Want to learn more about government benefits that might be available to you? Veterans Benefits, Medicare and Medicaid may be options for you. Learn more about them by watching this ten minute video. This video excerpt is from a lecture given by Babette Bach, Esq., sponsored by the Parkinson Research Foundation.
Babette: At Bach Elder Law, we are committed to viewing our clients and their multi-generational families in a very holistic way. We try to be very active listeners. We want to preserve the integrity of the family and give them the level of service that they need, particularly when they’re in crisis, because when you’re in crisis you need to be taken care of, you need to have your phone call returned, you need to know your case is a priority, so that you can feel the relief that someone is servicing you and solving the problems for you.
Fred: One of things that I enjoy so much in working with Babette, having done this for a lot of years, is the standard of excellence that we have in the office. Nothing goes out of that office unless it’s perfect, unless it’s been reviewed, unless it’s well thought out, unless it’s in the best interests of the client and achieves the best possible result for the client. Nothing else is acceptable.
Babette: In order to obtain the type of services and the level of knowledge that we would like to present to our clients, we are very involved in the Florida Bar. I am often putting on CLEs on behalf of the bar as chair of the elder law section. I have frequently written articles or lectured in the field of elder law. I am frequently attending different continuing legal education programs, and also tracking programs that are provided by the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys so that I am appraised of all of the newest events that occur in my field.
Fred: In the field of taxation, you must absolutely be current and up to date. In addition to practicing with Babette, I am also a tax law professor at Stetson Law School, which is in St. Petersburg, Fla., approximately 30 miles north of here. In order to stand in front of 25 law students two and three times a week, you must be absolutely current in the tax law. You have to know what you’re talking about and as a result of that experience, the give and take with students, you are obligated to know and understand the law including the most recent changes and additions to the tax law.
Babette: In addition to being certified by the state of Florida as a board-certified elder law attorney, I’m certified by the Department of Veterans Affairs as a certified V.A. attorney. What that means is that I am able to represent veterans applying for benefits. There are V.A. benefits that are very beneficial to married veterans who were dishonorably discharged and served during wartime that are non-service connected. And that’s very important because if you develop Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s and you need care at home, you may be able to get substantial governmental benefits to cover your at-home care costs or your assisted-living care costs even though your disability has absolutely nothing to do with service-connected disability. Sometimes I get to tell the widows/widowers of deceased veterans that even though their husband or wife may have passed away 20 years ago they, as a surviving spouse of a war-time veteran, can also access these programs. The benefits are not quite as rich as they are for the veterans but they are very substantial, and it is one of the areas where I frequently council clients.
Fred: I bring to Bach Elder Law my expertise in tax matters. Frequently our clients come into the office with tax problems. Some of them haven’t filed returns for a number of years, some of them are engaged in disputes with the Internal Revenue Service, some of our wealthier clients need tax planning on estate issues which can become very complicated, particularly now at this time where there is great uncertainty in the estate tax law. Congress failed to renew our estate tax law and it went out of business on December 31, 2009. Most tax practitioners, myself included, believe that when the Congress gets to it, it will reinstate the federal tax law in substantially the same form that existed as of December 31, 2009. This means that persons with estates of less than 3.5 million dollars, or 7 million dollars between a husband and wife, need not be concerned with federal estate taxes.
Fred: In the tax and business areas, I have also represented and advised business owners on succession planning. That is, how do you get a business from one generation down to the next in the most efficient way, both from a tax standpoint and also from a governing standpoint. Frequently, when a business is passed from the founder to the next generation, you have controversies and disputes between the children in the operation of the business. In many cases some want to sell, some don’t want to sell. You can provide for that and prevent those kinds of disputes with well thought-out succession planning in the form of buy/sell agreements, employment agreements and operating agreements that will state with some specificity just who has the right to make the decisions, and who is going to be running the business while still treating all of the beneficiaries of a business owner equally.
