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Seniors want to remain at home as long as possible, but with family spread out all over the country, it isn’t always easy to do so. “Senior cohousing,” a relatively new concept, allows older Americans to age at home in a supportive community. Senior cohousing consists of a group of houses or condos that are Read Full Article

A new state-by-state scorecard evaluates the effectiveness of long-term care services across the country and concludes that there is a lot of room for improvement. The State Long-Term Services and Supports Scorecard examines the performance of state long-term care services for older people and adults with physical disabilities. The purpose of the report is to Read Full Article

Being a trustee is a big responsibility and if you don’t perform your duties properly, you could be personally liable. That’s why it’s important to hire the right people to guide you in this important role. A trust is a legal arrangement through which one person (or an institution, such as a bank or law Read Full Article

Medicare fraud is often in the news, but what is it, exactly? Fraud costs Medicare an estimated $60 billion a year and contributes to the rising cost of health care for all Americans. Once you understand what is involved, you can help prevent fraud. Medicare fraud occurs when providers mislead Medicare into paying for services Read Full Article

Barry Seltzer & Gerry Beyer. Fat Cats & Lucky Dogs: How to Leave (some of) Your Estate to Your Pets. Prism Publishing. 2010. 249 Pages. $39.35 from Amazon (click the book to order). For many people, their pets are members of the family that need to be taken care of if the pet owner dies Read Full Article

Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) are a popular investment tool for retirement, but they also need to be taken into account when doing estate planning. Although IRAs can be used to provide for heirs either directly or through a trust, to what extent your heirs will benefit from the IRA and avoid unnecessary taxes depends on Read Full Article

Congress has agreed to allow the President to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for $2.4 trillion in budget cuts over 10 years. How this deal will affect the three major programs crucial to the elderly — Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — may not be known until almost year’s end, but the impact could Read Full Article

There is now more information available to help families evaluate nursing homes. The federal government has revamped the criteria on its “Nursing Home Compare” Web site, where consumers can compare nursing home care in the United States. In addition, new information about complaints against nursing homes will soon be available on the site. The government Read Full Article

Most seniors prefer to stay at home as long as possible rather than move into a nursing home. For many families, this means eventually hiring a caregiver to look after an aging relative. There are two main ways to hire someone: directly or through a home health agency. Hiring directly: When you hire a caregiver Read Full Article