Elder Law Issues

Furniture and accessories matter in a law office like ours. Of course we want to have attractive and functional fixtures. But we also recognize that our client base includes people with various kinds of limitations. We also know that we need to accommodate family members, caregivers and equipment that might come into our waiting room.

Making the furniture and accessories work well in our environment is a constant process. We’re now in the process of making our third change of chairs, for example. It’s very hard to get attractive chairs that can be moved fairly easily but not so easily that they are dangerous.

And the same issues extend to other office functionality. How accessible are our bathrooms (Spoiler alert: very)? Is the coffee/tea/soda/water station inviting, functional and attractive (we think so)? We keep watching our own furniture and accessories decisions, and looking for internal improvements.

We are proud of what we’re doing and want to call attention to the effort. We also want our work on the office environment to be invisible. Feel free to notice; we probably won’t talk about it again. But we’d like to think our clients will notice on some level, even if they don’t call it out to us.

Very recently we updated our audience about the surprising changes in the Corporate Transparency Act. That’s the federal law that requires owners of limited liability companies (LLCs), family limited partnerships (FLPs) and other entities to file a form with a new federal agency. Now we have another piece of news: a January update on the CTA.

As we explained earlier, a federal court had ruled that the entire CTA was unconstitutional, and no one would have to file. Then a federal appellate court ruled that the lower court’s injunction exceeded its authority and entities would still have to file their Business Ownership Information (BOI) reports. Then the federal agency in charge (FinCEN) gave everyone until January 13 to file, reflecting the almost two-week period during which the injunction was in effect.

Here’s the latest: the same appellate court that struck down the injunction has now restored it. For now, no one has to file and no penalties will accrue. The appellate court will hear arguments in mid-March, and we’ll see what happens then.

In the meantime, it’s actually pretty easy to file, and there’s nothing stopping LLCs and other entities from doing so. You might want to consider filing even though you don’t have to. We explain — and discuss.

Too often we see one spouse of a client couple becoming incapacitated. Of course it’s also one of the things we help plan for, but it still causes problems. Problems for the well spouse, naturally. But also problems for the couple’s lawyers.

It’s not about us, but we do run into conflict problems when counseling half of a couple we have represented. The conflicts can be legal, practical — and ethical. Today we talk about what that can sometimes mean.

The 2024 election is over. But 2025 was already going to be a confusing year for estate planning, and that promises to be even more true now. We talk about what might happen — recognizing that it’s all speculation at this point — under a new administration and new Congress. Our prediction: we probably won’t know what — if anything — needs to be done until well into next year.

There is actually some certainty. Or at least confidence. For most people, there won’t be any important change in their estate plan. That’s because current estate tax limitations kick in at almost $14 million. That figure is unlikely to drop below about $7 million.

So most of the uncertainty is for the quite wealthy. But the 2024 election will likely unsettle many of the expectations and plans for others, as well.

In this week’s podcast, we give you a Corporate Transparency Act update. The CTA is still set to require nearly every LLC and small corporation, plus many other family business entities, to file identifying information before December 31 of this year. But a brand-new court case out of Texas may have changed the rules. Or not.

We wrote about the CTA in our weekly newsletter a few months ago, and updated our coverage earlier this month. As we explained then, the Act requires anyone with more than a 25% interest in many kinds of entities to provide personal identifying information through a new government agency, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (or FinCEN).

As we explain in this week’s podcast, that structure was upended by a federal court holding that the FinCEN system for registration violates the U.S. Constitution. For the moment, the government is enjoined from requiring reports. But be careful about relying on that news. The federal government has appealed, there is a change in administrations coming, and the deadline (though suspended) still looms.

What does that all mean? It means that our Corporate Transparency Act update boils down to: stay tuned.

Longtime Fleming & Curti, PLC, law clerk Jordan Young is a lawyer. For now, a young lawyer.

She’s been working with and for us for almost two years — all through her last year of law school, studying for the bar and waiting for results. But now she’s an honest-to-goodness lawyer. And we couldn’t be happier or prouder.

If you’ve been in our office in the past couple of years, you’ve likely met Jordan. She has been deeply involved in meeting clients, drafting documents and following up on details. Now she gets to do more — practicing elder law with the rest of (Elizabth Friman, Amy Matheson and Robert Fleming).

Our clients often want to name multiple fiduciaries — trustees, agents, personal representatives, etc. — in their estate planning documents. We try to encourage them to just name one, or to name their children in sequence rather than making them co-fiduciaries. We are often unsuccessful.

Clients might think they don’t want to show favoritism. Or they are adamant that their children get along well. Or they want to compel them to work together.

We will prepare our clients’ documents with multiple fiduciaries if they really want. But our experience is that the arrangement is more likely to unsettle family dynamics and lead to conflict than to guarantee (or rely on) family harmony.

And please don’t ask us to require all of the fiduciaries to act together — or even by a majority vote. That’s a guarantee of slower and more expensive administration, and a strong contributor to family fights.

You might already know that paying for long-term care can be very expensive. That’s true whether the care is in-home care or in a facility. And the costs associated with facilities vary widely (though all seem expensive).

Just to set a benchmark for discussion, look at Genworth Financial‘s estimate of long-term care costs in different communities across the country. According to Genworth’s figures, nursing home care in a semi-private room in Tucson is about $9,125 per month. Want a private room? Add a little more than $2,000 every month.

Do you know how you will pay for long-term care for yourself, your spouse, your parent(s) or other family members? Most of us don’t really have $10,000 per month in discretionary income. Thinking that you won’t have to worry about paying for long-term care because you intend to stay at home? Think again. The costs of in-home care will probably be greater than nursing home care.

Perhaps you’ve thought about securing long-term care insurance. In this week’s podcast episode, we talk about insurance, public benefits and other ways you might be paying for long-term care costs in your family — or for yourself. Join us for our discussion about the issues and options.

You may already know that the federal estate tax exemption for 2024 has been $13.61 million. We now have the tax exemption amounts for 2025.

The federal estate tax exemption is the amount your estate must exceed before you will owe any estate tax. Some people have a smaller exemption amount than the published 2025 figure. They might have used up some of their exemption amount in 2024 or earlier years, for instance. But the general estate tax exemption amounts for 2025 will be $13.99 million for a single person, and twice that (or $27.93 million) for a married couple.

The gift tax exemption amount is also scheduled to increase for 2025. The new number will be $19,000. That figure is per donor/per donee. In other words, you and your spouse can give a total to $38,000 to any number of individuals without owing any gift tax, having to file a gift tax return or in any way affecting your (or the recipient’s) income taxes.

Nominating a guardian (in your will) for an Arizona family member can save legal fees, hassle and time. Maybe you have a minor child, or a child with a disability. For that matter, you might have an incapacitated spouse. You even might have a spouse at risk for becoming disabled.

In all of those circumstances, your will nominating a guardian can smooth the process. That’s true even for other family members (though not as effective), and it even works for a conservatorship of their estate. And it doesn’t matter whether there is a guardianship (or conservatorship) already in place when you die.