Law Office of Donald D. Vanarelli Blog

In a recent article published in Inside Jersey magazine, collaborative divorce is described as “the newest method of alternative dispute resolution.” The author explained the collaborative divorce process as follows: Rather than two sides preparing for a knockdown, drag-out fight [in court], the  collaborative process is designed to allow spouses to negotiate with each other’s [...]

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Aging Well is a magazine for professionals involved with the aging and elderly population.  Aging Well magazine also maintains a website, here. In the July/August 2009 edition, Aging Well magazine published an article which I wrote entitled “Assessing the Need for Guardianship”. The article attempts to explain the concept of competency or capacity, and the [...]

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The economic stimulus legislation enacted in February 2009 provides a one-time payment of $250.00 to nearly all Social Security and SSI beneficiaries who were eligible for a benefit payment in any one of the following months:  November 2008, December 2008, or January 2009.  SSA made these payments in May 2009. I previously blogged about the [...]

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A. Stepchildren. Care should be taken to identify and address issues of step-children with an estate planning client. Although a client may consider and refer to a step-child as his “child,” for purposes of estate administration, New Jersey’s statutory definition of a “child” includes “any individual, including a natural or adopted child, entitled to take [...]

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Increasingly, couples are seeking more constructive and less expensive alternatives to litigating their divorce, child custody and support issues in court. One alternative is collaborative divorce (also known as collaborative law, collaborative practice and collaborative family law). In a collaborative divorce, lawyers, mental health professionals and financial specialists work together with the divorcing couple to [...]

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The Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that the proceeds from a home sale held in an escrow account pending an agreement between a divorcing couple as to their final distribution are countable resources for purposes of determining eligibility under the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. In Kelley v. Commissioner of Social Security (3rd. [...]

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According to an article in the July 14th edition of the New York Times, a flood of veterans, young and old, are seeking disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for psychological and physical injuries connected to their military service. The backlog of unprocessed claims for those disabilities is now over 400,000, up [...]

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When advising clients about how to plan for the possibility of needing long-term care, elder law attorneys generally put long-term care insurance (LTCI) at or near the top of the list of planning strategies, provided the clients can afford the coverage and are insurable. But are elder law attorneys walking the walk for themselves and [...]

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In May of this year, the Internal Revenue Service provided guidance on when a taxpayer may avoid the 10% penalty on IRA distributions before age 59 by claiming to be disabled. In Chief Counsel Advice 200922041, the IRS explained the meaning of “disabled” as it relates to Internal Revenue Code 72(m)(7), the disability exception to [...]

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Here is updated information on trends in the characteristics and numbers of nursing home residents in the United States. The Division of Health Care Statistics (DHCS), the National Center for Health Statistics, has announced the internet release of Series 13, No 167 of the National Nursing Home Survey (NNHS) Overview Report for the year 2004. [...]

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