VA Appeals Process Update

The Appeals Modernization Act (AMA) of 2017 gave Veterans a greater choice in how to disagree with a VA claim decision. Giving Veterans more choice has been a top priority for VA. Cheryl Mason, the Chairman of the Board of Veterans’ Appeals, joined Ashleigh Barry on a special edition of VA News to take a deeper…

The Secure Act: Big Changes for Beneficiaries

The Secure Act or THE SETTING EVERY COMMUNITY UP FOR RETIREMENT ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2019  was passed in late-December and is effective as of January 1, 2020. In our last newsletter we talked about retirement distributions. We will now look at how the Secure Act will affect beneficiaries and what we can do to work around…

The Secure Act: How It Changes Estate Planning

The Secure Act or THE SETTING EVERY COMMUNITY UP FOR RETIREMENT ENHANCEMENT ACT OF 2019  was passed in late-December and is effective as of January 1, 2020 (with some exceptions, we will discuss later.) In the coming weeks we will be discussing what the Secure Act is and how it is going to affect all of…

10 Bills Brought by Senate and House VA Committees, all pass

Here is the full list of bills passed today, Tuesday, October 29, 2019: A.N.S. to H.R. 4771 (Rep. Cunningham) to permit appellants to appear in disability compensation cases before the Board of Veterans Appeals by picture and voice transmission from locations other than VA facilities; Sponsored by Rep. Cunningham H.R. 4852 (Rep. Torres) the GIVE…

The Uniform Electronic Wills Act: Benefits and Concerns

By Jill Roamer, J.D., Eldercounsel Once upon a time, the legal field relied on face-to-face interactions, loads of paper files, and gallons and gallons of ink. This is not so in the current day and age. Our legal documents were once handwritten, then typed and printed, and are now becoming a series of ones and…