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Most counties in California including San Diego have suspended the issuance of marriage licenses for same sex couples after California voters passed Proposition 8 on Tuesday. Proposition 8 amends the California constitution to limit marriage to a union between a man and a woman.

Back in May of this year, the California Supreme Court ruled that such a ban was unconstitutional. Approximately 18,000 marriages have taken place between June when the decision became final through November 4. What happens to the validity of those marriages? California Attorney General Jerry Brown has said that since the amendment will not be retroactive, those marriages will be valid. He also has indicated the State will defend the validity of those marriages in court if they are challenged.

Expect there to be legal challenges to the Proposition. Attorney Gloria Allred, who filed the original suit that resulted in the Supreme Court ruling, has in fact already filed a lawsuit on the basis that the amendment authorized by the passage of Prop 8 is unconstitutional. A coalition of gay rights advocacy groups and the American Civil Liberties Union have also petitioned the California Supreme Court. Some pundits believe the issue may go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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At Law Office of Scott C. Soady, A Professional Corporation, we want to make sure our clients and other seniors in San Diego are aware of matters important to them. Medicare is the nation’s largest health care plan covering nearly 40 million Americans. From November 15 until the end of the year is the Annual Election Period (AEP). Those eligible for Medicare or those already enrolled can change their enrollment in or out of Medicare Part D and Part C.

If you currently are on Medicare you know that there are four parts. Most people with Medicare have Part A which is basically hopsital coverage and Part B which covers doctors and oher practicioners. Part C is the Medicare Advantage Plans under which Medicare pays a private insurance company to administer your Medicare benefits. Part D is the prescription drug coverage.

Many people will receive information from the Advantage companies before November 15 advising them of any intended changes to existing plans in 2009. This may be called an Annual Notice of Change. If you receive information that your plan is changing, you should review it carefully in order to make an intelligent decision on whether to enroll or remain in the Medicare Advantage Plans. At the Medicare website you can read about the various plans and the step by step process of the decision making in the Medicare Handbook for 2009. National Care Planning Council also has information on the Medicare approved advantage plans in California.

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San Diego is home to many retirees and others who love to travel. The U.S. Dept. of State has useful information about traveling abroad. At their website you can access information about passports, registering your travel abroad, taking medicines on your trip, customs and import information, and immunizations required for various areas.

You can also check the website for what travel warning and alerts are in effect for a specific country. A Travel Warning is a warning against travel to certain countries where a condition may make the country dangerous or unstable. Currently, some of the countries listed with Travel Warnings are Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Colombia, Nepal, and Somalia.

Travel Alerts are issued for usually short term conditions such as a natural disaster, a coup, or acts of terrorism. Countries under a Travel Alert at this time are Mexico, China, Comoros, and the Arabian Peninsula.

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San Diego is 5th on a list of cities with the biggest decline in home values, behind Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. The median price of a home in San Diego this month is $380,000 down 20% from a year ago. Hit hard by the increase in foreclosures are the neighborhoods of City Heights, Chula Vista, Encanto, Oceanside, Spring Valley, and Escondido.

If you believe the value of your property has fallen below its assessed value, you can file an Application for Changed Assessment with the Clerk of the Board of Supervisors for San Diego County. There are many companies sending mailers to homeowners offering to do this for a fee, often as much as $300. You can of course use these services if you choose, but it costs nothing to do it yourself.

Download the application and file it as soon as possible but no later than December 1, 2008. You should include with the application supporting documentation such as an appraisal, comparable sales in your neighborhood, or other information to help determine the value of your property. Under California law, Prop 8 passed in 1978, a temporary reduction in asssessed value can be made whenever the market value falls below the assessed value. The assessor’s office will re-evaluate the reduction yearly.

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Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s 5 month old son who has Down Syndrome has caused an increase in public awareness about children with special needs. Special needs children are those that need extra care whether because of a developmental disability, autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation, or other physical or mental condition. Many parents in San Diego County have children with special needs and know all too well about the extra care they require, the government benefits they rely on, and the financial challenges they face.

Many families with special needs children need to rely on Medi-Cal or Social Security to help with the high cost of health care. This financial support can continue throughout the child’s life. Parents and grandparents of special needs children and adults may want to provide for their disabled loved ones in their will or trust but they do not want to jeopardize the individual’s eligibility for public benefits. A Supplemental Needs Trust is the answer.

A Supplemental Needs Trust (often called a Special Needs Trust) enable a person with a physical or mental disability to have assets held in a trust and those assets will not be considered countable assets for purposes of qualifying for certain government benefits. Supplemental needs that can be paid for by the trust may be such items as special medical equipment, dental needs, eyeglasses, recreation, entertainment, transporation, computer equipment, or special dietary needs.

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The simple answer is “you can” but why would you want to? You may have seen the commercial on TV where a man is on the phone with his doctor who is telling him how to operate on himself and the man says “shouldn’t you be doing this?”

There are many web sites today that offer inexpensive estate planning documents you can download. There is also software available to write your own will or trust. The problem with doing it yourself is that you don’t have the experience, training, and knowledge to know whether you have done a good job and the effect of not doing a good job can be devastating. Many “boilerplate” trusts and other documents contain language that is inappropriate for your situation. Estate planning is not “one size fits all.”

When you hire an experienced estate planning lawyer you are not only paying for the document itself but the training and experience that goes into a properly drafted document. The attorney knows what questions to ask to assist you with decisions such as whether you want clauses about distributions to minors and at what intervals, duty to provide accounts and reports, how to distribute assets if a beneficiary predeceases the trustor, and what clauses are necessary to protect the estate from estate taxes. Deeds need to be prepared to record your real property with the County Recorder and a Preliminary Change of Ownership form needs to be filled out correctly to avoid reappraisal.

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When someone dies, estate taxes have to be paid if the estate is large enough. Under the current law, the federal estate tax exemption is $2 million. This means that no estate taxes will have to be paid on estates under $2 million and for couples, assets of less than $4 million would be exempt from estate taxes.

The exemption is set to increase to $3.5 million in 2009, disappear entirely in 2010, and revert back to $1 million in 2011.

Now that the Presidential candidates have been narrowed to McCain and Obama, where do they stand on this issue? John McCain is in favor of raising the exemption to $5 million. Senator Obama proposes a $3.5 million exemption. The other difference is that McCain would cut the tax rate from 45% to 15%. Obama is in favor of keeping the tax rate at 45%.

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The Governor recently signed California Senate bill 483 which will bring some major changes to the Medi-Cal Long Term Care program. This bill was designed to put California in conformance with the Federal Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 which requires states to place limitations on Medi-Cal eligibility or risk loss of federal funding. The bill will go into effect January 1, 2009 and will have an impact on hundreds of thousands of seniors and individuals with disabilities or mental health issues.

The bill will change the look back period in California from 30 months to 60 months and makes the penalty period start when an applicant is in a nursing home and applies for benefits. (The look back period is the time within which Medi-Cal can review transfers of assets.)

The bill also limits the equity in the exempt home to $750,000 and defines “equity interest” as the assessed value or appraised value, whichever is lower, minus encumbrances. The home equity limits do not apply however in certain circumstances.

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In San Diego we are familiar with Santa Ana conditions and a lengthy fire season from May through October. The communities of Rancho Bernardo, Poway, Rancho Santa Fe, Ramona, and Escondido still have not completely recovered from last year’s Witch Fire. Are you more educated now than you were a year ago about fire and fire readiness?

Here are some useful links:

1. Cal Fire (California Dept. of Forestry and Fire Prevention) has information about fire prevention and current California fires and trouble spots.

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San Diego, CA 92128
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