Supplemental Security Income — SSI, to everyone who receives the benefit — has horribly complicated rules. But recent announcements from the Social Security Administration promise to liberalize those rules dramatically. The new SSI rules should make it easier to qualify for benefits. More importantly, they should make it easier to manage and report relevant financial items that affect the benefits. The key changes in the new SSI rules will take place at the end of September. They mostly revolve around the concept of “in-kind support and maintenance” (ISM). That concept reduces the SSI benefit ..read more

You’ve scheduled a signing appointment for your estate planning documents. What should you expect that appointment to look like? And how long will it take? In this week’s podcast episode, we discuss the signing appointment. We also review the quaint practices lawyers still utilize — involving wet ink and actual paper! And we explain why you still have to come to the office (in nearly every case) rather than just taking your printed-out documents to your bank to sign and notarize. But the good news: we’re a lot of fun, and we’ll make the signing appointment quick, easy and productive ..read more

You signed your financial power of attorney! Great! Now your agent can sign anything you could sign, right? Well, hold on. The IRS has special rules for using your power of attorney. They can be confusing and persnickety. If we knew exactly when you will become incapable of signing your own tax forms AND which tax forms to sign, we’d be set. But we mostly have to give your agent the best tools we can, and have them figure out how to use those tools if and when the time comes. Let us explain ..read more

You may have read news stories about conservatorship proceedings. A lot of reports address the problems faced by famous people subject to conservatorships. Maybe you’ve seen stories about Britney Spears,  Amanda Bynes, Michael Oher, and/or Wendy Williams. But did you understand that the very word “conservatorship” means different things in different states? We talk about the variable uses of the term. We also help you distinguish between guardianship and conservatorship in news stories — and clear up the common misconception that they are the same thing. They are not the same, and the ter ..read more

Here at Fleming & Curti, PLC, we’re very big on having you give someone the power to tell you when to stop driving. We usually include that in our health care power of attorney form. A recent article in the Washington Post addressed the issue. It suggested that everyone over age 65 should consider signing an advance directive for driving authority. Our response: poppycock! Everyone, of every age, should make a decision now about who they trust to tell them that when to stop driving. We have. Will you ..read more

How often should you review your estate plan? Well, we generally suggest that you might want to look at things every five years or so. But there’s no good reason not to get started on a review now ..read more

Not so long ago, family burial plots were commonplace. Cremation rates have increased dramatically. Over half of all funeral arrangements nationwide include cremation. In Arizona that frequency is over two-thirds. Meanwhile, we’re all more mobile. Families commonly live far from their grandparents’ and great-grandparents’ burial plots. But family burial plots still linger. Who will use those last two plots in the family section in Ohio? Will you be buried with your first spouse, with whom you had two children? Or with your second spouse, who helped raise the children and with whom you had anot ..read more

Meet Law Clerk Jordan Young. Jordan is a 3L at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law and will join Fleming & Curti, PLC, as an attorney after she passes the bar this summer. She’s already making a positive difference for clients and our office. Even early in her law school career, she was a standout — and her experience in the Trusts and Estates Law class was life changing for her and for us ..read more

A safe deposit box can offer security for valuables, but they can be a real headache for whoever is administering your estate. Safe deposit boxes can be difficult for a personal representatives or trustees to get into and the naming on the account could confuse how you meant to convey the property. Robert Fleming and Elizabeth Rollings Friman discuss the common complications that arise out of safe deposit boxes ..read more

Are you considering creating a trust? A trust may be a good fit for you if you are trying to avoid probate or minimize taxes. It may also be a good fit if you would like to protect against your own incapacity or restrict a beneficiary’s access to funds. On this week’s episode of the elder law podcast attorneys Robert Fleming and Matthew Mansour discuss why clients create trusts ..read more