Adding Your Kids to Your Bank Accounts? A Very Bad Idea

Should you add your kids to your bank account? This is a discussion topic that frequently comes up during our Living Trustdiscussions. In many cases, parents have already added their kids to their bank accounts.

It’s hard to overstate the convenience of a shared banking account

Those acting as caregivers for their mother and/or father already have a full plate. In many cases, they’ve got demanding jobs and they’re raising their own families. The convenience of being able to manage all of their parents’ banking activity with their own set of debit and credit cards and checks is understandable. Having complete access to these accounts makes it easy to deposit checks, pay bills and purchase incidentals for the health and wellbeing of their parents.

The problem? How much do parents really know about their adult children?

Parents may see their adult children regularly, but how much do they really know about how they live their lives? Their values, their relationships, their work, their friends, how they spend their money and what they do in their down time? In my own case, my folks lived in Florida for 40 years, while I lived in the Bay Area. We saw each other once or maybe twice/year. Distance tends to make us strangers. As the years went by, we grew more remote in a number of ways.

How trustworthy is your son or daughter?

When your child is added to a bank account, that person becomes a joint owner of the account. That means access to all of your funds. Don’t think the bank is going to monitor how your son or daughter is using that account because that isn’t their job.

Does your child have creditor problems?

If your child has any creditor issues, your bank account well could be levied by a creditor and is in jeopardy. The creditor is not going to distinguish between what belongs to you and what belongs to your child. For an adult child with a mountain of credit card debt that will never get paid off, access to a mother and/or father’s well-funded bank account could be very tempting. One more thing: n

Is your child getting divorced?

During every divorce proceeding, it’s necessary to account for all assets. It’s not unlikely that this shared account could end up as an asset in the child’s Divorce proceeding. In this situation, the child would need to prove that the funds were, in fact, not theirs but belonged to the parent.

Setting the stage for sibling conflict

Upon the death of the parents, the surviving bank account holder is the legal owner of the account’s funds. Your child is now entitled to receive all of the funds from this account. Depending on the amount of money in the estate and other assets, this could create sibling chaos. The other siblings may or may not have known about the shared accounts prior to the parents’ death. There’s something about a death in the family that can bring out the worst in the family. The more instruction you provide, the less potential conflict for the family.

A better solution: Create a Living Trust

A much better, more comprehensive solution is to create a Living Trust, then retitle the bank account in the name of the Trust. By adding the account to the Trust, the Successor Trustee will be able to use the funds to care for the parents if they become incapacitated. The Trust will also include instructions on how the remaining funds will be distributed among the remaining family members. This solution will decrease or eliminate the potential sibling conflict.

Our Trust package includes a Power of Attorney and an Advance Healthcare Directive. We guide you through the process and prepare the legal documents. For most of our services, we charge one flat fee. We’re helpful, compassionate and affordable. Schedule an appointment today at one of our three Bay Area offices in Dublin, Walnut Creek or Oakland. 

We service the entire East Bay area

Berkeley, El Cerrito, Richmond, Pinole, Alameda, San Leandro, Castro Valley Newark, San Lorenzo, Concord, Alamo, Danville, Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga, Pleasant Hill, Martinez, Pittsburg, Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley, Discovery Bay, Pleasanton, San Ramon, Livermore, Tracy, Fremont.

COVID, Ventilators and Your Healthcare Directive

In April, 91-year old Minna Buck revised her Advance Healthcare Directive. She doesn’t want to be intubated if she becomes infected with COVID. Ms. Buck has done her research and knows she doesn’t want any part of intubation. She knows that even if she survived, the recovery would leave her weak and disoriented, a burden on others, with a negligible quality of life.

No Intubation for Ms. Buck

Buck is clearly in the high-risk group. “No intubation,” she wrote in large letters on the form, making sure to include the date and her initials. “I don’t want to put everybody through the anguish,” said Buck.

