I’ll tell you what’s really wrong with Family Care, in my opinion. The Budget proposals don’t fix the problems I am going to talk about.

My mother Velma was complex and our relationship was complicated. Like many women of her generation, she took a job during World War II. As a chemistry major in college, she worked in a plant that developed therapeutic uses for penicillin.

As the rest of you are getting ready to slow down for the holiday season, at Wessels Law Office we are gearing up to be busy. Many non-retail businesses experience a slowdown over the holidays, and retailers feel a January slump. In elder law, on the other hand, we invariably see an uptick in our intake calls between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, and especially just afterward.

In understanding the ins and outs of Medicaid and divestment, timing is everything.

With the State’s drastic changes to estate recovery, there has been a corresponding increase in the number of clients for whom an irrevocable trust becomes an attractive option for Medicaid planning.

In a decision dated June 6, 2014, Judge Barbara Crabb struck down Wisconsin’s constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage in Wisconsin. You can read her full decision here. As a result, many same-sex couples are happily marrying in Wisconsin.

Myth: “I heard I have to turn over my home to the state in order to get Medicaid.”

This article will delve into the second major area of misunderstanding in Medicaid: Divestment.

A fair amount of my work with clients and even other professionals involves clearing up misconceptions they have about how Medicaid works.

The Wisconsin Legislature has changed the way Medicaid works for married people. And one of the changes was intended to attack a Medicaid Planning method used successfully by many elder law attorneys, including myself (although, I have to say I never had reason to use it much.)

This article will explain a little-used technique that allows a married couple who has income below a certain amount to be able to keep more assets than are typically allowable for married couples in Medicaid cases.

There is a section of Wisconsin’s new Estate Recovery law that is not found in the statutes dealing with Medicaid (Chapter 49). Instead, it is in the statutes that deal with trusts.

One of the hidden changes in Wisconsin’s Estate Recovery law has to do with the formula for how the State will recover the costs of care for people who are able to receive long-term care in the community.

For years I have written and lectured about the importance of considering your pets in your estate planning. A recent case from the Wisconsin Court of Appeals illustrates why. For this blog, my adopted dog Summer will also comment.

Today’s blog goes past the recent budget changes, to talk about an issue that is concerning to the families of Alzheimer’s patients, and that is not commonly known.

Having worked with the elderly for 23 years, particularly with the “Greatest Generation” who pride themselves on long-term marriages like my parents’ – 61 years before Dad died in 2008 – and being someone who deeply respects that people believe marriage to be a sacred relationship, I do not say what follows lightly.

This is the third in a series of articles looking at the changes made to Medicaid for nursing homes and the Family Care program in Wisconsin. These changes are in the latest Biennial Budget passed on June 30, 2013.