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Recap of the March 2010 Membership Meeting: “Financial Issues to Consider for Seniors, and Their Caregivers.”  Panel Moderator, Caryn Isaacs

Author, Annette Fisher  

Caryn Isaacs –Patient Advocate, had a client Francis who was referred by an attorney; Francis and Caryn became very good friends.  Francis was a dietician and the woman behind the development of the NYC School lunch program.  Francis had become very depressed; she had just lost her sister who was her only close relative.  Her nieces and nephews had started to ask Francis about her will, assets and finances.  This is how Francis ended up at the lawyer who referred her to Caryn. Francis told Caryn she wanted to travel and give back to some of the organizations she had been part of over her career.  She did not want the money to go to her nieces and nephews.  She owned a small annuity and her condo. Since the woman had no children she needed some one to help with her affairs, a power of attorney was set up.  Caryn would be able to authorize certain decisions for her.   Francis took out a mortgage on the condo and with the money she was able to travel and donate the money to some of the organizations that were dear to her. Email: info@reli.com

Dolores Mitchell – Wealth Management, spoke of her client nicknamed the cat man.  He was a postal worker with a $ 900 monthly pension, $20,000 left in the bank and it was dwindling away. The cat man was referred to her by one of Dolores’s clients.

The Cat man was having trouble surviving on $900 per month and was in terrible fear of outliving his money.  As the Cat man told the story of his vacation Dolores could hear the fear in his voice as he went on to explain he had 800 shares of community bank @ $10 a share for a total of $8,000 nine years prior. Dolores asked where the certificate for the shares is.  He replied, I think I put it in a safe deposit box. Lucky for the Cat man the stock had split many times over.  The real value was $750,000 or so when Dolores was discussing this with him.  Dolores was excited for the man.  “It was as though the man had hit lotto,” said Dolores.

The Cat man now lives in his apartment with his 15 cats including his beloved midnight.

Dolores converted the man’s fortune into a guaranteed payment for life, which pays him $3300., a month in addition to his pension.  Dolores laughs because shortly after she liquidated the stock it fell to $7.00 per share, and the Cat man didn’t have a clue.  Dolores told this particular story because she realizes there are many people who have no clue what they own. Many times the person who passes is the one who was taking care of the finances and the person left behind just has no clue. Dolores enjoys her work and the reward she feels and the pleasure of seeing the joy she has been able to bring her clients. Phone: 516-642-9810

Mickey Green – Insurance Planning, told a story about Vivian a woman, referred by a fellow life insurance agent. Vivian had been turned down for life insurance many times.  Mickey’s friend figured since Mickey is an insurance broker he would have additional resources to help the woman.  The women had Lymphoma Hodgkin’s disease. The underwriters had many questions and Mickey and the Insurance carrier went back and forth for nearly a year.  Finally the insurance carrier agreed to offer her a policy. 

He also spoke of his mother Trudy, who refused the help of his family. She would not accept financial or medical help offered by Mickey or his brother. Finally they were able to convince his mom to allow an aid to come in for 4 hours a day, which wasn’t much.  Unfortunately his mom had never purchased LTCI; therefore she did not have the coverage necessary to have an aid for more hours.  His mom was also no longer able to take care of her checkbook, since some people had been getting paid twice while others were not getting paid at all.  At this point Mickey ended up taking care of the checkbook.  His mom took a fall and broke her wrist.  Fortunately the Super’s number was on speed dial and the Super had a key to the apartment.  Mickey’s mom phoned the Super and he called 911.  She was at the hospital and was very disoriented.  His family had to make a hard decision.  The family decided to send Trudy to a nursing home where she received Medicaid to pay for it.  Unfortunately his mom passed 6 months later.  A year later they sold her apartment, which now had a 40,000 Medicaid lien on it.  Mickey felt because his mom had not planned for this, she failed to protect her assets. Email: micart@aol.com