Ventilators represent a loss of personal control

For older adults contemplating what might happen to them during this pandemic, ventilators represent a terrifying lack of personal control. Ventilators pump oxygen into a patient’s body while he or she lies in bed, typically sedated, with a breathing tube snaked down the windpipe. This can be the greatest fear: helplessly being hooked to a machine with the end of life looming. Yet for others, there is the hope that the machine might pull them back from the brink, giving them another shot at life.

Who will care for these patients? Where?

“It’s a very long, uphill battle to recovery,” and many older patients may never regain full functioning, said Dr. Negin Hajizadeh, an associate professor of critical care medicine at the School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell on New York’s Long Island. “Who’s going to take care of these patients after a prolonged ventilator course ― and where?”

Quality of life issues motivated one single woman to change her healthcare directive

In St. Paul, Minnesota, Joyce Edwards is 61, unmarried and lives alone. In late April, Edwards revised her Advance Healthcare Directive to specify that “for COVID-19, I do not want to be placed on a ventilator. I have to think about what the quality of my life is going to be. Could I live independently and take care of myself — the things I value the most? There’s no spouse or adult children to take care of me. Who would step into the breach and look after me while I’m in recovery?”

End of life care discussions: Think about what’s important to you

COVID has created some immediacy around end of life decision-making. Experts advise older adults to discuss what’s most important to them–independence, time with family, mobility, living as long as possible. Think about what represents a good quality of life—this will provide context for the ventilator decision. For Minna Buck, quality of life and independence outweighed living as along as possible. At 91, she has lived a long, full life.

During this health crisis, many are feeling an urgency to create a Living Trust 

As the COVID crisis drags on, more clients are scheduling appointments to create or update their Living Trusts. Our Trust package includes a Pour Over Will, and for those families with children under 18, it means that they can name a Guardian. Creating a Trust helps provide some peace of mind during these uncertain times. Best of all, we guide you through it and we prepare the legal documents.

Our Trust package includes a Will, Power of Attorney, an Advance Healthcare Directive and Incapacity Planning. At California Document Preparers, for most of our services, we charge one flat fee. We’re helpful, compassionate and affordable.

Schedule an appointment today

Our offices are open and we’ve instituted stringent sanitation procedures. We can also provide our services virtually via Zoom or phone. Schedule an appointment today at one of our three Bay Area officesin Dublin, Walnut Creek or Oakland. Please wear your mask and stay safe.

We service the entire East Bay and North Bay areas

Berkeley, El Cerrito, Richmond, Pinole, Alameda, San Leandro, Castro Valley Newark, San Lorenzo, Concord, Alamo, Danville, Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga, Pleasant Hill, Martinez, Pittsburg, Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley, Discovery Bay, Pleasanton, San Ramon, Livermore, Tracy and Fremont. Our clients also live in the Napa Valley, Benicia, Vallejo, Martinez, Fairfield.

As Pandemic Evolves, New Symptoms Emerge

Does anyone else wake up in the morning, take a few deep breaths and cough to test for COVID? We’re now learning that fever, cough and shortness of breath are not the only warning signs of a coronavirus infection.

As doctors and virologists learn more this insidious disease, they’re also discovering new symptoms that can accompany the more obvious respiratory problems. These new symptoms reinforce what experts around the world are telling us: The coronavirus is still in charge, capable of causing a sustained and often prolonged attack. Even more frightening for those in a high-risk demographic, are the long-term effects of the virus. People who get the disease do not develop an immunity. COVID breaks down our immune systems, and we can catch it again. The virus can leave its patients weak and disoriented.

In the early days of the pandemic, the focus was on treating those who were the sickest

But we’ve become more knowledgeable. “It takes a while for the full range of symptoms to be known when you’re dealing with a new virus,” explains Lisa Winston, M.D., an epidemiologist and professor of clinical medicine at UCSF.

