Law Office of Donald D. Vanarelli Blog

The battle for a secure retirement is about to get even tougher. Several new surveys of company executives show that they plan to reduce or suspend their company’s retirement-plan contributions this year.  Dozens of employers in the past year have already slashed such costs.  The trend means one important thing for workers: smaller nest eggs, [...]

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Under the veterans’ compensation benefits system, a veteran, a veteran’s dependents or a veteran’s survivors are required only to submit a “plausible claim” for an entitlement to VA benefits. Once a plausible claim has been submitted, the burden to fully and completely develop evidence to support that claim lies with the Department of Veterans Affairs [...]

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On February 17 and 18, 2009, the Social Security Administration (SSA) issued a series of eight Social Security Rulings clarifying and updating the SSA’s process for determining childhood disability under the “functional equivalence” rule. The functional equivalence rule is used to determine if a child meets the SSA’s definition of “disabled” when a child does [...]

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On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka the stimulus bill). This law provides for a one-time economic recovery payment of $250 to most Social Security, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries who were eligible under the programs during November or December [...]

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Highly regarded Certified Elder Law Attorney among just five percent of lawyers in state to be recognized with prestigious professional designation. Donald D. Vanarelli, Esq., with offices at 242 St. Paul Street, Westfield, NJ, has been selected as a “New Jersey Super Lawyer” in the areas of Elder Law and Estate Planning in 2009.  Mr. [...]

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Over the past several years, nursing homes have become dumping grounds for young and middle-age people with mental illness, according to Associated Press interviews and an analysis of data from all 50 states. And that has proved a prescription for violence, as Jackson’s case and others across the country illustrate.  Younger, stronger residents with schizophrenia, [...]

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According to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office, shrinking staff levels, a dramatically increasing workload and more complicated disabling impairments will lead to an exploding backlog of claims for social security retirement and disability claims. Staffing in Social Security field offices dropped 4.4 percent from 2005 to 2008. The agency also estimates that [...]

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Earlier this month, the state Senate approved, by a vote of 21-14, bipartisan-sponsored legislation that would require all palimony agreements to be in writing and signed in order to be enforceable. The bill, s-2091, amends N.J.S.A. 25:1-5, which already requires that prenuptial agreements be put into writing. The bill is intended to overturn recent “palimony” [...]

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The Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, a nonpolitical, nonpartisan research institute, recently published its Sixth Annual Report on the State of the News Media in the United States. The Project editor called it “the bleakest report ever issued.” I found the report fascinating. I grew up reading newspapers, and still subscribe to [...]

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Congratulations to my colleague, Deirdre Wheatley-Liss, on being chosen as one of New Jersey’s 50 Best Women in Business by NJBIZ magazine. Here is a press release about the achievement. I know of at least three of Deirdre’s achievements: she has earned an LLM in taxation from NYU (wow), she has been board-certified as an [...]

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