “Getting the Job You Want After 50.”

2. Boomers are healthier than their parents.

Baby boomers have the longest life expectancy in history. The average 65-year-old today can expect to live to 84.3 — nearly three years longer than a 65-year-old in 1980. New tests to screen for health issues, along with greater public awareness about the dangers of smoking, sitting and obesity, give boomers health advantages that their parents never had. Statins to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease weren’t even introduced until 1987. Boomers are tracking their fitness, tallying their steps and counting their calories. It’s natural to assume they are healthier than the previous generation.

But the data doesn’t agree. “We have all these medical advances, fitness and technology. There’s this belief that with so many more tools available that boomers have to be doing better, but it’s a misperception,” says Cedric Bryant, chief science officer for the American Council on Exercise.

Research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2013 showed that boomers were in worse health than their parents at about the same age. They had more disabilities and higher rates of chronic diseases. Just 13 percent of the studied boomers said they were in excellent health, compared with 32 percent of people from the previous generation. Boomers were more likely to be obese, exercised less, and had higher rates of hypertension and high cholesterol.

3. Boomers are selfish.

If you want to see how unpopular the cohort unfortunately nicknamed the Me Generation has become, just Google “baby boomers selfish.” My search returned 147,000 results, including headlines declaring them “The Worst Generation Ever.” Detractors complain that boomers stay too long at their jobs and in their homes, not making room for the next generation, spending their children’s inheritances and running up debt.

Elsewhere in this issue, Jim Tankersley writes, “the generation that was born into some of the strongest job growth in the history of America, gobbled up the best parts, and left its children and grandchildren with some bones to pick through and a big bill to pay.”

Not so fast. Boomers have been far more generous with their money than they’re given credit for, a benevolence that will continue after their deaths. The generation is poised to lead the largest wealth transfer in U.S. history. Researchers at Boston College’s Center on Wealth and Philanthropy estimated that between 2007 and 2061, heirs will receive $36 trillion from deceased relatives, and $20.6 trillion will be given to charity. A new Merrill Lynch report credits boomers for an upcoming surge in charitable giving: Over the next 20 years, retirees will donate money and time worth $8 trillion. (Continue Reading)

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Five myths about baby boomers

Adult Protective Services: Elder Abuse is No Laughing Matter

In spring 2015, California's legislature held a joint hearing on deficiencies in Adult Protective Services. Many APS investigators and managers testified to their lack of training and their inability to do their jobs.

The daughter of a elder abuse victim spoke of her mother being physically and sexually abused in an assisted living facility. APS substantiated the abuse and walked away. Social services workers smirked and laughed as the victim's daughter told her story.



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YouTube:  Adult Protective Services:  Elder Abuse is No Laughing Matter

Arkansas judge accused of coercing young men into sex in exchange for lighter sentences

District Court Judge Joseph Boeckmann

An Arkansas judge was accused of targeting “young Caucasian male litigants” and using his position to offer them lighter sentences in exchange for sex, the Arkansas Times reported.

The state Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission said in a statement on Tuesday that District Court Judge Joseph Boeckmann would not only offer “substitutionary sentences” to men appearing before him in court, but also hand out lighter fines and sentences to them compared to women charged with similar offenses.

The commission said that Boeckmann would target men between the ages of 18 and 35 and have them do “community service” by picking up cans either along local roads or at his house. Once there, the group’s complaint stated, the judge would take pictures of their buttocks as they bent over to pick up the cans.

“Multiple male litigants have been photographed by Boeckmann during these ‘community serivce’ type sentences,” the complaint said. “Boeckmann maintained these photographs of male litigants’ buttocks in his home for his own personal use.”

According to the Arkansas Times, Boeckmann is accused of carrying out these illegal arrangements since 2009. One man mentioned in the statement said that the judge paid him to allow himself to be photographed in the nude as well as clothed, and also removed “pornographic images” from Boeckmann’s computer. The commission’s complaint stated “on information and belief” that Boeckmann had pictures of underage boys on his computer, which will lead to it being searched.

The judge is also accused of giving money to lawyers and law enforcement officials who appeared before him, as well as to the court itself for litigants who carried out his “substitutionary sentences” or with whom he had personal relationships.

Boeckmann has 30 days to respond to the commission’s allegation. However, the group does not have the authority to suspend him from the bench. The commission’s executive director, David Sachar, said that he has not ruled out asking the state Supreme Court to suspend Boeckmann if he does not agree to step down. The Times reported that Boeckmann is not running for re-election next year.

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Arkansas judge accused of coercing young men into sex in exchange for lighter sentences

York County officials say judge ‘deliberately manipulated’ court schedule to create a backlog

ALFRED, Maine – The York County Commissioners and part-time Probate Judge Robert M.A. Nadeau are embroiled in a contest over changes to the court schedule that commissioners charge have created a backlog and that the judge willfully made after they denied him a raise in pay.

The judge strongly denies the commissioners’ charges, saying in written communication with the county manager that they are “misinformed, inappropriate, inaccurate and rejected.”

The commissioners’ charges are contained in a five-page findings of fact written earlier this month based on testimony at a hearing on the issue in October. The accusations are the most recent against the judge, who is facing disciplinary action before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Judicial Code of Ethics violations.

The issue before the commissioners began last April, when Nadeau asked the commissioners to increase the number of days he works, from the current two days a week at an annual salary of $48,498 to either three days ($90,000) or five days ($120,000) a week.

Commissioners concluded Nadeau could continue to adequately perform his duties two days a week, based on information provided by Register of Probate Carol Lovejoy. They did raise his pay to $54,000 a year.

In the next several days, according to documents attached to the findings of fact, Nadeau told Lovejoy, among other things, to block off time for research and writing, restrict the number of cases he would hear and reschedule hearings from Wednesday and Thursday to Monday and Friday – a change commissioners charge allows Nadeau not to work on Monday holidays when the courts are closed.

Nadeau has said in both an eight-page letter and subsequent email to County Manager Gregory Zinser that he made the changes so the cases that come before him receive an adequate amount of his time. He switched to Mondays and Fridays, he said, so he can prepare on Fridays for Monday action.

Lovejoy testified at the hearing that the docket was current as of April 2015, and backlogs of routine matters occurred only afterward. But Nadeau said “the court’s schedule has historically been plagued by a substantial backlog, particularly a trial backlog, that I could never reduce.”

Commissioners said after listening to testimony at the October hearing, “the facts clearly establish there was no emergency to justify Judge Nadeau’s unilateral scheduling changes. Judge Nadeau has deliberately manipulated the Court schedule to create a backlog of cases in hopes of creating the appearance of need of more judicial time to mask the true purpose to obtain a significant pay raise.”

Zinser said in a subsequent interview that because Nadeau is an elected official and a judge, the commissioners can only request that he make changes but can’t force him to do so. He said the court loses about six days of court time under the current schedule, due to Monday holidays.

The county is researching whether “we have to pay him for days he’s not technically here.”

Zinser said Nadeau is mingling contested, uncontested and routine matters together to make his case. 

He said routine matters like name changes take as little as five minutes of the court’s time. There has always been a backlog of contested matters, he said, but before April it was only a two-week backlog. Now it is considerably longer.

Meanwhile, the SJC is considering an ethics infraction case against Nadeau, who also has a private practice in Biddeford. According to court documents, other lawyers have charged that Nadeau created a website for his job as probate judge that linked to the website of his private practice.

Past cases against him include a 2007 SJC suspension and a 2006 Board of Bar Overseers reprimand.

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York County officials say judge ‘deliberately manipulated’ court schedule to create a backlog