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Health & Fitness

Shredding Event Saturday, June 22, 2013 at L.M. High School

Saturday, June 22, 2013, State Representative Tim Briggs is sponsoring a shredding event 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the Lower Merion High School

On Saturday, June 22, 2013, State Representative Tim Briggs is sponsoring a shredding event. The event will take place 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the Lower Merion High School, 301 E. Montgomery Ave., Ardmore, PA.

 I encourage you to bring your old, outdated records to this event. While shredders are pervasive, their life expectancy (except for the very expensive ones) is limited. By attending this event, you might save the cost of that shredder which would burn out after a few hours of heavy use.

 I mention one important caveat for seniors. Never shred any financial records less than five years old. Instead, retain all expense receipts, cancelled checks, bank statements, bills, insurance and tax records for the last five years.

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 These records are essential should you ever need to apply for Medicaid. I and most other accountants are used to assembling five years’ worth of records in order to assist in a Medicaid application. It’s a lot easier when the client has shoe boxes full of records, than it is writing to and paying banks to obtain copies of financial records. In some cases banks merge and those records are hard to find.

 Not everyone plans to make application for Medicaid. Our office recently completed a Medicaid application for an individual who previously worked at a local school district. She had Medicare, supplemental medical insurance, and some savings for retirement. After a few weeks in a hospital, she was sent to a nursing home, because she could not live home alone. Medicare coverage ran out. She found herself liquidating  savings to pay the monthly $9,000. nursing home bill. Once down to $8,000. in savings, she applied for Medicaid. We were able to eventually get her back home, but only after months of expensive nursing home care.

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 Some accountants might advise you to save records for six years because that is the period in which you may be audited and assessed after filing a tax return.

 But anything older than that might be a candidate for the shredding event this weekend.

 Stay well until the next post. 

Bob Gasparro

Bob Gasparro is an Elder Practitioner (accountant and attorney). He can be reached at Robert.Gasparro@lifespanlegal.com or (484) 297-2050. Comments to this post, and ideas for future posts are welcome.

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