COVID patients are exhibiting a broader range of symptoms

• Some patients are reporting red or purple lesions on hands and feet.
• Doctors are treating people with diarrhea and loss of appetite, sense of taste and smell.
• Dermatologist Esther Freeman, M.D., has identified red- and purple-colored toes that swell, burn and itch. This unusual symptom has been dubbed “COVID toes.”
• Rashes similar to those from hives and chicken pox have also been reported on some coronavirus patients.
• According to the Journal of American Neurology, confusion, delirium, and other neurological symptoms have also been observed in those with COVID.
• There are early reports suggesting that COVID may raise the risk of abnormal blood clotting. Clots reaching the lungs, heart or brain can cause more serious complications, including pulmonary embolism, heart attack or stroke. If the virus enters cells in the heart, it also can cause a heart infection known as myocarditis. This infection may cause chest pain, abnormal heart rhythms and heart failure.
• Happy hypoxia. This is a dangerous condition where patients have dangerously low levels of oxygen in their blood, which could cause reduced consciousness. Patients with this condition have been unusually alert and comfortable—completely unaware that they’re manifesting a serious condition.

Response to COVID will be influenced by the strength of our own immune systems

Once COVID reaches the lungs and the bloodstream, it travels around pretty freely. More research will determine how it interacts with cells. Symptoms may be caused by inflammation that results from the body’s immune response to infection—and will vary widely depending on the strength of the individual immune system. While fewer people are dying from COVID, more people are becoming infected. We can minimize the risk by social distancing and wearing masks.

During this health crisis, many are feeling an urgency to create a Living Trust

We are scheduling appointments with clients to create or update the Trusts they created 15-20 years ago—there may be new grandchildren, property and/or investments. Think of those things that would change the inheritance for your beneficiaries.

Our Trust package includes a Will, Power of Attorney, an Advance Healthcare Directive and Incapacity Planning. We guide you through the process and prepare the legal documents. At California Document Preparers, for most of our services, we charge one flat fee.

Schedule a secure office visit or work virtually via Zoom

Our offices are open and we’ve instituted stringent sanitation procedures. We can also provide our services virtually using Zoom or phones. Schedule an appointment today at one of our three Bay Area offices in Dublin, Walnut Creek or Oakland. We’re helpful, compassionate and affordable. COVID is going to be with us for a while, so wear a mask and stay safe!

We service the entire East Bay and North Bay areas

Berkeley, El Cerrito, Richmond, Pinole, Alameda, San Leandro, Castro Valley Newark, San Lorenzo, Concord, Alamo, Danville, Lafayette, Orinda, Moraga, Pleasant Hill, Martinez, Pittsburg, Antioch, Brentwood, Oakley, Discovery Bay, Pleasanton, San Ramon, Livermore, Tracy and Fremont. Our clients also live in the Napa Valley, Benicia, Vallejo, Martinez, Fairfield.

This story is based on an article from the AARP, Unusual Symptoms of COVID-19 You Need to Know About, by Rachel Nania

Remember the Peace Corps? Look for a Peace Corps Of Caregivers

Who remembers the Peace Corps? It was a government program, a way for mostly young volunteers to help others while expanding their own world views that goes back to the Kennedy administration. Volunteers served two years in foreign countries. But no one was assigned to Paris or London; rather, they went to developing countries they’d never heard of—Djibouti, Nicaragua or Niger.

The Peace Corps was a successful program

Those I knew who participated in the Peace Corps learned so much from this experience. One colleague helped build irrigation systems in rural Guatemala. He knew nothing about irrigation when he graduated from college. He’d lived a pretty pampered life, and being thrown into this situation was startling for him. He was suddenly the project manager with absolutely no idea what to do. Yet he rolled up his sleeves and got to work. The experience was a difference-maker in his life. He developed self-reliance and problem-solving skills that he’d never had before. He fell in love with Guatemala and its warm, generous people. The experience shaped his career and his life.

