According to a study performed by the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center in Chicago, seniors who are very social had a 70 percent lower rate of cognitive decline than their peers who were less social. In another study that was conducted by researchers at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, there was a link between internet use and a 30 percent decrease in symptoms of depression.

There are many ways to maintain social connections and improve intellectual stimulation. Keep in touch with relatives, friends, neighbors and church members. If they’re not geographically close, you can maintain contact via email and Facebook. Statistics from the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project revealed that people age 74 and older comprise the fastest-growing group throughout online social networks.

Additionally, playing mind games, including doing crossword puzzles and playing chess can help keep your mind active. Playing with others can help you remain socially connected. It may also be beneficial to join a club, such as a book club or garden club, so that you can meet new people and form relationships with others who have comparable interests.

Upon retirement, several people have been known to experience stress. If you desire to return to work, think about obtaining a part-time job. Encore.org and the Work Search program provide help to seniors who wish to return to work. Volunteering can give you a sense of purpose, and make you feel as though you are making a contribution. You can learn more about volunteer opportunities from organizations, such as Senior Corps. Studies indicate that seniors who volunteer have a diminished risk of death in comparison to their peers who do not. Offering to babysit grandchildren or other young relatives can help you stay physically active and enhance your sense of well-being.

The elder law attorneys at Hook Law Center assist Virginia families with will preparation, trust & estate administration, guardianships and conservatorships, long-term care planning, special needs planning, veterans benefits, and more. To learn more, visit http://www.hooklawcenter.com/ or call 757-399-7506.

More
seniors than ever are joining their children and grandchildren on
Facebook.

Seniors
tend to lag behind younger people in their use of technology, and the
use of social media is no exception ­— but the gap is closing.
A recent study by the Pew Research Center found that social media
usage among Americans 65 and older is growing faster than any other
age group.

The
findings were part of a broader study on the use of technology by
seniors. Older adults cite hurdles to technology adoption such as
physical handicaps that make reading difficult, skepticism about the
usefulness of technology and difficulty in learning how to use new
technology. But once seniors become internet users, 71 percent go
online daily or almost daily, and 79 percent feel internet access
puts them at an advantage, according to the findings.

Perhaps
a senior citizen in your life is interested in using the internet or
social media sites. Public libraries are an excellent resource for
live classroom computer training for all ages. Or, simply lend a hand
yourself. Learning modern skills can be an enriching and rewarding
part of life for seniors.

To contact an estate planning lawyer at Hook Law Center, call 757-399-7506.

This isn’t a simple matter, even if you’ve planned.

It used to be that people kept important things in filing cabinets, banks, and photo albums. Now everything from communications, to photos, to music, to sensitive financial information is increasingly kept online. In fact, 51 percent of U.S. adults bank online, according to the Pew Research Center; and 63 percent of all American adults, and 27 percent of all Americans ages 65 and older, use social networking sites.

And, while the Internet has made things easier in many ways, it can cause a lot of complications when someone dies or loses the ability to manage their own affairs. That’s why the Uniform Law Commission, a group of state appointed attorneys, created the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act (UFADAA) as a way to clear up some of the complications.

Right Now, Accessing a Loved One’s Account Could Be a Criminal Act

What becomes of a person’s digital life, such as their Facebook accounts, Flickr photos, and online banking information, when they die or become incapacitated?

Currently, there’s no good answer. Very few states have laws that deal with these issues. Even if someone’s will contains instructions, there is no guarantee their wishes will be carried out. (Gerry W. Beyer and Naomi Cahn, NAELA Journal, Vol. 9, No. 1)

Often, only the account holder can legally access their online account. The terms of agreement on many sites prohibit sharing passwords and third-party access.

Worse, it may be an actual criminal act to violate those terms of the service agreement. Even a fiduciary, the person that’s designated to act in your best interest, could be breaking a federal privacy law or the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act when accessing your account.

The Current Limits on Access Makes the Problem of Identity Theft Worse

Glenn Williamson discovered what all too often happens when his mother passed away. The identity thieves get busy.

