Top 12 Blog Posts Of 2009

Listed below are the 12 articles in my blog with the highest readership in 2009. They are an eclectic group of posts, covering a variety of subjects such as power of attorney law, Social Security benefits and Medicare, Veterans Compensation and Pension benefits, estate and gift tax law, guardianship cases and Medicaid planning. The original post date, along with a short summary of the content of each post, are included after each hyperlinked title.

New Statutory Short Form Power Of Attorney And New Major Gifts Rider Form Now Available For New York State – August 21, 2009. This was, by far, the most popular blog post in 2009. In it, I described two New York statutory forms: the new New York Power of Attorney form and the new Major Gifts Rider form.  I also made the new forms available for download.

https://vanarellilaw.com/?p=2758#more-2758 Stimulus Payment for Social Security Recipients to Arrive in May’s Mail – March 27, 2009. This post described the one-time economic recovery payment of $250 payable to Social Security, Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) beneficiaries.

https://vanarellilaw.com/?p=2579 Social Security’s Disability Backlog: Economic Stimulus Package May Help – February 26, 2009. Describes the provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka the stimulus bill) which address the dramatic increase expected in Social Security retirement and disability claims.

The Basics of VA Pension Benefits – January 27, 2009. Here, I wrote about the difference between VA compensation and pension benefits, and I summarized the financial eligibility requirements for VA pension benefits.

VA Compensation Claims and the “Medical Nexus” Requirement – April 23, 2009. This article discusses the evidence needed by a veteran to establish the “medical nexus”, or service connection, criteria of a VA compensation claim; that is, the evidence sufficient to prove that a particular injury or disease resulting in disability was incurred coincident with service in the Armed Forces, or if preexisting such service, was aggravated in the service.

Annual Estate and Gift Tax Exclusions in 2009 – February 3, 2009. In this short post, readers were told about the annual estate and gift tax exclusions in 2009.

Overview of the VA Compensation Claims Process – March 30, 2009. This post briefly describes the VA claims process, from filing at the VA’s regional office through the various levels of administrative and judicial appeals.

https://vanarellilaw.com/?p=301 NJ Medicaid is now denying eligibility if the applicant engages in Medicaid estate planning with the intent of achieving eligibility for benefits, holding that the motivation of the applicant determines whether the applicant is or is not eligible. This ruling is plainly contrary to settled NJ law – May 22, 2008. I know I went a little overboard on the title of this post. It gets the point across, doesn’t it? The great part is that the decision was reversed on appeal.

https://vanarellilaw.com/?p=2560 Obama Plans to Freeze the Federal Estate Tax at Current Levels and to Make the Estate Tax Marital Deduction “Portable” – February 25, 2009. Here I summarized several articles in the Wall Street Journal about the Obama Administration’s plan to amend the federal estate tax law.

https://vanarellilaw.com/?p=1939 Top 10 (Actually 14) New Jersey Guardianship / Elder Law / Medicaid and Public Benefits Planning Cases – January 15, 2009. In this post, I attempted to identify the top 10 New Jersey cases in the areas of guardianship law, elder law, Medicaid law and Public Benefits planning, but I could not reduce the number of significant cases to fewer than 14.

https://vanarellilaw.com/?p=1999 The Basics of VA Compensation Benefits and the Effect that the receipt of VA Compensation will have upon Eligibility for SSI and Medicaid Benefits – January 26, 2009. Want to know if the receipt of VA compensation benefits will affect your eligibility for SSI and Medicaid? This post will provide the answer.

https://vanarellilaw.com/?p=2936 Two Year Waiting Period For Medicare Eligibility Under Social Security Disability Program Would Gradually Disappear In Proposed Legislation – April 17, 2009. There is currently a two-year waiting period from the day that an applicant for Social Security disability benefits begins receiving benefits to the date that the applicant can receive Medicare benefits. This post describes a proposed law, the Ending the Medicare Disability Waiting Act of 2009, which would phase out the two-year waiting period.

Listed below are the 12 articles on my blog with the highest readership in 2009. They are an eclectic group of posts, covering a variety of subjects such as power of attorney law, Social Security benefits and Medicare, Veterans Compensation and Pension benefits, estate and gift tax law, guardianship cases and Medicaid planning. The original post date, along with a short summary of the content of each post, are included after each hyperlinked title.