The Connecticut Elder Law Blog

Bookmark this Elder Abuse Website

I'd like to bring your attention to a wonderful online resource for families with older loved ones.  The National Center on Elder Abuse, which falls under the federal Department of Health & Human Services, has a revamped website which definitely warrants a bookmark.  There is an absolute wealth of very useful information here regardless of where you live.  It provides assistance to the public and professionals; everything from practical articles on elder abuse, to comprehensive data and statistics to a listserv.

To say that elder abuse is an important issue for U.S. society is a huge understatement, so it's great that families can have a resource like this.  If you have the slightest suspicion that a loved one is a victim of elder abuse, the NCEA website would be an excellent place to begin the self-education process on this important subject.

Terminate Conservatorship of the Estate When T19 is Granted

As many of my clients will readily attest to, finding out that Medicaid has been granted for a loved one is cause for celebration.  The harrowing process usually takes months and the amount of information that needs to be generated, organized and sent to the State is mind-boggling.  So when the journey ends you feel like doing cartwheels.

But there's another benefit to achieving Medicaid eligibility; if you are acting as "conservator of the estate" (managing the finances for an incapacitated person with Probate Court oversight) for someone who has been granted Medicaid eligibility, the path should be clear for terminating the conservatorship.  Since the person now has less than $1,600 in assets and all of the person's income is going to the nursing home, the Probate Judge is usually happy to terminate the conservatorship of the estate since there are not enough funds left to warrant the continued Probate Court involvement in the person's finances.  That means no more preparing and filing annual "periodic" accountings, and no more hearings regarding finances.

So, unless there is an extraordinary situation which would require the conservatorship of the estate to continue, you can go ahead and file a final accounting and request termination.  Please note that any "conservatorship of the person" (when a person is in charge of managing personal affairs for an incapacitated person, with Probate Court oversight) will probably have to continue since health care decisions will still need to be made.