Technical-Legal Confluence News

Filial responsibility laws, on the books in about 28 states, could require adult children to support their parents (and, more rarely, other relatives) in case of impoverishment. The largest practical danger is that states could start enforcing these laws in relation to Medicaid nursing home stays when the adult children have assets.

Although not literally a “technical-legal” topic, it certainly has a bearing on the capacity of adults to run their own lives, so I’m providing a quick rundown here.

Here are some typical state laws:

California:
Family Law: link.

Indiana
Duty to furnish support for parents: link

Iowa:

“Parents and children liable” link

“Remote relatives: link

Maryland:
Family Law: link

Massachusetts:

“Neglect or refusal to support parent” link

Ohio:
“Non Support or contributing to non-support of dependents” link

Pennsylvania:
Position paper by parent: discussion of move from welfare code to family code .

South Dakota:

“Adult child’s duty to support parent when necessary” link

Adult child’s right of contribution from brothers and sisters for support of parent link

Utah:
Order in which relatives are liable: link

Virginia
Support of parents by children: link

There are also some laws that govern how many years back a government can look back when some who goes into a nursing home doles out money in advance. They are pretty complex, and they were tightened recently.

Medicaid Lookback Period: Sect 6011 here, Sect 6011.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 11th, 2008 at 7:33 am and is filed under filial responsibility laws. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.