“The year after somebody passes is one of the most vulnerable times for identity theft. It’s a heinous crime, but it’s what the bad guys do, because death is public record, they’ll go out there and they’ll comb through recently deceased and they’ll create a fake identity, because the deceased don’t check email and they don’t get the mail,” said Williamson in a July 2014 interview with PBS.

The inability to access a loved one’s digital assets makes problems like Williamson’s much harder to stop.

UFADAA Is an Important Update for the Internet Age

The UFADAA gives people the power to plan for the management and disposition of their digital assets the same way they can make plans for their tangible property: by providing instructions in a will, trust, or power of attorney. If a person fails to plan, the law contains provisions for distributing those assets.

Also, the Act would put limits on access to digital assets and extends a fiduciary’s existing authority and duties when overseeing a person’s tangible assets to include the person’s digital assets. Read a complete summary.

The Uniform Law Commission will introduce UFADAA in 2015. It will be up to state legislatures to pass it.

So far, 26 states plus the District of Columbia have expressed interest in a UFADAA bill for 2015. Delaware has already enacted a statute based on UFADAA. Obstacles still exist – some Internet companies oppose the UFADAA because of the administrative costs associated with complying.

Find out more about the UFADAA and what you can do by visiting the Uniform Law Commission website.

Nearly everyone has digital assets that have real value, both monetary and sentimental:

• Personal assets such as photographs, videos, email, music.
• Social media assets: These sites are used for both social interaction as well as storage of photos, etc.
• Financial accounts: Things like Amazon account information, arrangements to pay bills online (mortgages, cable, cell phone, etc.)
• Business accounts: Businesses collect data such as addresses and credit card numbers. Physicians store patient information. Attorneys might store client files or use online storage such as a Dropbox-type service. A blog or domain name is valuable but only accessible through a password.

The post Digital Assets and Estate Planning appeared first on Estate Planning Lawyers | Elder Law Attorneys | Brighton | Novi | Livonia Elder Law Attorneys.

More American family members are serving as caregivers for their loved ones than ever before.

According to a study by the Pew Research Center and the California HealthCare Foundation, 39 percent of adults were family caregivers in 2012, up from 30 percent in 2010.

There are multiple reasons for the increase. The number of older adults is increasing, and it will continue to increase as the Baby Boomers continue to age. In addition, many families are foregoing paid caregiving in a sluggish economy.

Modern medicine is extremely adept at keeping people with serious medical conditions alive; at the same time, the older adult population experiences more serious health problems than in the past. All of this means that more family members step in to provide care for their loved ones, who may collectively be sicker than elders in past generations.

According to AARP data from 2012, at least half of caregivers perform complex nursing care at home. Caregivers help with activities of daily living, but they also manage complex medication regimens, take elders to and from medical appointments, and perform nursing or medical tasks prescribed for the elder.

Seniors are starting to catch up with younger Americans in their use of communication technology and social media. Older Americans now belong to the fastest-growing group of social media adopters, though they still use the internet and social media less often than people in younger age groups who adopted social media earlier do.

A study from the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project found that 59 percent of Americans age 65 or older are internet users, an increase of six percentage points in one year. Also, 77 percent of seniors report owning a cellphone (an increase from 69 percent in 2012).

Despite the growing adoption rates of communication technology among the elderly, a large number of older Americans still remain remain relatively unconnected to online life when compared to the population as a whole. Among all adults, 86 percent are internet users and 91 percent have cellphones.

Social media displays this gap clearly. Forty-six percent of online seniors, or 27 percent of the total population of older Americans, use social networking sites such as Facebook — compared to 73 percent of adult internet users or 63 percent of all adults.

Learn more at http://www.elderlawnewyork.com/elder-law/

The number of people caring for an elderly parent or other relative is growing fast. A recent Pew Research Center study found that almost 40 percent of Americans are caring for another person with a serious health condition, a rise from 30 percent in 2010.

