If you or a loved one has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, it is important to start planning immediately. There are several essential documents to help you once you become incapacitated, but if you don’t already have them in place, you need act quickly after a diagnosis.

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. A survey by two consumer groups found that prices between funeral homes varied widely and getting information about pricing was difficult.

How you structure the required minimum distributions can have a profound effect on your own retirement and on what you leave your heirs.

A once-popular estate planning tool may now cost families more in taxes than it saves. Changes in the estate tax have made the “bypass trust” a less appealing option for many families.

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.

As long-term care insurance premiums rise and fewer companies offer policies, alternatives to traditional long-term care insurance policies are springing up.

Increased dependency due to illness, disability or cognitive impairments can make seniors susceptible to financial abuse.

Time is running out to use a potentially very lucrative Social Security benefits-claiming strategy. Spouses will no longer be able to use the “file and suspend” strategy after April 29, 2016. Beware, however, that the new rules are causing confusion at some Social Security offices.

For those of us who do not regularly practice elder law and Medicaid planning, there was a significant change to the State Medicaid policy, referred to as the Bridges Eligibility Manual, or the BEM’s. The rules are all easily accessible on-line at www.mich.gov or simply google search Bridges Eligibility Manual and the proper site will be at the top.