When one spouse enters a nursing home and may be applying for MassHealth, the spouse who remains at home or in assisted living often has some important choices to make with an unbiased legal advisor. There are different layers in MassHealth law, and many persons only seem to know about the bottom layer, so let’s
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Basics of the New 2023 Massachusetts Estate Tax Law
The new Massachusetts estate tax law will be much more straightforward to deal with. There is no estate tax below $2,000,000.00. Once your estate went over $1,000,000.00 under the old law, everything under $1,000,000.00 had also gotten taxed, but that’s no longer the case. Everybody now gets a credit of $99,600.00, which is what the…
The MCLE Book Entitled “Elder and Disability Law in Massachusetts” Has Been Published
Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education has recently published Elder and Disability Law in Massachusetts, and it is now available for sale at https://www.mcle.org/product/catalog/code/1910261B00 . It is primarily intended for lawyers. This ebook contains 44 chapters and 1,478 pages, and replaces the previous book that I was editor of, Estate Planning for the Aging and Incapacitated Client…
Here Are More Key Filings in the Karen Read SJC Case
Brian Albert’s brief in opposition to his cell phone information being accessed by the defense: BD-2023-0343 memorandum
Karen Read’s reply brief (response to briefs of DA and Brian Albert): SJ-2023-0343 reply to the Commonwealth’s opposition
Karen Read’s motion for supplemental information to be considered by the SJC: SJ-2023-0343 motion for leave and to impound …
The United States Supreme Court Still Has Not Decided Whether to Take up Our Massachusetts Cases on Annuities of Community Spouses
The petition for certiorari to the United States Supreme Court for the Dermody and Mondor cases has not been approved or denied at this point. Rather, after a September 25, 2023 meeting to review the filings of both sides of the case, the Court simply wrote on October 2, 2023: ”The Solicitor General is invited…
The Massachusetts Legislature Has Finally Raised the Massachusetts Estate Tax Exemption to $2,000,000.00, Yet Many People Will Still Move Away Because of Our Estate Tax
As part of the new Massachusetts tax law signed by Governor Maura Healey on October 4, 2023, the Massachusetts estate tax exemption has been increased to $2,000,000.00. The good news for some families is that the law was made retroactive to January 1, 2023. Our office has reached out to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue…
Attached Are the Documents Filed as of 9/18/2023 in the Defendant’s SJC Appeal of Discovery Issues in the Karen Read Case
I thank 2nd Assistant Clerk Stephen Cronin for emailing me the attached documents in the Karen Read case where she has appealed a discovery decision made by the trial judge.
SJ-2023-0343_Docket_Sheet(1)
SJ-2023-0343 petition This is the defendant’s petition to overturn some of the trial judge’s decisions.
SJ-2023-0343 motion to impound This is the defendant’s…
Has Norfolk County District Attorney Michael P. Morrissey Committed Ethical Violations in His Handling of the Karen Read Case?
On Friday afternoon, August 25, 2023, Attorney Michael P. Morrissey, the elected District Attorney of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, took a step that he stated was unprecedented; he issued a public statement in the form of an online video regarding a case his office has been prosecuting over the past year and a half (Commonwealth v.…
Minimum Monthly Maintenance Needs (Income) Allowance for Nursing Home Resident’s Spouse Is Now $2,465.00 from 7/1/2023 until 6/30/2024
When one spouse is living in a nursing home and the other spouse is living anywhere else, the spouse who is not living in the nursing home (who is known under federal Medicaid law as the “community spouse”) is allowed by MassHealth to keep some (or sometimes all) of the nursing home resident’s income through…
In Rudnick v. Rudnick, the Massachusetts Appeals Court Reiterates That a Prenuptial Agreement Must Be Reasonable at the Time of Divorce
Under Massachusetts law, a prenuptial agreement must be fair and reasonable at the time it is executed. To be enforceable at the time of divorce, it cannot be unconscionable, and the Probate Court judge assigned to the divorce case looks at whether it should be enforced before proceeding with the case.