On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC posted in social security disability on Wednesday, March 14, 2018. California residents who are applying for Social Security Disability benefits have two main criteria to meet to obtain them. First, they must have the proper insured status. This means that they have worked a sufficient number of hours prior to applying. Second, they must have been unable to obtain gainful employment because of a physical or mental condition over t...
On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC posted in estate administration & probate on Wednesday, March 7, 2018. When creating an estate plan, California residents can often save time and money by avoiding the probate process. While many states have streamlined their probate processes, probating a will can still be disruptive to the distribution of an estate. Another disadvantage of the probate system is that the court records are public.Many types of property automatical...
On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC posted in blog on Wednesday, March 7, 2018. When you create an estate plan, you need to consider the end of your life. Some aspects of the estate plan actually come into the picture before you pass away. You should think carefully about how decisions on your behalf will be made before you pass away. These include your finances and medical care. Fortunately, you can act now to set up a plan for when you are unable to make decisions...
On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC posted in trusts & trust administration on Monday, March 5, 2018. California residents with estate plans that include a revocable living trust may not be using the legal tool to its full advantage. This could result in a waste of the legal fees paid to create the trust and heirs not being able to reap the benefits of the trust as they should.For a standard living trust, individuals and their spouse will move the titles to the majo...
On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC posted in social security disability on Thursday, March 1, 2018. People in California applying for Social Security Disability may wonder how the Social Security Administration assesses whether or not an applicant is totally disabled. The government agency uses a standard of total disability to determine whether a person is sufficiently disabled to be eligible to receive disability benefits. According to the administration, total d...
On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC posted in trusts & trust administration on Tuesday, February 27, 2018. Many people in California and across the country may be wondering about how they can benefit from the estate planning implications to changes made in federal tax law by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed by Congress in December 2017. Provisions in the new law double the exemption provided for estate, gift and generation-skipping transfer taxes, which reflects the...
On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC posted in social security disability on Friday, February 23, 2018. People in California disabled by severe injuries or specific diseases sometimes qualify for a fast track review of an application for Social Security Disability benefits. Although the agency attempts to identify priority applications for people with obviously debilitating conditions, applications might still get caught up in the typical timeline of three to six mon...
On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC posted in social security disability on Thursday, February 22, 2018. Some California residents who are applying for Social Security Disability benefits are confused at the concept of 'back pay" when an award is given. They should understand why back pay is normally awarded. It is due to the passage of time involving the application date, the date determined for disability, and the award date.When a person applies for disability be...
On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC posted in social security disability on Thursday, February 15, 2018. People in California who are unable to work may be eligible to receive Social Security Disability or Supplemental Security Income benefits. However, the process to apply for and receive these benefits can often be difficult and challenging. It can be important for applicants to have representation at a hearing to maximize their likelihood of success. Representati...
On behalf of The Elder and Disability Law Firm, APC posted in social security disability on Thursday, February 15, 2018. Those in California and elsewhere who apply for Social Security Disability or SSI benefits will be asked for information relating to their mental and physical abilities. This information is used to create a residual functional capacity score. When determining what type of work a person may be suited for, an examiner may look at past work performed during the rele...
