Health Care Reform Expands Availability of Insurance for Young Adults
June 30, 2010
One large group of uninsureds and underinsureds has been recent high school and college graduates, and those who have been excluded from a family’s coverage due to being over a specified age (such as 19, or up to 25 if a tax dependent in college).
The Health Care Reform Act has clearly addressed...
Health Care Reform: More on Keeping Your Existing Plan
June 24, 2010
Some individuals and employers want to keep their plans as they were on March 23, 2010, when the new health care reform laws took effect.
The new laws generally allow for this in “grandfathered plans,” with the exceptions outlined in my earlier blog.
New Health Care Act Implementation: Keeping What You Have
June 16, 2010
Although health care reform became law on March 23, insurance plans in effect at the time can maintain their old status, with a few exceptions, under a "grandfathering" provision in the law.
The grandfathering provision, which will probably benefit most plans, applies to individual, group, fully...
Debunking Domestic Relations Myths
May 25, 2010
As one of the attorneys at the firm who focuses my practice on domestic relations, I regularly field questions from folks who are considering how to end an unhappy marriage or who still have disputes with an ex-spouse. Invariably, part of my conversation with these people is...
New Law Boosts Rules, Penalties Around Medical Info
March 10, 2010
A new federal law that encourages broader sharing of health information will also impose more rules around the disclosure of such information and stiffer penalties for improper disclosure.
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (“HITECH”) went into effect February 17...
Formulas Used to Divide Estate Assets Won’t Work in Absence of Estate Tax
February 12, 2010
At this writing, for this year only, there is no federal estate tax. In some circumstances the temporary absence of the tax can cause changes in the division of a person’s property at death.
For more than 50 years, it has been common to use a written mathematical formula to divide the assets...
With Federal Estate Tax on Hiatus, New Rules Boost Capital Gains Tax Liability
February 11, 2010
Don’t celebrate the temporary disappearance of the federal estate tax too soon. In the absence of this tax, Congress changed the rules governing capital gains tax on sales of inherited property, creating additional tax liability in most situations.
Under prior federal law, assets held by an...
Retroactivity of New Estate Tax Law is Not a Sure Thing
February 10, 2010
Members of Congress have suggested that a new estate tax law now under debate could be applied retroactively to January 1. Although the Federal Courts have generally agreed with retroactive application of such laws, retroactivity is not a sure thing.
There are legal and practical barriers to...
