Where there's a will, there's a way

Estate planning is not just for the rich.

If you don't make arrangements for what will happen after you are gone, the government will step in and make all those decisions for you—and they may not be the decisions you'd choose. The process will also be more difficult and costly for your family, so it's important to do it yourself while you still can.

 

The most basic estate-planning document is your will. This is where you leave instructions on who should handle your affairs—and how they should be managed—after you are gone. Although it may sometimes be possible to make arrangements that get around the need for a will, it is a good idea to have one anyway, just to be sure that you have covered everything. 

Clients often ask if they have to go to a lawyer to prepare their wills. While even a scribbled note is better than nothing, the answer is yes, you do need to go to a lawyer. Although downloadable forms are available online, a lawyer will make sure that you have addressed every concern. A good trusts and estates lawyer will also be able to point out problems and pitfalls that you may not be aware of.

One of the most important parts of any will is the designation of a guardian for young children in the event both parents die before a child turns 18. Both parents may not see eye to eye on this matter, and these discussions are often difficult, but while the chances of this happening are slim, the consequences of not documenting a guardian are great. Informal arrangements don't count for much, and a judge can appoint anyone—relative or not—that they deem appropriate. 

I have personally seen it happen: When two married friends died in a plane crash, leaving behind a young daughter, both of their extended families immediately came forward.

They were all good people focused on nothing more than what was best for this little girl, but they didn't agree on what that was. And so the squabbling began. 

Fortunately, it turned out that the couple had, in fact, signed their wills before leaving on their trip, and the documents named the wife's brother as legal guardian to their daughter. Once that fact became common knowledge, the arguing stopped and everyone fell into line. From that point on, they all knew what to do. 

If you have young children, you absolutely must address this issue in your own will. Even if you and your spouse have trouble reaching an agreement, leaving it to the courts and warring relatives would be a worse scenario.

Your plans might also include providing for a trust. Trusts come in two varieties—revocable and irrevocable—and yes, both require an attorney. A revocable trust is one you set up when you are alive and that you can cancel, revoke or change any time you want to.

A revocable trust can be used to help manage your affairs while you are alive and distribute assets when you are gone. They tend to be popular in some states but less useful in others. 

An irrevocable trust generally cannot be changed once it is set up. It can be created either while you are still alive or later, through your will. Irrevocable trusts can offer transfer tax, creditor protection and management advantages but also can have significant drawbacks. Since these trusts are, true to their name, irrevocable, it is very important to get good legal advice if you are thinking about creating one. 

Everyone over the age of 18 should have a health-care proxy—a legal document designating someone to make health-care decisions for you if you are not able to. We used to think of these only for the elderly—until, that is, the Virginia Tech shootings of 2007, when parents of unconscious victims were excluded by medical privacy laws from being involved in critical medical decisions.

Older or younger, we all need to have a health-care proxy. These forms can be prepared by an attorney but are also commonly available online and via health-care providers.

So how do you find a good estate-planning attorney? While the Web provides many search opportunities, I suggest getting recommendations from people you respect and trust. You can also check with your local bar association for a listing of estate-planning attorneys in your area. You don't need the most high-priced, sophisticated attorney, but you don't want someone who "also does wills," either. 

Instead, seek a lawyer who specializes in wills and does this routinely. 

Source: CNBC

State's Medicaid program paid cheating dentists for questionable billings: report

A new federal report will be released Wednesday showing that shady dentists and orthodontists billed the state's Medicaid program for questionable procedures on children. One dentist claimed to have provided one child 42 tooth fillings in a single visit.

The report shows a dentist averaged 16 procedures per child, compared with a statewide average of five.

The state’s Medicaid program paid through the teeth for questionable billings by shady dentists and orthodontists, a new federal report charges.

One dentist claimed to have provided one child 42 tooth fillings in a single visit.

Another dentist averaged 16 procedures per child, compared with a statewide average of five, according to the report, which is being released Wednesday.

They were among 23 pediatric dentists and six orthodontists in the state who pocketed $13.2 million in Medicaid payments in 2012 for services that appeared unnecessary or may not have been performed at all, according to the report by the Department of Health and Human Services inspector general.

“We found one orthodontist who treated almost 5,000 children in a single year,” said Lucia Fort, an analyst in the inspector general’s office.

“That’s about 10 times higher than the state average for orthodontists.”

Fort and other federal officials declined to identify the dentists and orthodontists, saying they did not want to jeopardize ongoing investigations and possible criminal charges. But the report is filled will examples of questionable practices.

The dentist who averaged 16 procedures per child received almost $900 in government Medicaid payments per child in 2012, far above the state average of $200 per child, the report found.

Two dentists frequently billed for three or more baby root canals during a single visit, including one instance where a 2-year-old received six baby root canals during an office visit.

