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Let us handle the hard stuff.
ELDER LAW • ESTATE PLANNING • WILLS & TRUSTS • GUARDIANSHIP & PROBATE LITIGATION
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Happy Holidays and a New Year of Planning
As the year and the holiday season winds down, we hope you’re looking forward to spending quality time with loved ones. Whether you’re gathering around the dinner table, making emergency visits to your loved ones to make sure they can remain independent, exchanging gifts, or simply enjoying each other’s company, these special moments are precious (or will pass given time).
In this issue, we explore tips for navigating family dynamics during the holidays and maintaining harmony. We also discuss the potential impact of gift-giving on Medicaid eligibility and offer guidance on how to avoid unintended consequences.
We’re proud to share that we recently hosted Litigationpalooza, a legal conference for the Illinois Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, that brought together industry experts to discuss the latest trends and challenges in courtroom elder law. This event was a testament to our commitment to staying at the forefront of legal knowledge and providing exceptional service to our clients.
As we look ahead to 2025, we’re excited to keep you informed about upcoming legal changes that may affect you or your loved ones.
We’ll also be sharing updates on our founder, Ben Neiburger’s crazy athletic projects/adventures for the new year (including fundraising for a cross country bike race benefitting the American Lung Association).
From our family to yours, we wish you a joyous holiday season and a prosperous New Year.
Warm regards,
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Gifting Assets could Affect your Medicaid Eligibility for Long-Term Care Benefits | |
Your heart may be in the right place when making gifts to family members and loved ones during the holiday season, but your generosity could end up costing more than you ever expected if you need Medicaid to help pay for long-term care costs in the future.
Gifting and Medicaid are like oil and water – they do not mix. If a Medicaid applicant makes a gift within the five-year period preceding an application for Medicaid long-term care benefits, the Department of Human Services will assess a “transfer penalty” against the applicant in the form of a period of ineligibility.
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Giving your wife a vacuum when she didn’t ask for one is a bad gift. So is giving anyone a sweater that lights up and plays Jingle Bells. What’s even worse is giving someone a house or money if the gift is not given the right way, because a gift like this can cause far worse headaches than standing in line to return the proverbial ugly sweater.
Without the appropriate documentation, both the gift-giver and recipient are at risk of pitfalls that may severely impact their living situations and financial stability. Here are a few examples of such pitfalls and how they could have been avoided.
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Litigationpalooza!
On Friday, October 18, 2024, Generation Law hosted Litigationpalooza, the premiere event for litigators in the area of elder law.
The brain child of Generation Law partner, Melissa Johnson, Litigationpalooza is a rock themed all day event filled with substantive discussion dissecting practice issues commonly seen in court and insight from seasoned probate and trust litigators who are anxious to share their tricks of the trade and collaborate with attendees in a round-table format. Over 50 attorneys attended this event put on by Illinois NAELA.
In true music festival fashion, guests were even treated to an on-site food truck for lunch and custom designed cookies for dessert. This annual event is sure to bring collaboration, innovation and development to elder law litigators for years to come.
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WHERE IN THE WORLD IS BEN?
A wise person told us that in life, there’s always another level of adventure crazy. For those of you who are new to our newsletter, our founder, Ben Neiburger, has been engaging in sporting adventures that are a bit out of the mainstream and best viewed from your comfy desk sitting behind a screen or with your phone in a comfy chair with a nice glass of wine.
In the 2010’s he could be found diving with Great White Sharks at Guadelupe Island in Baha Mexico, scuba diving north of the Canadian Arctic Circle, completing 24 hour inline skating rally races in Montreal, and as the decade ended with his 50th birthday, his first Extreme Triathlon - Chilean Patagonia.
Not learning any lessons about doing easier things, he continued his wacky triathlons in Norway (Norseman), on the hot plateaus of Utah (race report coming soon), and in the Scottish Highlands (Celtman!).
As we approach mid-decade, Ben decided that it would be meaningful to do something crazy on a team to help raise funds for the good things that the American Lung Association does.
In June 2025, he will be racing in one of the most difficult bike races on the planet, Race Across America (RAAM), covering 3000 miles from sea to sea.