Using the Peace Corps model to help seniors age in place

So what would happen if we used that model and created a national program that mobilized volunteers to help seniors age in place? One is on the way.

Look for the emergence of the National Volunteer Care Corps

The Administration for Community Living, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, is taking steps to establish a National Volunteer Care Corps.

If this program is successful, healthy retirees and young adults would check in on seniors, take them to appointments, shop for groceries, shovel sidewalks, or just come for a visit to relieve them from isolation. They would be giving family caregivers a much-needed break. Younger volunteers might get class credit at a community college or small stipends. Older volunteers could enjoy a satisfying sense of purpose.

The need is immediate and growing

The need is dramatic and growing as the ranks of the oldest Americans ― those age 85 and up, who tend to have multiple chronic illnesses and difficulty performing daily tasks ― are set to swell to 14.6M in 2040, up from more than 6M now.

Who will care for these seniors?

• More than 34M unpaid family caregivers currently shoulder that responsibility, along with 3.3M paid personal care and home health aides.
• Remember that most of these family caregivers are stretched thin, working full time, caring for their kids as they care for their parents or other elderly family members.
• Filling those jobs is difficult due to low pay, difficult work conditions, limited opportunities for professional advancement and high turnover.

Four organizations will spearhead the Care Corps project

Oasis Institute, which runs the nation’s largest volunteer intergenerational tutoring program; the Caregiver Action Network; the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging; and the Altarum Institute, which works to improve care for vulnerable older adults.

The initial grant is $3.8M; total funding for the five-year project is expected to be $19M.

It starts with small grants to develop innovative programs

Up to 30 organizations will get 18-month grants of $30,000 to $250,000. The goal is to discover innovative, effective programs that offer services to diverse communities. “We’re aiming to create a volunteer infrastructure that can last and be sustainable.”

• All volunteers will undergo background checks and training, with an emphasis on evaluating program results.
• Services could include preparing meals, taking seniors to church or home-based tech support for computer users, among many other possibilities.

Care Corps faces big challenges

The grant is tiny, compared with the trillions of dollars spent on health care.

• It could take a long time to build it into a national effort that attracts more investment.
• Recruiting volunteers could be another challenge. This is the biggest issue we face,” said executive director Elaine Whitford. “We get a lot of interest,” Whitford said, “then people realize that this just isn’t going to fit into their schedules.”

Small amounts of volunteer caregiving can make big differences in people’s lives

“Volunteer caregiving can make the difference between someone having quality of life and not having any at all,” said Inez Russell, board chair of the organization. She’s also the founder of Friends for Life, a Texas program that offers volunteer aid to seniors trying to live independently and that reaches out to seniors who don’t have family members on birthdays and holidays, among other services. Altogether, the two programs reach about 4,000 people a year.

Another creative way to stay connected and create community: A time bank

In Montpelier, VT, Joan Black, who’s 88 and lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment, has been a member of a time bank for ten years. Members contribute goods and services (a ride to the airport, a homemade casserole, a newly knit baby sweater) to the time bank and receive goods and services in exchange. Black gives out information about the program at farmers markets and other community events–her way of banking credits.

An important part of the life-planning process is creating a Living Trust

Our comprehensive Trust portfolio includes a Power of Attorney and an Advance Healthcare Directive. It’s important to sign these documents while someone still has testamentary capacity. With a Power of Attorney and Advance Healthcare Directive, you or a member of your team will be able to make important healthcare and financial decisions in the event your family member becomes incapacitated.

Our dedicated team has assisted hundreds of families in creating their Living Trusts. We guide our clients through the process. We’re helpful, compassionate and affordable. Schedule an appointment today at one of our three Bay Area offices.

Who Will Care for the Caretakers?

Many of us are caring for–or know someone who is caring for–a family member, often an aging parent. With 10,000 baby boomers turning 70 every day, caring for this demographic is a growing health care matter, and it’s only time before it becomes a political issue. Let’s take a look at three women and the impact this has had on their lives.

