Article Category General Articles Page 22

  Last Updated: 1/5/2009 Congress has passed and President Bush has signed legislation that will temporarily suspend the penalty for seniors who fail to take the required minimum distribution from IRA and employer retirement accounts in 2009. But the penalty freeze, which is part of the Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008, does Read Full Article

  Last Updated: 4/24/2009 Just about everyone who gets Social Security, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), or a Railroad Retirement or Veterans Administration disability pension, will receive a one-time payment from the U.S. government of $250 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (aka the stimulus bill). Read Full Article

  Last Updated: 2/26/2009 In the recent economic downturn, many homes have lost considerable value and stock portfolios have plummeted. If this is the case for you, do you need to change your will? What if your income and assets have increased significantly? If your finances have changed markedly since you wrote your will, you Read Full Article

  Last Updated: 4/29/2009 Julie Hall. The Boomer Burden: Dealing with Your Parents&#039 Lifetime Accumulation of Stuff . Thomas Nelson, Nashville, TN. 2007. 228 pages. $10.19 from Amazon (click on book to order). When someone dies, they leave behind memories of them, but also lots of stuff. The Boomer Burden addresses how to deal with Read Full Article

  Last Updated: 12/22/2008 Hugh Delehanty and Elinor Ginzler. Caring for Your Parents: The Complete Family Guide. AARP and Sterling Publishing, New York, NY. 2008. 238 pages. $10.36 from Amazon (click on book to order) As parents age, their adult children are often forced to take on an active caregiving role, which creates a new Read Full Article

  Last Updated: 4/1/2009 A new report by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College finds that nearly two-thirds of U.S. households are at risk of being unable to maintain their standard of living in retirement when possible long-term care costs are taken into consideration. The report, “Long-Term Care Costs and the National Retirement Read Full Article

  Last Updated: 12/20/2008 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has unveiled a one- to five-star rating system for nursing homes to help consumers evaluate a nursing home’s quality when selecting a facility. The ratings appear on the agency’s Nursing Home Compare Web site. A five-star designation means the facility ranks “much above Read Full Article

  Last Updated: 4/6/2009 As the economy worsens, incidences of elder financial abuse are reportedly on the rise. The elderly are particularly vulnerable to scams or to financial abuse by family members in need of money. A recent study found that up to one million older Americans may be targeted yearly. Family members and caregivers Read Full Article

A 55-year-old individual considering a basic level of long-term care insurance protection — a $100 daily benefit and three years of coverage — can expect to pay $723 a year if married or $1,060 if single, according to the 2009 Long-Term Care Insurance Price Index, an annual report from the American Association for Long-Term Care Read Full Article

Last Updated: 6/27/2008 With the strict new health care privacy rules now in force, it’s more important than ever that everyone consider creating an advance medical directive that specifically names those persons who are entitled to access to health care information about them. Under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which recently became effective, Read Full Article