Category: Uncategorized

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Deferred Annuities in Trusts Always Check With Your Tax Advisor California seniors often create trusts for holding assets. Trusts provide ease of administration in the event of incapacity and avoid interruption by probate proceedings at death.  But a trust may not be an appropriate ownership vehicle for all […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Understanding Death Benefit Riders The Death Benefit Sales Pitch Chances are, if an agent has pitched you on an annuity, he or she promoted its “death benefit” as a selling point. According to the sales pitch, death benefits guarantee your heirs a return of your annuity premium (or […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER False Claims Act Cases Against Healthcare Industry Government Announces Another Large Whistleblower Award Of the $3.7 billion in 2017 false claim settlements and judgments, $2.4 billion involved false claims from the healthcare industry. Typically, these false claims cases involved false claims for reimbursement, kickbacks, and other fraudulent schemes […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Long-Term Care Insurance Claims Long-Term Care Insurance has always been sold by agents to help you pay for care when, later in life, you are unable to take care of yourself. Insureds trusted the policies would cover the costs of assisted living care, skilled nursing facilities, and in-home […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Creating and Amending Trusts Many Californians, especially seniors, create trusts to hold their assets. The trusts may be fully revocable by the individual creating the trust (known as the “settlor”) or irrevocable during the settlor’s lifetime.  If revocable, the settlor can change or amend the trust provided he […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Whole and Universal Life Insurance Whole and Universal (a mix of whole and term) life insurance policies are sold by agents as tax-deferred savings vehicles. Often the sales pitch to younger consumers is for retirement or education savings.  For seniors, the pitch includes retirement savings and death benefits […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Internal Revenue Service Whistleblower Awards The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) pays awards to people who provide specific and credible information to the IRS if the information results in the collection of taxes, penalties, interest or other amounts from the noncompliant taxpayer. For years, the IRS argued that fines […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Financial Elder Abuse Financial elder abuse is an epidemic throughout the country and San Mateo County is no exception. A recently published local story revealed that a financial abuser had taken roughly $350,000 in electronic transfers from an 84-year-old San Bruno resident over a period of months.[1]  The […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER Think Twice Before Buying an Annuity If you are over 60 and nearing retirement, you may be losing sleep over whether you’ll have enough income for your retirement years from your combination of pension benefits, Social Security, and personal retirement savings. Insurance agents and advisors, who stand to […]

ATTORNEY NEWSLETTER New FINRA Rule 2165 and Suspicions of Financial Elder Abuse Regulators are finally addressing the epidemic of financial elder abuse in this country. Among those regulatory agencies is the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the independent body that polices the nation’s financial industry. FINRA recently promulgated Rule 2165 […]