Providing care for a loved one may be necessary, but it is important to understand the impact that it has on the caregiver’s financial situation and even his or her own health. Studies have shown that caregivers are more likely to report issues with their own health. Focusing on caring for another can take time away from caring for oneself.

Providing care can also have a significant financial impact. Many people take unpaid leave from work to care for an older family member. In addition to the obvious loss of wages, this can also affect the caregiver’s own Social Security retirement benefits.

Careful planning can make these impacts much more manageable. Too many people are taken by surprise by circumstances, and in the rush to provide necessary care, may make choices regarding work, home and care that are not well thought out. Thinking about what may be necessary in certain possible future situations and planning ahead can help you make the right decisions when they need to be made.

Learn more at http://www.elderlawnewyork.com/estate-planning/

In practice, of course, it does not work quite like that. It is still significantly less common for men to be awarded alimony – indeed, many men who may be eligible for alimony do not even request it. This is despite the fact that women’s likelihood of working and their income levels are both rising, and they are now more likely than ever to be the primary or even sole breadwinner member of a couple.

A recent study from Pew Research Center on “breadwinner moms” shows that a record 40 percent of households with minor children include mothers who are either the primary or sole source of family income. The figure was just 11 percent in 1960. The 40 percent figure must be taken with a grain of salt: two-thirds of that group is made up of single mothers with a median income of just $23,000. The other third, though, is made up of 5.1 million married mothers with a median family income of nearly $80,000. These are the true breadwinner wives and mothers who might very well have to pay alimony if they divorced and their spouses requested it.

But the truth is, many men who might be eligible to receive alimony do not request it. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2010, there were 380,000 women in the U.S. receiving alimony, but just 12,000 men. A man might believe that asking for alimony is a sign of weakness. If he comes from a marriage in which his spouse made more money, he might have lingering issues with not being the primary breadwinner that could make him hesitant to continue in a role of being supported by his spouse.

It is still true that alimony is more often awarded to women than to men because women are more likely to have foregone education and work experience for the sake of a spouse or a family. But that is a generalization. An individual man is more likely than ever to be in a marriage in which the opposite is true. Anyone seeking a divorce who believes they need or deserve to be awarded alimony should seek the counsel of an experienced divorce attorney as soon as possible.

Kristi J. McCart is a Tampa divorce lawyer and Brandon child custody attorney with the Osenton Law Offices, P.A. To learn more, visit http://www.brandonlawoffice.com/

The U.S. population is aging rapidly as a result of falling birthrates and rising life expectancies. According to the U.S. Census Bureau projections, by 2050, one-in-five Americans will be 65 or older, and at least 400,000 will be 100 or older.

(Related: Seven Questions To Ask When Searching for Assisted Living)

There are some futurists that believe even more dramatic changes are coming, including medical treatments that could slow, stop, or reverse the aging process and allow humans to remain healthy and productive to the age 120 or more.

The likelihood of extraordinary life spans is becoming increasingly possible. For example, a recent issue of National Geographic magazine carried a picture of a baby on its cover with the headline: “This Baby Will Live to Be 120.”

(Related: Alzheimer’s Disease Improved by Exercise, University of Maryland Study Shows)

With that said, many Americans are not optimistic about the possibility of living longer lives. According to a new survey by the Pew Research Center, they see peril as well as promise in biomedical advances, and more believe it would be a bad thing for society if people lived decades longer than today.

(Related: If you have Alzheimer’s or Dementia, there’s a Group waiting for You)

When asked whether they, personally, would choose to undergo medical treatments to slow the aging process and live to be 120 or more, a majority of U.S. adults (56 percent) say “no.” However, close to two-thirds (68 percent) think that most other people would. And last, they expect that dramatically longer life spans would strain the country’s natural resources and be available only to the wealthy.

Read more: The Pew Foundation Report

Christopher J. Berry is a Michigan elder law attorney Dedicated to helping seniors, veterans and their families navigate the long-term care maze. To learn more visit http://www.theeldercarefirm.com/ or call 248.481.4000