Investigators also found four dentists who were especially anxious to pull teeth; more than 38% of their young patients had one or more teeth extracted during the year. One of the four dentists extracted teeth from 76% of his patients.

On average, only 10% of the patients served by dentists in New York had teeth pulled.

The report stopped short of criticizing the state Health Department, which oversees the state Medicaid program, but it urged officials to develop 'adequate safeguards' to prevent dentists from bilking taxpayers. 

Seven of the 23 dentists were associated with the Small Smiles dental chain, which shut down its New York operations in 2012 after accusations that it provided unnecessary treatments.

In 2010, the chain refunded $24 million to the government and agreed to increased monitoring of its operations to settle charges that it was providing unnecessary care.

The report stopped short of criticizing the state Health Department, which oversees the state Medicaid program, but it urged officials to develop “adequate safeguards” to prevent dentists from bilking taxpayers.

The Health Department did not dispute its findings but insisted it has been working to crack down on fraud.

The state’s Medicaid inspector general is “actively investigating and monitoring numerous orthodontists and general dentists,” and will seek to recover any overpayments, officials said.

State investigators are also developing a review system to spot bogus billing.

Source: NYDailyNews

Surgeon bills Medicare $85M for ‘procedures he never performed’

Dr. Syed Imran Ahmed

He’s the Bernie Madoff of bariatric surgery.

A fat-cat Long Island Gold Coast surgeon billed Medicare for $85 million for procedures he never performed — even claiming to have operated on two patients who had already died, according to a Brooklyn Federal Court complaint unsealed Tuesday.

Dr. Syed Imran Ahmed, 49 — who specializes in weight loss and wound treatment and lives in a sprawling $4 million mansion in exclusive Muttontown — was arrested Tuesday on felony fraud raps.

Investigators said he rang up the astounding bill in Medicare claims in just two years, between 2011 and 2013. He received $7.7 million in reimbursements.

“Ahmed created phantom medical procedures to steal very real taxpayer money,” said US Attorney Loretta Lynch in a statement.

“The defendant sought to enrich himself and fund his lifestyle through billing Medicare for services he never performed.”

Ahmed — who has offices in Brooklyn and Long Island — was finally nabbed after a patient received a Medicare report that listed a slew of bogus procedures and alerted law enforcement.

Several patients later told federal agents that they had met Ahmed once or twice — but never received the hundreds of procedures he claimed to have conducted on them.

Prosecutors also said he claimed to have conducted six procedures on a patient Jan. 19, 2012 — but the “patient’’ had died 11 days earlier.

After authorities interviewed him in September, Ahmed shifted $3 million in personal funds to other accounts — including two transfers to banks in his native Pakistan, according to court papers.

The feds are seeking to snatch Ahmed’s mansion that he bought along with his wife, Irum Chaudhry, for $3.7 million in 2012 because $2.4 million of his payments came from fraud money, court papers state.

Ahmed, who has a 7-year-old child, kept mum as he was arraigned in court Tuesday.

His lawyer, Douglas Nadjari, in arguing for bail, said his client’s patients could have been confused about what treatment they received when questioned by probers.

Nadjari added that Ahmed was not a flight risk because he had ties to the Long Island community.

But Magistrate Judge Marilyn Go rejected the bail request.

Ahmed’s lawyer is slated present a new package Friday.

Source: NYPost

Special Needs Trust and Planning for Children with Disabilities

If an individual with special needs depends on you for financial resources, your estate plan should address how that support will continue if you are no longer around. Proper planning helps to ensure that your child with special needs receives financial assistance in the future without hindering his or her eligibility for government assistance programs.

Also referred to as a “supplemental care trust”, the Special Needs Trust can serve as a primary savings tool for a child’s future. The Special Needs Trust allows the transferring of savings to your child without jeopardizing his or her ability to receive benefits such as Supplemental Security Income and Medicaid benefits. This trust also has an additional advantage as well; friends and family members can make gifts of money, which further contributes to the financial well-being of your child.

When planning a Special Needs Trust, there are a number of important things to reflect on. Remember to consider the severity of the disability of the individual, future living requirements, who would act as a guardian for that individual (if the parent is not able to care for them), and other crucial factors.

When funding a Special Needs Trust, the most important thing to remember is that the trust, not your child, must be the heir or beneficiary of any funds you or anyone wants to transfer to your child. Each state has a different set of limitations on how money in special needs trusts can or cannot be used. Generally however, it can be used for supplemental needs (needs not met by provided government benefits).

If you are looking into setting up a Special Needs Trust, it is wise to select an attorney experienced in working with families of children with special needs (Contact Attorney Inna Fershteyn). The attorney’s role is essential - to properly set up and establish the trust, as well as the responsibilities and limitations of the trustee.

The most important thing to take away, is to not overlook the importance Special Needs Trust. Especially where a disabled child is involved, it is of greater importance that funds be available when needed.