Surviving that, Ben will be heading, at age 56, to the Italian and Swiss alps in September 2025 to complete the infamous ICON Livigno Xtreme Triathlon (swimming in an Alpine Lake, 15,000’ of climbing on the bike, and a trail marathon up a mountain) where he will scout one of the 2026 Winter Olympic venues.
We will post updates as the season (and his exhaustion) progresses.
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Other News
During November and December, members of the Generation Law team have been engaged in numerous presentations and discussions all across Chicagoland. Below are short summaries of the most notable ones:
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Melissa Johnson:
Melissa, along with Attorney Kaye Dent taught a Continuing Legal Education (CLE) course for NBI titled Illinois Probate Process: In 7 Simple Steps in December. The course (available for streaming) contained step-by-step instruction of probate processes and best practices for handling each unique case effectively. It discussed how to handle the personal executive; gather, value, and distribute all assets; and successfully complete the final accounting and tax returns; and all the foundational knowledge and best practices you need to ensure a smooth administration from start to finish. You can get it on demand here.
She moderated the Elder Law Short Course 2024 for IICLE in October. The course gave tips on how to enhance your skills, broaden your knowledge base, and network with peers and experienced faculty. It was designed for Illinois attorneys specializing in elder law. Topics covered include estate planning, Medicaid, long-term care planning, and updates on recent legal developments. It is available on demand here. Generation Law was also represented by Dirk Bromberek who was in attendance.
The DuPage County Bar Association CLE on Supported Decision Making on November 20 was also moderated by Melissa. The presentation covered the current Illinois Supported Decision Making Act and recently proposed legislative changes to the Illinois Probate Act. In addition, it addressed some trends in this area as well as some of the pros and cons of the use of supported decision-making agreements.
Lastly, she also moderated a session on Contested Elder Law Issues at the NAELA UnProgram in November. It included a Q & A with members of the Office of Inspector General, as well as presentations on due process and assistance hearings procedures, mental health and guardianships, powers of attorney, spousal refusal, Litigationpalooza recap, attorney mental health, and special needs trusts, among other topics.
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Rachel Anderle:
Rachel attended Stetson University College of Law’s virtual National Conference on Special Needs Planning and Special Needs Trusts (which was originally cancelled by a Florida Hurricane in October). The three-day conference brought together nationally recognized speakers and leading experts to provide comprehensive insights into the complex issues surrounding the creation, administration, monitoring, and planning of special needs trusts.
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Ben Neiburger:
On October 24, Ben presented on the Top 10 Documents Everyone Needs at the Roosevelt at Salt Creek retirement community in Elmhurst, IL. He discussed the importance of protecting yourself and your loved ones by creating documents such as wills, trusts, power of attorneys, living wills, and medical power of attorneys.
Ben attended the November 7th ISBA Real Estate CLE. It covered topics such as the basics of landlord and tenant law, how to use the Partitions Act to help your client divide a parcel of land, how to remove a mechanic’s lien from a title (and how to avoid them from attaching to a title in the first place), and what to do if your client’s post-closing agreement results in litigation.
On December 10th Ben was a featured speaker for a ISBA CLE video on new amendments to the power of attorney act. His presentation on Recent Amendments to the Illinois Power of Attorney Act and Bank Legal Counsel’s Perspective When Reviewing Your Client’s Power of Attorney was attended by over 200 people.
If you missed this event, you can catch Ben giving the presentation again for the DuPage County Bar Association joint Elder Law and Estate Planning & Probate Sections CLE Program on Wednesday on January 22, 2025. The webinar will be live on Zoom from 12:00pm to 1:00pm. You can register for the event here.
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This time of year, you’ll find a lot of great deals on just about every kind of gift you could possibly think of – and some you never would.
Picking the perfect gift can become an overwhelming task. At Generation Law, we’re here to help simplify your holiday shopping with free pointers on the greatest gift of all: peace of mind. Click here for suggestions for gifts that can truly make a difference.
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Need More Caregiving Tips?
Learn how to make elder care more bearable and less stressful in founder Ben Neiburger's book "Brighter Skies," which offers 10 guiding principles for caregivers.
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Get social with us
for all the caregiver essentials: planning tips, checklists and a few laughs
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IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: This email newsletter does not create an attorney-client relationship. It does not contain legal advice for you or anyone else (so don’t act on anything we say unless you speak with an attorney first). It does contain facts and stories we think you might be interested in. We tried to keep this short because we really like you.
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