• Aisha Adkins graduated from college with goals, dreams and a bright future. Ten years later, she’s still living at home. No job or car, no savings or the advanced degree she needs to be competitive in her field. Her mother was diagnosed with early onset dementia and cannot be left alone. For the last decade, Aisha has held the demanding role of caretaker for her mother. Aisha takes care of the house, shops and cooks dinner, then retires to her room around 10pm, when her father gets home. She’s had three dates in three years; she’s completely missing those exciting post-college years when young adults really start to find themselves.
• Heather Oglesby is a project officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.She was 42 when her mother received a dementia diagnosis four years ago. Caring for her mother has stunted her career prospects and weighed on her marriage. She has taken money from her pension plan and refinanced her home to cover her mother’s expenses. “Caregivers are physically, mentally and financially dying,” she told me. “They are a health care crisis in the making.”
• Heather Boldon dropped her demanding paralegal job nine years ago to take care of her mother. Since then, she has moved in and out of lesser-paying jobs, unable to build financial security. “I’m almost 52, and I’m starting from scratch,” said Ms. Boldon, whose mother has Alzheimer’s disease. “I’ve lost ten years of my life. What’s going to happen to me?”

Aisha and her father understand that her mother will need full-time professional care at some point. But they have no idea how they will pay for it. The Adkinses’ situation may be extreme, stemming from an early onset dementia diagnosis. But even for caregivers who keep a foothold in the labor force, the economic cost can be substantial.

The burden of care is profoundly reshaping lives

Unfortunately, stories about these three women aren’t uncommon. This burden of care is reshaping the lives of millions of Americans. About 15% women and 13% of men 25-54 years old spend time caring for an older relative, according to the Labor Department. For those 55 to 64, the share rises to one in five Americans. Some 20% of these caregivers also have children at home.

Demand for care is growing: Blame it on the boomers

“The boomer generation is living longer than when the safety net was put in place,” said Ai-jen Poo, a co-director of Caring Across Generations, a coalition of advocacy groups. Her organization is pushing to add a benefit to cover care — for older adults, children and sick family members — to the nation’s safety net, alongside Social Security and Medicare.

While men are being forced to step up, Ms. Poo noted that “women, in particular, are bearing the brunt of the burden.” By knocking many women in their prime earning years from the work force, the growing strain from care is weighing down the American economy.

For many, leaving the labor force is not an option

More than 60% of the people caring for an older person work, too; 45% of the caregivers work fulltime. Altogether, American families forgo at least $28.9 billion per year in wages when they take time off to take care of their children or sick relatives, according to a study issued in 2016 by the liberal Center for American Progress.

Burden of care only starting to seep into political conversations

The burden of care has not become a political concern with the urgency of health care policy; it is mostly absent from proposals by candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. But it is seeping into the conversation. Senator Bernie Sanders’s Medicare for All proposal includes a benefit for long-term care. Senator Elizabeth Warren supports universal child care, which she has proposed to finance with a wealth tax. In 2016, Hillary Clinton made this part of her platform, by giving tax credits to those who were taking care of family members.

Ms. Poo argues that it is only a matter of time before care becomes a political priority. “There is no feasible way in this economy that people can manage care without more institutional support,” she said. It most likely will become a political issue and it will end up being a women’s issue.

Many of our clients are seniors who come in to our offices to create their Living Trusts

The result is numerous conversations on a wide range of topics related to health, healthcare and end-of-life planning. California Document Preparers assists our clients in the preparation of their Trusts, which include a Power of Attorney and Advance Healthcare Directive. Most are surprised at how easy it is. Schedule your appointment today by contacting us at one of our three Bay Area offices. Our dedicated team is helpful, compassionate and affordable.

