Agnews, opened in 1888, is the oldest in a group of “Developmental Centers” in California. These centers, similar to mental hospitals in feel and quality, have been used to house as many as 20,000 developmentally disabled people at a time. Agnews, in fact, was a mental hospital until 1965.

For many years, avoidance of the Developmental Center as a living arrangement was a primary concern for parents planning the future of their kids with special needs. Adults with special needs who had no place else to go often ended up in these locked, confining and dark centers, alone, with no visitors. Clients who had children with special needs in the 1960s tell me stories of being encouraged to turn their children over to Developmental Centers and pretend they never had them.

But the danger is not over. In many states, Developmental Centers continue operations without any slack, sometimes despite media attention on egregious living conditions. In California, four Developmental Centers remain open and house 2,310 residents. The closest Developmental Center to Westlake Village that is still open is Fairview Developmental Center in Costa Mesa, which has 504 residents. Progress has been made in the provision of a decent quality of life for people who live in Californian Developmental Centers but most Advocates hope to see them all closed as soon as possible.

If you have a Special Needs Trust with our office, you may recall a brief discussion we had over whether your child’s SNT could ever be used to pay for a Developmental Center. Every single client has always said “no.” So I can confidently say that if you have a SNT with us, it prohibits the Trustee from supporting a Developmental Center placement.

If you want to do something to help, support Mary Omoto’s Sacramento organization, California Disability Community Action Network at 1225 8th Street, Suite 480, Sacramento, CA 95814.

If you want to stay on top of the news about Developmental Centers and other Sacramento-related special-needs updates, subscribe to the CDCAN newsletter by sending an email to martyomoto@rcip.com or visit www.cdcan.com.

Today’s Forbes.Com has a quick comprehensive graphic article on 10 estate planning moves everyone should be making now. Forbes even includes a calculator that will tell you where your assets will go if you die without a will. Check it out by clicking here.

Today’s Wall Street Journal features an article, “Tax Report: Tips for Dodging an Audit.” Tax audits on those filing with incomes of $200,000 and above are sharply up and likely to continue at higher rates.

The IRS is especially fond of auditing those who use Schedule C. If you have a business, you can avoid Schedule C by incorporating (call us for details).

A few other interesting facts from the article:

- Most audits now are done by mail

- Enforcement revenues dropped from 2007 to 2008

- Anyone can “tip off” the IRS that you are cheating and the agency is likely to investigate.

You’ve all heard the stories of people losing their family homes when a person on Medi-Cal dies. They’re true. Medi-Cal can take your family’s home if an owner of the home was a Medi-Cal recipient. In fact, you are required to report the death of anyone who was a Medi-Cal recipient just so that they can decide if they are going to go after their assets or not.

When you send the notice to the Department of Healthcare Services, they will respond with a claim for repayment of all the payments they made after the Medi-Cal recipient turned 55 years old. This claim will be asserted against any assets the recipient owned when he died whether they are in a revocable living trust, a probate, an IRA or most other forms of ownership.

There are some limitations. Medi-Cal will not take the home while a spouse is still alive. In that situation, Medi-Cal will take the home when the surviving spouse dies. Now if the family is survived by a minor, blind or disabled child, Medi-Cal will not take the home at all. Finally, Medi-Cal cannot take the home if it has been properly transferred into a Medi-Cal House Trust.

With the Medi-Cal House Trust, the elder retains the right to live in the house for as long as he is able but the rest of the interest in the house is transferred to the beneficiaries of the trust (usually the children). A successful Medi-Cal House Trust ensures that the beneficiaries get a step-up in capital gains basis, that the house is not subject to estate tax, that the elder never has to move against his wishes and that Medi-Cal can make no claim against the property.

P.S. For those loyal readers who are interested, I’m delighted to announce my engagement to Bennett Braverman, another estate planning attorney.

This chapter is excerpted from a book forthcoming from the Academy of Special Needs Planners.

Someday my brother may have a family of one: me. Nathan is a 33 year old man with autism. He is high functioning but has severe apraxia and requires round-the-clock care.

Yesterday, my father and I brought him dinner from one of his favorite fast food restaurants. He didn’t eat with us because he won’t eat hot food until it has reached room temperature. I could tell he enjoyed our company because he asked questions, told us things he wanted, and laughed at my jokes to him.

I know I will have to take care of him. He will be my responsibility when my parents die. I had a sister who died but now there is only me, and all of our extended family lives out-of-state. I would like to move to another state to be with my fiancé but we plan on a long-distance marriage because Nathan needs me here. It is a big responsibility but I accept it willingly.

I know I will not be as selfless as a caregiver as my parents have been. I will rely on his paid caregivers to clean up vomit when he is sick. I will rely on those same caregivers to ensure that he gets out of the house regularly. But the buck will stop with me.

I am human and self-involved like most people, but I don’t resent the burden. I worry about my ability to handle it. As a single mom of twins and an entrepreneur, I pray my parents live a long time so that Nathan will not need me until after the twins are grown.

I think my parents understand what they are asking of me but I’m not sure they appreciate my willingness to do it. They take it for granted that of course I will do it. Sometimes I wonder if it would be nice to hear them say they appreciate the burden I have ahead of me and my willingness to take it on.

Nathan will never appreciate what I will do for him. He simply doesn’t understand how much is required to keep him in independent living. He loves my parents, I know, but doesn’t appreciate all they do for him. How could he? He didn’t appreciate it when I protected him from mean kids as we were growing up, but then he barely noticed their taunts.

