The Department of Labor has issued new rules aimed at helping those saving for retirement. The rules are intended to prevent financial advisors from steering their clients to bad investments that offer higher payments to the advisor by requiring financial advisers to act in the best interests of their clients.

If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, it is important to start planning immediately.

I have dual power of attorney for my father. At this time there is no beneficiary on one of his life insurance policies and I want to add my son's name as beneficiary. This is what my father would have wanted. Can I do this?

The first of the 75 million baby boomers began turning 70 this year (2016).  Becoming a septuagenarian is a milestone in itself, but it also means that soon the IRS will likely be expecting you to start cashing out your tax-advantaged retirement savings that you may have spent decades building up.  

Do the family of the deceased have the right to be present at a will reading? And are they allowed to receive a copy of the new will that leaves everything to one person in the family instead of divided among the whole family?

If a married couple is on Medicaid and one passes away, causing the survivor's assets to exceed the $2,000 limit (because the survivor begins receiving an increased Social Security benefit), will the survivor lose Medicaid eligibility?

An increasingly popular hybrid product combines life insurance with long-term care coverage and offers buyers solutions to a number of problems that have kept people from buying traditional long-term care policies.  

My dad has been in a nursing home for about four years. My brother made payments on my father's house for eight years, and I started making them three years ago. I wanted to pay his house loan off and list him and myself on the title but I am concerned how this will affect my dad. Will Medicaid consider this an asset and stop his Medicaid payments? How am I protected for the payments that I have been making for the last few years? I am paying the loan off so there is no sale of the property for a profit. We cannot afford to have his Medicaid stopped and pay the nursing home so I want to make sure that I am doing the right things.

With a special needs trust that requires Medicaid to be paid back following the beneficiary’s death, what is the statute of limitations for that repayment? If Medicaid has not asked to be paid back, when can the proceeds be distributed?

A growing problem with adult guardianship abuse is causing calls to reform the system. Vulnerable elderly can get caught in the guardianship system, being harmed and exploited by the very process that is supposed to protect them.

One area that causes a lot of confusion with regard to Medicaid is the look-back period. What exactly does the look-back period mean for Medicaid applicants?

If you've lost a loved one, the last thing you want to do is spend a lot of time researching funeral homes to find the best prices. Unfortunately, funeral homes do not make it easy to figure out how much a funeral will cost.