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Spouse wants to ensure wife will get assistance
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 8, 2000 Q. My wife and I are 58 and disabled and hope you can give us financial advice. I recently was diagnosed with terminal cancer. My wife was diagnosed with cancer two years ago and is in remission. Our net worth has been reduced to zero, but I have a $600,000 term life insurance policy with my wife as beneficiary. We have two mortgages on our home, the car needs replacing, and there will be other bills that need to be paid. I am on Social Security disability which, of course, will end at my death. She applied for it, too, but the application is mired in red tape. She now has Medicaid for the medically needy, which will end when she inherits the insurance, leaving her with no medical insurance. We would like to be able to leave something to our daughter, but she realizes that my wife's needs come first. A. Congratulations on planning ahead at what's obviously a difficult time in your lives. There are steps you can take to avoid jeopardizing your wife's eligibility for assistance. The simplest, if you can count on your daughter to put her mother's needs first, would be to make your daughter the beneficiary of your life insurance policy. You also could set up a trust. One alternative would be to create a trust with your daughter as beneficiary but with limits on her spending. Another alternative would be to create what is known as a supplemental needs trust on your wife's behalf. The trust and your daughter might be made co-beneficiaries of your life insurance. Primarily created by parents of disabled children, supplemental needs trusts can be set up for any disabled person younger than 65. The trust cannot pay for food, clothing and shelter. It is designed to supplement care that is provided by government assistance programs such as Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income. But this area of law is complicated, so you need a good lawyer to make sure such a trust is right for you and that it is set up correctly. Whatever you do regarding the life insurance, I recommend consulting a lawyer who specializes in Social Security disability cases regarding your wife's situation. Lawyers who file claims for retroactive benefits work on contingency, which means you don't pay for their services unless your case is successful. Q. I am a 70-year-old widow having a really bad time financially. When my husband died, my son sold my boat and put the money in a CD that was to be worth $18,000 on maturity in 1981. It has been many years, but I knew it was drawing interest, so I left it alone until I needed the money. Now I cannot find the certificate or passbook. I have the account number listed on a paper from another bank where I used the CD as collateral for a loan. The bank that had the CD says it has no record of it. This was my security blanket. What should I do? A. Nineteen years is a very long time to wait to check on your money. Banks are required by law to turn over inactive accounts to the state five years after losing contact with the owner. That's the most likely reason the bank does not have your money. If the state has it, you can get it back, but the state doesn't pay interest. Check with the state's unclaimed property division by using the Internet (http://up.dbf.state.fl.us/) or the toll-free number, (888) 258-2253. National unclaimed property listings also can be found on the Internet (http://www.missingmoney.com). Have you asked your son about this CD? If he is the one who opened the account, it is possible that it was in his name as well as yours. Maybe he redeemed the CD or transferred it to a different bank. In the future, I recommend keeping closer tabs on your money. Banks, brokerage firms and mutual fund companies mail statements on a regular schedule, such as monthly or quarterly. When you open an account, always ask about this, then call if you do not receive an expected statement. Online money mapStrong Capital Management designed a site for young people (http://www.strongkids.com) that has features some adults will find illuminating, too. Check out the dictionary in the library section. -- Helen Huntley writes about investing and markets for the Times. If you have a question about investments or personal finance, send it to On Money. We'll try to answer those we think are of greatest reader interest. All questions must be submitted in writing, but readers' names will not be published. Send questions to Helen Huntley, Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or to huntley@sptimes.com by e-mail.
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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