Search Articles

Find Attorneys

The Retirement Nightmare

cover

Diane G. Armstrong, Ph.D. The Retirement Nightmare: How to Save Yourself from Your Heirs and Protectors. New York, NY: Prometheus. 2000. 405 pages.

Price: $18.72 from Amazon.com -- click on book to order

While an aging Sophocles was writing his play "Oedipus at Colonus," his sons tried to have him declared incompetent in an effort to gain control of his property. To prove his competence, Sophocles simply read from his play. The jury rose and amid great applause declared him competent. As The Retirement Nightmare makes clear, had Sophocles been pleading his case in America today, his sons probably would have left the courtroom in control of his property.

Guardianship or conservatorship laws were designed to protect us when we are no longer able to care for ourselves. In the somewhat misleadingly titled The Retirement Nightmare, Diane Armstrong makes the case that too often calculating heirs or would-be protectors in the social welfare community are using vague or outdated state guardianship statutes to wrest control of older persons' property against their will.

Armstrong has no shortage of horror stories to relate. Much of the book describes case after case in which completely competent individuals suddenly found themselves under the legal control of grasping relatives or professional guardians, sometimes without the elderly person even knowing what was happening until it was too late. In many states, Armstrong notes, the elderly can be declared incompetent on the basis of old age alone. Meanwhile, the guardians who take over their lives typically receive less state scrutiny than do barbers.

Armstrong, a clinical psychologist by training, first learned about the potential for guardianship abuse from personal experience, which is why she wrote this book. In the introduction, she relates the nightmare tale of her mother who was forced to prove her competence in court against four of her seven children, an ordeal that consumed 18 months of her mother's life and more than $1 million in legal fees.

As Armstrong points out, the stakes are growing. By one estimate, the baby boomers stand to inherit $11 trillion from their savings-minded parents. "If our codes as they exist today are not changed in substantive ways," Armstrong writes, "eleven trillion dollars will surely inspire a rising tide of conservatorship/guardianship litigation as alienated or envious heir-petitioners seek to direct this massive flow of accumulated wealth from an older generation to themselves before it vanishes."

In the book's most valuable chapters, Armstrong makes extensive recommendations about how state guardianship laws should be changed to protect the elderly from abuse, and the steps we all can take today to ensure that we do not join those who have been victimized by the misuse of guardianship laws.

The Retirement Nightmare is amply footnoted and contains synopses of state guardianship/conservatorship codes and statutes.

For more on the author and her book, go to: https://www.retirementnightmare.com

For more on guardianship and conservatorship, click here.

Local Elder Law Attorneys in Your City

Elder Law Attorney

Firm Name
City, State

Elder Law Attorney

Firm Name
City, State

Elder Law Attorney

Firm Name
City, State


Created date: 02/28/2005
Medicaid 101
What Medicaid Covers

In addition to nursing home care, Medicaid may cover home care and some care in an assisted living facility. Coverage in your state may depend on waivers of federal rules.

READ MORE
How to Qualify for Medicaid

To be eligible for Medicaid long-term care, recipients must have limited incomes and no more than $2,000 (in most states). Special rules apply for the home and other assets.

READ MORE
Medicaid’s Protections for Spouses

Spouses of Medicaid nursing home residents have special protections to keep them from becoming impoverished.

READ MORE
What Medicaid Covers

In addition to nursing home care, Medicaid may cover home care and some care in an assisted living facility. Coverage in your state may depend on waivers of federal rules.

READ MORE
How to Qualify for Medicaid

To be eligible for Medicaid long-term care, recipients must have limited incomes and no more than $2,000 (in most states). Special rules apply for the home and other assets.

READ MORE
Medicaid’s Protections for Spouses

Spouses of Medicaid nursing home residents have special protections to keep them from becoming impoverished.

READ MORE
Medicaid Planning Strategies

Careful planning for potentially devastating long-term care costs can help protect your estate, whether for your spouse or for your children.

READ MORE
Estate Recovery: Can Medicaid Take My House After I’m Gone?

If steps aren't taken to protect the Medicaid recipient's house from the state’s attempts to recover benefits paid, the house may need to be sold.

READ MORE
Help Qualifying and Paying for Medicaid, Or Avoiding Nursing Home Care

There are ways to handle excess income or assets and still qualify for Medicaid long-term care, and programs that deliver care at home rather than in a nursing home.

READ MORE
Are Adult Children Responsible for Their Parents’ Care?

Most states have laws on the books making adult children responsible if their parents can't afford to take care of themselves.

READ MORE
Applying for Medicaid

Applying for Medicaid is a highly technical and complex process, and bad advice can actually make it more difficult to qualify for benefits.

READ MORE
Alternatives to Medicaid

Medicare's coverage of nursing home care is quite limited. For those who can afford it and who can qualify for coverage, long-term care insurance is the best alternative to Medicaid.

READ MORE
ElderLaw 101
Estate Planning

Distinguish the key concepts in estate planning, including the will, the trust, probate, the power of attorney, and how to avoid estate taxes.

READ MORE
Grandchildren

Learn about grandparents’ visitation rights and how to avoid tax and public benefit issues when making gifts to grandchildren.

READ MORE
Guardianship/Conservatorship

Understand when and how a court appoints a guardian or conservator for an adult who becomes incapacitated, and how to avoid guardianship.

READ MORE
Health Care Decisions

We need to plan for the possibility that we will become unable to make our own medical decisions. This may take the form of a health care proxy, a medical directive, a living will, or a combination of these.

READ MORE
Estate Planning

Distinguish the key concepts in estate planning, including the will, the trust, probate, the power of attorney, and how to avoid estate taxes.

READ MORE
Grandchildren

Learn about grandparents’ visitation rights and how to avoid tax and public benefit issues when making gifts to grandchildren.

READ MORE
Guardianship/Conservatorship

Understand when and how a court appoints a guardian or conservator for an adult who becomes incapacitated, and how to avoid guardianship.

READ MORE
Health Care Decisions

We need to plan for the possibility that we will become unable to make our own medical decisions. This may take the form of a health care proxy, a medical directive, a living will, or a combination of these.

READ MORE
Long-Term Care Insurance

Understand the ins and outs of insurance to cover the high cost of nursing home care, including when to buy it, how much to buy, and which spouse should get the coverage.

READ MORE
Medicare

Learn who qualifies for Medicare, what the program covers, all about Medicare Advantage, and how to supplement Medicare’s coverage.

READ MORE
Retirement Planning

We explain the five phases of retirement planning, the difference between a 401(k) and an IRA, types of investments, asset diversification, the required minimum distribution rules, and more.

READ MORE
Senior Living

Find out how to choose a nursing home or assisted living facility, when to fight a discharge, the rights of nursing home residents, all about reverse mortgages, and more.

READ MORE
Social Security

Get a solid grounding in Social Security, including who is eligible, how to apply, spousal benefits, the taxation of benefits, how work affects payments, and SSDI and SSI.

READ MORE
Special Needs Planning

Learn how a special needs trust can preserve assets for a person with disabilities without jeopardizing Medicaid and SSI, and how to plan for when caregivers are gone.

READ MORE
Veterans Benefits

Explore benefits for older veterans, including the VA’s disability pension benefit, aid and attendance, and long-term care coverage for veterans and surviving spouses.

READ MORE