It is never too early to start planning for your child’s future. Making the right moves today will ensure your child’s needs will always be met. If you require assistance with your Special Needs Planning, contact NY Supplemental Needs Trust Planning Attorney Inna Fershteyn today.

Law Office of Inna Fershteyn and Associates, P.C.

(718) 333-2394

www.BrooklynTrustAndWill.com

1517 Voorhies Avenue, Suite 4

Brooklyn, NY 11235

Texting Your Will...Will it be Upheld?

We do a lot of things on our smartphones: we shop, text, bank, post pictures, order food, find directions, get news and stay connected with friends and family. And now, in some states, you can add "create a will" to the list.

If you find yourself in a life-and-death situation and grab your phone and quickly type a text message that begins, “This is my last will and testament….” followed by who you want to receive your most- prized possessions and end the message with your full name and press “send” is this a valid will?  Will your wishes be carried out? 

The answer is: probably. 

Last fall, an Australian named Karter Yu committed suicide immediately after texting his wishes and good-byes to a few individuals with whom he was close. The Queensland court upheld his will as valid.

Wills have been around for more than 2,000 years and are older than the scribes, regulations, county clerks, lawyers, typewriters, laptops and all of the rigmarole that has been attached to the process over the centuries--presumably with good intentions. After all, you don’t want the dead to come back and haunt you if you don’t divide their earthly possessions in accordance with their wishes! (Plus, there’s the matter of collecting inheritance and estate taxes depending upon who receives a bequest.)

Decades before  electronic documents were imagined, many states revised their inheritance laws to accept wills that were videotaped. So it’s a natural evolution that they would accept wills transmitted via cyberspace. Except that's not always the case. Some states, New York for instance, still insist on doing things the old-fashioned way.

Attorney Bruce Steiner with the New York City firm Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolff and Cohen know this first-hand. However, he says if you live in one of the 18 states that have adopted the Uniform Probate Code (UPC), they are much more flexible about accepting unconventional wills, provided they meet basic requirements. 

The first hurdle is proving that the individual intended it to be his/her will. 

In the case of  Yu, Steiner says he took several critical steps:

1- After writing his will, he typed his name at the bottom.

2- He wrote farewells.

3- All of his messages had a time and date stamp proving they were completed just before he committed suicide.

According to Steiner, it’s not enough to simply state “this is my will.” Someone could argue that it is just a draft you were working on. However, in Yu’s case, “since all of the texts were written and sent at approximately the same time, this lent credibility to the fact that he intended this to be his final will and testament,” Steiner says. Moreover, if it was just a draft that he intended to refine later, he would not have signed it. Nor would he have killed himself immediately after sending it. 

Despite the fact there were no witnesses attesting to his intentions, Yu’s iPHone message was accepted as his will. “Plus, presumably no one contested it. That helped a lot,” according to Steiner.

When it comes to a will's validity, it literally comes down to location, location, location. 

Traditionally, a will is signed in a “public” ceremony, meaning two unrelated individuals witness the signing and then attest to this in writing. Witnesses are critical if a will is contested. They will be called upon to testify that the decedent did, in fact, state that this was his/her will and signed the document of his/her own free will.

Electronic wills- which have no witnesses- have a better chance of being accepted if you are in a jurisdiction that has relaxed formalities.

These days, since many of us are comfortable with creating electronic documents, it’s tempting to simply write your own will. “It’s not an approach I’d recommend,” cautions Steiner. “If you are attempting to create a will in an unconventional fashion, you might not think of things a lawyer would.” Still, he understands that if you don’t own many possessions or real estate and you live in a state that has adopted the UPC, you might be fine creating your own document.

Even if you are not expecting to die soon, you can still create a will, says Steiner. He suggests you put it in a folder marked “Please Open Upon My Death.” Include other documents such as a farewell note,wishes for your funeral, passwords to your online accounts (so that these can be closed) and other pertinent information. 

If your will is online, electronically sign the document. While you won’t have witnesses, you can make your wishes “public” by attaching the file and sending it to others. “The best person would be your executor,” advises Steiner. You might also include your spouse, children or other appropriate individuals. 

However, according to Steiner, this is “not necessarily the best way to do it. You’re better off printing the document, signing it in ink and having two witnesses sign.” Moreover, if the assets involved are significant, “there are tax-planning and asset protections issues” you might need an attorney to handle.

Nonetheless, it’s comforting to know that in an emergency, texting or emailing your will just might be enough.

Source: FoxBusinessNews

Bronx pharmacy owners, druggist busted in $10 million AIDS Medicaid scam

 

The first of two suspects was arrested at the 184th Street Pharmacy. The Bronx pharmacist committed Medicaid fraud by doling out AIDS medication and buying prescriptions back

The owners of the 184th St. Pharmacy and its druggist allegedly bought HIV medication back from AIDS patients then resold them, state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said. The three Queens men were charged with felony grand larceny, scheming to defraud the government and money laundering.

