Babette Bach will be speaking at the Friendship Center, 1888 Brother Geenen Way, event at 2:00pm on Wednesday, May 17th, 2017. The topic is “How Would A Disability Upset Your Retirement Financial Planning?”. In this hour long program Babette will discuss the necessity to plan for disability and guardianship avoidance. Additionally, she will discuss recent legislation regarding living wills and trends in other states towards compassion choice. For more information on this event, please go to: www.friendshipcenterforagingstudies.org. and click the following link to see the flyer for this event: fcas-may-2017-bach-wright
Attorney Babette Bach, Esq. will be a speaker at the “Panel of Experts Discussion – A Free Dementia Education Seminar” at The Jewish Family and Children’s Service of the Suncoast Community Center. This event will take place on April 20th, 2017 from 4pm to 6pms. Please see the event flyer for more information should you wish to attend.
Babette Bach will be one of the key speakers talking about end of life issues at the Florida Studio Theatre event entitled “Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Death But Were Afraid To Ask”. This event takes place on Monday, April 10th, 2017 at 5pm in the Bowne Lab Theatre at FST. If you are interested in attending, please click this link or copy and paste it into your browser for more information:
http://conta.cc/2o5RBeH
Attorney Babette Bach, Esq. will be a keynote speaker at an event at JFCS of the Suncoast entitled “A Legal & Financial Presentation & Discussion with The Alzheimer’s Association & Babette Bach, Esq”. This event will take place on March 31st, 2017 from 10:30am to 12:00pm and is presented by the Alzheimer’s Support & Education Network. Please see the event flyer and call 941-364-7508 for more information.
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When you create a Will, you must obtain signatures from at least two witnesses at the time you sign it for it to be considered valid. The purpose of having two witnesses is so that, if the validity of your Will is ever challenged, they can both attest to your state of mind. These witnesses do not have to read your Will or even be aware of its contents, they just have to be able to certify that you were competent when you signed it. If you are working with an attorney, they should make you aware of this information and help explain the process of having a document witnessed. However, it is good to know some general information regarding rules for witnessing so that you feel more prepared when the time comes to make your Will official or update it.
If you would like to choose your own witnesses, be careful who you pick. Select individuals that are credible and will likely live longer than you, in case they are later asked to testify about the validity of your Will. If possible, avoid having beneficiaries of your Will also be witnesses, as this could be considered a conflict of interest. However, having a beneficiary or interested person witness the Will does not automatically invalidate the Will. If you would rather not choose witnesses, the attorney that you have been working with will likely have paralegals or legal assistants on-hand that can serve as credible witnesses. This eliminates the added stress of having to choose your own witnesses and bring them to the signing. At Bach & Jacobs, members of our team generally serve as witnesses during Will and trust signings.
Make sure you have the right number of witnesses, as every state requires that you have two individuals sign your Will in order for it to be legally binding. Additionally, these witnesses must sign your Will in front of you. Generally, your witnesses will sign the Will immediately after you do.
I’m thrilled to report a landmark settlement which will improve the quality and quantity of home care services for Medicaid enrollees receiving home and community based services. Congratulations to attorney Nancy Wright of Gainesville, Florida (lead Counsel), Disability Rights Florida and Southern Legal Counsel.
Under the Settlement Agreement, health plans that administer Medicaid long-term care services will be “required to provide an array of home and community-based services that enable enrollees to live in the community and to avoid institutionalization”.
The Settlement Agreement also states, among other things, that AHCA will:
- Adopt rules that set out requirements for coverage of long-term care services
- Require a new assessment procedure that takes into account the availability, willingness and ability of voluntary caregivers.
- Amend their contract with health plans to ensure compliance with these rules
- Require changes to health plan member handbooks to clarify enrollee rights and how to file consumer complaints
- Train (or re-train) health plans, hearing officers, AHCA staff and others on the new requirements
- Monitor case managers on how assessments are being done
- Use enrollee surveys that ask about sufficiency of services
The agreement impacts all six health plans now operating in Florida to provide Medicaid services through the Long-Term Care Program: Coventry/Aetna, Humana, Sunshine Health, Molina, United Healthcare and Amerigroup.
Should you have any questions regarding this topic or any other Medicaid related enquiry, please contact our office on 941-906-1231 to schedule an appointment to meet with one of our attorneys.
Attorney Babette Bach Esq. is looking forward to speaking on the topic of “Estate Planning Documents Everyone Needs To Have” at The Glenridge on Palmer Ranch, 7333 Scotland Way, Sarasota, FL 34238 on Thursday, January 26th, 2017 at 1pm. Please call Dr. Smith at The Glenridge on 941-552-5369 for more information on this event.
If you have further questions on this topic or wish to discuss having your estate planning documents drafted, please contact our office at (941) 906-1231 to schedule an appointment to meet with one of our attorneys.
As our society has increasingly high divorce and remarriage rates, more individuals are faced with the task of updating or revising their Estate Planning documents to account for their change in partner. However, remarriage can make Estate Planning quite complicated, especially if each or either spouse has children by a previous partner.
The first step in updating your estate plan if you plan on getting remarried is to review yours and have your current partner review theirs. If you both decide that you would like to continue to keep your assets separate and leave everything to your respective children, then you will need to contractually agree to this by entering into a prenuptial agreement or “prenup”. At this time you may want to amend your advance health care directives and medical release forms as well.
If you have further inquiries, the skilled attorneys at Bach & Jacobs can assist you with Estate Planning. Please call our office at 941-906-1231 to schedule an appointment.