The Early Days of the Opioid Crisis: How It Might Have Turned Out Differently

An article in The New York Times tells the tragic story of addiction and its effect on a Virginia coal mining town that has already seen its share of hard times. But it’s more than that. It’s about the lawmakers who had a chance to do the right thing to make OxyContin more difficult to get—and didn’t.

Three brothers bought a small pharmaceutical company, Purdue Pharma

The brothers, all doctors, introduced a version of oxycodone that was reformulated into a slow-release format. That drug was, of course, OxyContin, a powerfully addictive painkiller. The opioid crisis has taken more than 400,000 lives. Hundreds of thousands more addicts are trapped in endless struggles between sobriety and addiction. Many lose that struggle.

Now the Sackler family, realizing they can’t sustain the growing barrage of lawsuits, are declaring bankruptcy. There’s speculation that they’ve salted away billions of dollars in offshore accounts. Purdue Pharma has warned a bankruptcy court that the Sackler family members “may be unwilling–or unable” to contribute billions to a $10–$12 billion settlement toward the costs of the opioid crisis if lawsuits against them are allowed to proceed.

Years before there was an opioid epidemic, Sister Beth Davies saw it coming

In the late 1990s, patient after patient addicted to a new prescription painkiller called OxyContin began walking into Sister Beth Davies’ Appalachian substance-abuse clinic. Around the same time, a local physician, Dr. Art Van Zee, sensed that something was going on as well. Teenagers were coming into his clinic, overdosed on the drug. His lawyer wife, Sue Ella Kobak, had yet another perspective on the growing crisis—a growing wave of crime. All had links to OxyContin.

These three people, each with a unique perspective and first-hand experience with the effects of this addictive drug, were among the first in the country to sound an alarm about the misuse of prescription opioids. This was perhaps the beginning of a cycle of addiction. It spread to illegal opioids like heroin and counterfeit versions of fentanyl. This led to activism against Purdue Pharma that the powerful company crushed.

Those who saw the epidemic unfolding see it as a tragedy of missed opportunities

• Van Zee believed the FDA could have rechanneled the drug’s force by forcing Purdue Pharma to reformulate OxyContin so that it was harder to abuse. It took until 2010 for the drugmaker to do this.
• The Justice Department could have changed the behavior of other opioid makers if it had charged executives of Purdue Pharma in 2007 with felonies, in connection with OxyContin’s illegal marketing.
• Instead, department officials negotiated a deal under which the executives pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges that did not include jail time.
• In the years that followed, executives of other opioid makers and distributors kept shipping millions of addictive pain pills into towns like this one, apparently without fear of serious penalties.

The consequences of OxyContin inaction continue to impact this mining town

“I think the trajectory would have been completely different,” Dr. Van Zee said recently. “It would not have reached the magnitude that it did.” This former mining town of about 1,900, set in the far southwestern corner of Virginia near the border of Kentucky is still suffering the consequences of addiction.

• Van Zee is 72 and gets up at 4am. to take care of paperwork before spending 10- to 12-hour days at a community health clinic. Some of his patients are still addicted to opioids.
• Sister Beth is now 86, and she continues to run her treatment center. She is seeing more people turning to heroin and fentanyl because they’re cheaper. She’s also seeing the return of methamphetamine. “It never ends, the whole cycle, we are still losing people to these drugs.”

Dr. Van Zee: a reluctant activist who trusted pharmaceutical companies

Both Sister Beth and Ms. Kobak had previously taken on fights in this part of Appalachia to protect the rights of workers and the environment. But Dr. Van Zee was an unlikely activist. When OxyContin came on the market in 1996, he prescribed it for his cancer patients to dull their excruciating pain. He was naïve enough to think that a pharmaceutical company wouldn’t market a drug that had such addictive powers.

A Purdue Pharma sales representative told him that OxyContin was safe because it was a long-acting narcotic; it would not appeal to drug abusers who sought a quick high. But users quickly discovered that crushing an OxyContin pill released large quantities of the narcotic oxycodone.