THE OWNERS of a Bronx pharmacy and the druggist they employ were busted Tuesday for a Medicaid scam that involved buying high-priced anti-retroviral HIV medication back from the sick patients they were doling them out to.

Pharmacy owners Ahmed Hamed, 37, and Tarek Elsayed, 48, were arrested along with pharmacist Mohammed Hassan Ahmed, 36, at 184th Street Pharmacy just before noon Tuesday.

“These defendants abused the fundamental trust between health care providers and patients by putting their own greed above the health needs of the patients,” said state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in a statement. “This blatant theft and abuse of one of our state’s most important health care programs is reprehensible and will not be tolerated.”

The prescriber allegedly paid patients cash for their medications, kept the Medicaid payments for the pills, then resold them to other sick patients. It was unclear what medication the suspects were doling out.

The trio submitted claims for thousands of dollars in reimbursements to Medicaid and Medicaid managed care organizations for medications they did not dispense between March 1, 2013 and the present, officials said.

A car was confiscated by authorities after two suspects were arrested at the 184th Street Pharmacy.

In less than a year, government-sponsored health care programs paid 184th Street Pharmacy in excess of $9.8 million.

Investigators said Hamed also paid patients bonuses if they referred others to his services.

Cops led Ahmed Hamed and Mohammed Hassan Ahmed from the pharmacy in handcuffs. The pair attempted to hide their faces from cameras and did not respond to reporters' questions.

The three Queens men were charged with felony grand larceny, scheming to defraud the government, and money laundering.

Hamed and Elsayed used multiple shell corporations to launder the millions they made through the scam, according to the Attorney General’s office.

Some in the neighborhood said the scam is not uncommon.

“I’ve sold my meds before,” admitted Mt. Hope resident Anthony Campbell. “I paid my bills with the money. A man’s going to sell his medications if that’s the only way he’s going to feed his family.”

The pharmacy owners in Tuesday’s bust were using their ill-gotten gains to finance a lavish lifestyle, according to investigators. The Attorney General froze numerous bank accounts linked to the bogus companies and seized a Maserati, two BMWs and a Mercedes-Benz owned by the pill peddlers.

The three were expected to be arraigned sometime Tuesday evening.

Nadine Lavaughn, 54, who has been HIV positive since 1989, said she was shocked people would sell prescriptions for cash.

“I need my medications every day,” Lavaughn said after asking investigators how she would get her pills. “Some people, I guess if they’re homeless, even if they’re dying, they’ve got to eat.”

Source: NYDailyNews

Common Probate Issues in New York

When a person dies leaving a Will behind, the legal process that takes place afterwards is called Probate. Probate law varies depending on state and the laws within each state are subject to change. The Probate process can be a long or a short one depending on complexity and issues arising with the Will. Some common issues that may occur include:

1. Not Knowing If You Need To Probate Loved One’s Will

In many cases, some families do not know how to proceed with a Will. Before a Will has any legal effect, it must be admitted to Probate. However, a Will is only required to be probated when the decedent died possessing assets valuing $30,000 or more. In some cases, when the decedent only owned real estate, probate might not be necessary. To avoid any confusion, seek an experienced Probate Attorney.

2. Contesting A Will

A Will contest is a formal objection raised against the validity of a will. A person making a Will must be competent to do so (not under any influences or fraud), and must be doing so of his or her own free will. In most cases, Will contests are usually focused on the assertion that the Will does not reflect the actual intent of the testator. If a Will is being contested, the services of a Probate Attorney will likely be needed. 

3. Disagreement Amongst Beneficiaries

With families that own large or undivided properties, it is common to designate joint inheritances to beneficiaries. But, issues can arise if the parties disagree on what to do with that inheritance. In cases such as this, a Probate attorney can help you to understand the possibilities and come to a solution.

4. Taxes Involved With Wills

When someone inherits property, there are taxes that must be paid in order to transfer ownership of that property to the beneficiary. The ownership title will not be passed until this tax is paid. A Probate attorney can help minimize the tax that must be paid by drafting a Will that reflects state laws.

5. When A Will Has Been Lost

If your loved one dies without a known Will, his or her assets will go to the state to be determined how it will be divided, in accordance to state laws. If you believe your loved one had a Will but it cannot be found, a Probate attorney can help you explore the legal options available. The attorney can also advise you on the process of probating a lost will.

To ensure a quick and efficient probate process, you’ll want to have an experienced probate Attorney on your side. Contact Attorney Inna Fershteyn today at (718) 333-2394.

Law Office of Inna Fershteyn and Associates, P.C.

(718) 333-2394

www.BrooklynTrustAndWill.com

1517 Voorhies Avenue, Suite 4

Brooklyn, NY 11235