As an estate planning attorney with a focus in special needs, it was only natural that I would create my parents’ estate plan. There is a special needs trust (SNT) and a revocable living trust that splits everything 50/50 between me and Nathan’s SNT. But my parents wanted to provide more for Nathan. I advised them to buy a life insurance policy payable to the SNT. Even though I am a special needs planner, even though I understand my brother’s limitations and my gifts, it would hurt my feelings if their trust split assets in any formula other than 50/50. So the life insurance policy is a good solution for us and for many of my clients.

I know that even with his SNT, Nathan will never enjoy the standard of living that I enjoy. He lives in a small one-bedroom apartment. I live in a spacious 5-bedroom house. He is dependent on others for every errand or outing. I have the freedom to follow my impulses and desires. But he has a freedom I never will: the freedom to take care of only himself.

The SNT and my care will provide Nathan with a much higher standard of living than he would enjoy without it. Without it, he could not afford his apartment. Without it, he would have to choose between food and rent. Without it, he would not be able to enjoy any of the extras that give his life joy. For example, Nathan loves to fly; he especially loves the take-offs and landings. The SNT provides that at least once or twice a year, Nathan is to take a lengthy plane trip with multiple takeoffs.

Without my care, Nathan would be left to the supervision of overburdened social and case workers. Without my devotion, Nathan’s SNT might not provide extras that are not explicitly listed in it.

This responsibility I carry is for life. I am only four years older than Nathan. He is healthy and should live to life expectancy. How will I care for him when I am in my 80s? What will happen to him if I die before he does? We have the same answers in my parents’ plan that I recommend for my clients: a corporate trustee with an advocate to oversee the quality of his care. But, like my clients, I know that will not substitute for family. It is a fond hope that my small children will grow to take over my role if that ever becomes necessary. But Nathan is not gregarious, fun and attractive. He is serious. He makes embarrassing noises in public. He has violent temper tantrums. Will they see through all his behaviors to the loving human being underneath who needs their love and care?

There are no easy answers. One thing I know: as they grow, my children will learn about Nathan’s needs. As they grow, I will share more with them about what my parents and eventually I need to do to keep him safe and happy. As they grow, I will let them know how much I appreciate every visit to his apartment, every gift they thoughtfully choose for him, every comment they make about his care and comfort. Perhaps my appreciation – one of the most powerful forces between people – will be enough.

The plan my parents and I have created for him will ensure that Nathan will always have food, clothing and shelter. He will never be homeless or hungry. But we want so much more for him. The limitations of purely legal solutions frustrate me. Only a combination of legal solutions and creative non-legal approaches can ensure that he always has food and never has a family of none.

“The Social Security Administration has unveiled an online calculator that will project your Social Security benefits based on your actual work record. The agency has other online calculators and every year mails benefit estimates to adult workers. But this latest calculator goes further than these, allowing you to quickly run various scenarios based on earning projections and differing retirement ages. “I’m impressed. It’s a wonderful tool. It brings some clarity to one of the key sources of income for people in retirement,” says Stuart Ritter, a T. Rowe Price Associates financial planner who tried the calculator yesterday. “Knowing more about your Social Security benefits will help you plan better for what you need to be saving.” Find the Retirement Estimator on the agency’s home page at www.ssa.gov.”

Source: NAELA e-bulletin and Baltimore Sun. For the full story go to: http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/investing/bal-bz.ym.ambrose22jul22,0,4246352.column
To go to the calculator: http://ssa.gov/estimator/

The Conejo Recreation & Park District has released its Therapeutic Recreation catalog for Fall 2008. It includes pages of activities including trips to sporting events, swimming lessons, bowling outings and dances. For a copy of the catalog or for registration, call (805) 381-2735. To volunteer, call (805) 381-2739 and ask for Sarah.

While involved in a chain-reaction freeway accident, a vehicle lost control, vaulted over the center median barrier, and landed on top of plaintiff’s vehicle, resulting in traumatic brain injury.

Verdict: $22,566,373

But there were other verdicts this month too. Here’s one:

Spilled coffee caused a driver to swerve across the centerline and collide head-on with a car that then rolled over, leaving the 48-year old driver with devastating injuries.

Verdict: $16,789,835

Source: California Bar Journal

Creating an estate plan is a very personal matter, and is usually done privately, with your attorney and with your partner, if you have one. However, there are some circumstances under which estate planning should be a family affair-perhaps even a multigenerational one.

Sean Condon writes about when it might be appropriate to include the whole family in the estate planning process in his article Estate Planning Can Be A Multigenerational Matter. Condon’s article mentions specific situations in which families would want to consider planning as a whole unit, including the following:

Planning for succession within a family business.

When multiple generations of families own property together.

If the family is responsible for significant debt.

If a family has a history of supporting certain charitable foundations and desires to continue doing so.

To provide for family members who live out of the country.

To make provisions for a non-traditional family situation, such as unmarried partners.

In many situations, you won’t have to choose between an estate plan that is private and one for your extended family. There are many ways to create individual estate plans for each nuclear family while still respecting and arranging for matters that affect the extended family as a whole. Of course, the process is easier if each nuclear family is able to work with the same attorney, but it is certainly not necessary as long as each attorney and family is willing to communicate and act together.

If you aren’t sure if you should plan privately for your family or include your whole multigenerational unit in the process, give our office a call. We can help you look down the road ahead and create a plan of action that will make every member of your family feel secure.

One of the most powerful tools in the landlord’s asset protection kit is the Limited Liability Company. Unlike insurance, LLCs have no exclusions for mold or other types of liability.

Recently, Los Angeles County courts awarded another large mold verdict. Here’s the verdict as reported in the California Bar Journal:

“Water Damage

Verdict: $859,478

Water damage from a leaking bathtub forced a neighboring tenant from his unit during mold and asbestos remediation…”