Sister Beth recalls getting a phone call from the local pharmacist as she was starting to see people addicted to the drug. His words: “Believe me, this is going to be the worst disaster that ever hit Lee County.”

Dr. Van Zee began writing Purdue Pharma executives

Dr. Van Zee was urging the company to pull back on how it was marketing the drug. Frustrated by the lack of response, he and others launched a petition drive in 2001 to convince the FDA to take OxyContin off the market until it could be reformulated and made safer.

• Several executives met with Sister Beth, Dr. Van Zee, Ms. Kobak and others at a local motel.
• They listened as the executives tried to convince them to drop the recall petition, and offered $100,000 to help fund addiction treatment in the area.
• One executive showed a new ad campaign that included a warning label.

By the mid-2000s, the people of Pennington Gap were trying to combat a growing opioid epidemic in other ways.

• Van Zee received training that allowed him to prescribe buprenorphine, a medicine that blunts cravings for opioids.
• Sister Beth, Ms. Kobak, Dr. Van Zee and others helped start a local inpatient addiction treatment facility, the only one for many miles.

In 2007 the Justice Department announced criminal indictments against Purdue Pharma and three of its top executives in connection with deceptive marketing of the drug. That July, Sister Beth stood in drizzling rain outside a federal courthouse in Abingdon, VA, disappointed about the outcome of the case.

A judge had approved a deal struck between the Justice Department and the three Purdue executives. Under it, the men were allowed to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor charge that did not accuse them of personal wrongdoing and for which they would not face jail. “I think it would have made a considerable difference if these people had been arrested and done jail time,” she said. This was a slap on the hand.

Twenty years later, the problems of the opioid epidemic continue to plague this town

Drugs tainted by counterfeit fentanyl are now sold on the streets. Many of the town’s population are meth addicts, prone to flying into psychotic rages. The inpatient treatment facility was forced to close after for lack of funding. Government funding was woefully short of what was necessary for people to get the help they needed. Virginia’s decision last year to expand Medicaid, which has paid for treatment of many low-income people in other expansion states, may have helped, along with an injection of federal grant money to states for addiction treatment and prevention.

Sister Beth, Dr. Van Zee and Ms. Kobak: Watching the legal problems of Purdue Pharma

Earlier this year, Dr. Van Zee and Ms. Kobak flew to Oklahoma so the physician could testify as an expert witness in that state’s lawsuit against the drugmaker. But that never happened. In March, Purdue Pharma agreed to pay $270 million to settle. As a result, all its internal documents remain sealed. Oklahoma state officials said they struck the deal because of concerns that Purdue Pharma, which faces thousands of lawsuits, might soon file for bankruptcy, which, of course, it did.

Dr. Van Zee said he couldn’t question the state’s decision but was deeply disappointed. The lawsuits against Purdue Pharma and other opioid manufacturers and distributors have been consolidated under one federal judge in Ohio. Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay $572 million to Oklahoma for its role in the epidemic. This is one case in one state. There are more than 2,500 lawsuits that are pending against Purdue Pharma.

Failure of public officials to police actions of corporations

After living through the opioid epidemic for 20 years, Dr. Van Zee, Ms. Kobak and Sister Beth all share the belief that the only way to prevent a similar catastrophe is for the truth to come out about the actions of corporations and the failures of public officials to oversee them. “I hope it puts a light on what huge systematic changes we can make so that this doesn’t happen again.” Twenty years later, hundreds of people are struggling with addiction, and the national failure to contain an epidemic has grown more complex.

Many of our clients are seniors who come in to our offices to create their Living Trusts. The result is numerous conversations on a wide range of topics related to current health and health care issues and end-of-life planning.

California Document Preparers assists our clients in the preparation of their Trusts, which include a Power of Attorney and Advance Healthcare Directive. Most are surprised at how easy it is. Schedule an appointment today by contacting us at one of our three Bay Area offices. Our dedicated team is helpful, compassionate and affordable.