Henry Alter – Long Term Care Planning, spoke about long-term care and why we need long-term care insurance, LTCI, and what it means to us.  Henry said he “is really an Advocate for people understanding what their problem really is in terms of meeting the financial side of the coin.  He went on to explain that the money from long-term care is needed to pay for the services provided by all the caretakers in the room.  He spoke about how LTCI fits into an insurance program.  He explained health insurance is for an illness we expect to recover from.  Health insurance does not cover things where you are not going to recover or where you need maintenance.  LTCI provides for the activities of daily living cognitive disease, or where you need some one to stay with you.  He said, His story is twofold, how do you fill that gap.  Do you do it with your own assets, or do you spread the risk or shift the risk to an insurance company.   LTCI isn’t for everybody.”  In closing he spoke of a woman referred to him by a financial rep.   The client lives in NY and works in NJ and owns a house in Fla.  She has no heirs and many assets.  He spoke about where the insurance should be placed; should it be NY, NJ, or, Fla.  He said “there is a lot that goes into the design of a plan and if he got into the detail we would all fall asleep. He said the bottom line is you need to go and look at what is it going to cost. Where is the money going to come from if God forbid somebody in your family, a loved one really needs care?  He said, I’m not talking about a nursing home.  I’m talking about what it costs to stay at home.  Does it really cost less to run out of money and go into a nursing home? Maybe you won’t get the care you need.  People want to be at home, what does it cost, how do you really deal with trying to stay at home?  How do you really finance it? LTC insurance is nothing more than the providing of cash flow to be able to provide the money for the many services that every body in the room deals with.” Email: henryalter@yahoo.com

 Annette Fisher – Certified Senior Advisor, Reverse Mortgage Expert, opened asking what a person might do if they had a client or a loved one who had out-lived their money.  I told 2 stories hoping to give some insight into the world of reverse mortgages.

I spoke of Mr. Paul a blind man, and minister of a Church.  He was previously told he did not qualify for a reverse mortgage.  Since he owed more money than the reverse mortgage would make available there would not be enough funds to pay off his current mortgage and therefore he would not qualify. He had not paid his mortgage for 5 years and therefore the balance had increased over the years. After going back and forth with Mr. Paul, I was able to get the contact info for his attorney. Upon speaking with his attorney and the attorney for his current lender, an offer was made to Mr. Paul where the current lender was willing to subordinate a small mortgage balance of $35,000, behind the reverse mortgage, with no payment and no interest due for 7 years. Unfortunately members of his church advised him the bank was trying to take his house. The night before the closing Mr. Paul called to cancel the closing.  I explained to him that he could make a monthly payment on the 35,000 in order to pay off the mortgage over the seven years.  He still chose not to close and his mortgage was foreclosed.

My second story was about Ms. Ann a woman in Queens who wanted to do a reverse mortgage.  Many reverse mortgage specialists had told Ms. Ann, she would not qualify.  I asked why?  She said her house had fallen drastically in value because of  2 foreclosures on her block.  I left off asking Ms. Ann if I could call her back.  She explained I was wasting my time.  As soon as I hung up, I called an appraiser who explained that 2 foreclosures are not indicative of an entire neighborhood, and they would not be part of the appraisal.  This meant that Ms. Ann’s home value was much higher than she thought.  Ms Ann also had a son, Michael who was helping her with the mortgage, and had added his name to the mortgage the last time she refinanced. Unfortunately this was holding him back from qualifying for a mortgage to buy a home of his own.  He needed to get rid of the mortgage debt on the home in order to qualify for a mortgage on a home of his own. After paying off his Moms mortgage with a reverse mortgage, Michael was able to go on to qualify for a mortgage and a home of his own. Email: annettefisher@brooklynishome.com

Caren Sgarlato – Financial Planner, takes a holistic approach to client’s financial lives.  In the fall of 2008 she received a call from a woman in Fla., who was concerned about her 79-year-old aunt who lived in Coney Island by her self on the 15^th floor of the building.  Caren referred to her as Aunt B.  The women’s niece was trying to get her into an assisted living facility so she would not have to worry about meals and she would have more social activities.  The niece gave Caren the telephone number for her Aunt B., and Caren proceeded to give her a call and made an appointment to meet with her.  Caren felt the woman was lucid and articulate so she continued with her discovery to figure out what she had done in her life, what did she do to get where she is today, and what kind of life would Aunt B. want to have, going forward, not only financially, but emotionally.

Many times the financial panelists, have gone into a situation where discoveries are made, that have such impact on what is going on with a person.  Each of the panelists stands out from many others in our fields because we understand compassion, and possess the willingness to help others, even though we may not financially benefit ourselves.

In order to really help our clients we must all be excellent listeners. We must be able to not only hear what our clients are saying; we need to be able to read our clients and their families. We need to get involved.  I’m honored to be part of a panel of people who really go the extra mile. This is also typical of the other members I have met in my nearly five years as a member of SUNB, and with my experience as the chair of the 2008 SUNB HOPE AWARDS, where we as members honored 30 of Brooklyn’s Finest Volunteers, at Brooklyn Borough Hall.  Nearly 250 people attended the event.  I love being part of SUNB because of the outstanding resources and the compassion I find in my fellow members.  Thank you all for, improving the quality of life for our seniors.

Be well.

Annette

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