When You Know It’s Time to Move to a Retirement Home

A New York Times article regarding one couple’s discussions about moving to a retirement home brought back memories of my own parents’ ongoing dialog. My folks were in their mid-eighties, still healthy and active, but their three-bedroom home on a Florida lakeshore was becoming a burden. After a lifetime of shopping for groceries, planning and preparing meals, my mother had run out of steam. More important, she was feeling increasingly isolated and lonely. Her friends were either dead or living out their final days in nursing homes with dementia. My stepfather, of course, was completely comfortable having my mother cook and care for him. The subject of time to move to a retirement home was not something he entertained.

I don’t remember the catalyst, but they finally put their house on the market

My folks finally sold their house and moved to a retirement community overlooking a little lake. They had their own little unit, with a provision to move to assisted care and the nursing facility when/if it became necessary. My mother was thrilled. A very social person, she immediately made friends, played bridge three-four times/week, helped out in the library one day each week. There was always something going on and the staff were wonderful. My mother had cooked her last meal. This was exactly where she needed to be at this point in her life.

In the Times article, John and Dawn Strumsky had the same debate as my folks did. Dawn’s ready to pack it in. After a lifetime of caring for others, it’s time to be a “princess”, unburdened by the demands of cooking, cleaning and gardening. Her husband hated the idea of a leaving their longtime home and being surrounded by a bunch of strangers—a bunch of old strangers. He finally relented and they moved to a senior community outside Baltimore. He learned to embrace his new environment and subsequently wrote a 365-page history of the facility that they use in their marketing.

Dealing with seniors’ resistance to moving to a retirement home: It’s a journey

Seniors fear giving up their independence. It’s difficult to leave the home where they’ve raised their families. They don’t like confronting their own mortality. The key to convincing a parent to move to a retirement community is to be patient, said Tom Neubauer, executive vice president at Erickson Living, which operates 19 retirement communities. “Inherently there’s a sense of denial, particularly as it relates to aging, and you’re trying to defeat that.”He likened the process to helping a high school student choose a college: “You can’t just hand them a brochure and say, ‘This is where you’re going.’ It’s a journey.”

Neubauer’s strategy was to get his mother to recognize that the stairs in her house were steep, that cold weather affected her ability to get out and do things. That she was limiting herself because she wasn’t driving at night. It ended up being very easy. Collectively, all of these arguments persuaded his mother that it was time to move.

Go for a visit; stay for a meal or an overnight

Experts advise visiting retirement communities and trying to get a feel for what the experience would be like. Meet the residents, talk to the staff, stay for a meal. Some facilities will allow potential residents to spend a few nights.

Specialists in senior moving help seniors recreate their lives in smaller environments

We all love our stuff. Seniors may have spent decades in the same home, and it can be very difficult to leave all that is comfortable and familiar. A cottage industry of specialists in senior moving has sprung up, and the National Association of Senior Move Managers has more than 1,000 members.

These consultants do more than move boxes. They create digital floor plans to show clients how everything will look and fit in a smaller environment. They’ll ship leftover items to relatives or to auctions. As much as possible, they recreate the old space to make the transition as seamless as possible.

My folks lived in their retirement community for nearly ten years

As with many seniors, a health crisis necessitated my parents’ move into assisted living, then nursing care. They both died there within six months of each other. My mom was 94. In the end, we enlisted the support of Hospice, and the women who cared for her were wonderful. I think of my mom so often, and it’s generally while she was surrounded by her many friends in that retirement community where she happily lived out the last decade of her life.

California Document Preparers assists our clients with creating Living Trusts. A Power of Attorney and Advance Healthcare Directive are included as part of this legal document. Make an appointment today at one of our three Bay Area offices. Our dedicated team is helpful, compassionate and affordable.