well today we have with us nancy k v we're very fortunate because she is an attorney for thirty six years specializing in getting disabled people there are insurance claims approved thank you so much for joining us now and saying please tell us there's so many different types of law what makes you specialize in getting people who have disabilities their claims approved my father own an insurance brokerage business in maryland and after he came back from world war two and started this business he purchased a disability insurance policy that he'd never need to have that policy well unfortunately he became disabled and i saw him struggle with that difficult decision to stop working and apply for disability benefits so i've seen firsthand what it's like to stop working and apply for disability and all of the emotional and financial issues that go along with it and that's why i decided i'd be a disability attorney well i'm really happy that you do this because i've personally have met people and some of these are professionals i know someone who is actually a c p a who is significantly disabled but even with very physical an obvious disability he was unable to get his aflame approved without intervention by especially as an attorney so i really applaud you for choosing this area of expertise to practice and i just want to ask you this is very important there has to be and what is the golden rule of disability that the carriers need to follow and every claim well let me tell you what they actually follow all of those steps but i know this the insurance companies are in the business of collecting premiums and buying real estate there is they are they want to make money the golden rule is they take your gold and they rule that you're not entitled to your disability benefits that's the golden rule that disability insurance carriers apply to most disability insurance claims but isn't that every insurance company they want to collect their monthly premiums but they don't like paying out for when they claim needs to be approved how is it any different well when you buy disability insurance policy you're buying peace of mind for your financial security for yourself and your family and you expect that the disability insurance carrier is going to pay you the disability benefits you think that when you fill out that application and you send it in there's going to be a fed ex check that actually of life is not that fluid uneasier no it isn't and you know i see that the disability insurance carriers will prey on disability applicants because there are three don't mistakes that applicants will make would you like to know what they are i would love to know what they are kind of why we're here right to know and get things done and approved we need to help people through their crisis so i think of it as p m p what does that mean the first mistakes the people make involve the policy they don't know what that is in their policy but one of the key terms in a disability insurance policy is something called discretionary clause you know what that is i don't need to tell me that discretionary clause says that the disability insurance company gets the right to not only decide the terms of the policy but whether or not you're disabled and it becomes a golden handcuff that prevents a federal judge from overturning that disability nille it's really tough if you've got that discretionary handcuff clause and the disability insurance policy what is the third well let's talk about the second oh we're still on the second the second the second problem is that people just don't understand what's in their medical records and whether their doctor supports their claim that as a result of not knowing what's in that medical record many times people will pick the wrong date to become disabled or they may think that the doctor supports their claim but when the doctors asked to fill out these forms called attending physician statement forms the doctor says they can work and the last time or the worst time you want to find out that your doctor doesn't support your claim is when that doctor's filling out attending physician statement forms for you why would a doctor not work with the patient they're helping doctors didn't go to medical school to learn how to write reports for disability insurance companies they're interested in practicing medicine that's one of the things i want the disability applicant to know before they apply for disability benefits does your doctor support your claim and will that doctor fill out that attending physician statement form do you find physicians are willing to discuss it with the or client or their patient on how to help them facilitate a successful claim sometimes most doctors do have their own disability insurance policies so they're familiar with disability insurance but i think that it's important that you ask that question because if you get an answer and the doctor says well no i either don't support your claim or i won't fill out those forms i have to tell my clients it's time for you to find another a to another doctor you know you may have the best doctor in the world but if the doctor doesn't support your claim then you don't have a case but why would a doctor refused to fill out these forms don't they have an obligation to help their patient well they do have an obligation but no one is holding a gun to their head to say yes you've got to fill out these forms so unfortunately there are times when doctors just won't cooperate but you need to know that before you apply for disability it is a so unconscionable why anyone would harm to me that's harming someone to just field of to live in peace their bills well another mistake that i see applicants make is i call it the practical problems and can you imagine what those practical problems are how could it be practical what would those problems look like well you have a cell phone right of course tell me oh and what do you do on your cell phone everything there's my phone right and they're smart and you play games and you do social media like facebook so one of the things i suggest  you turn off all of your social media and in fact that you don't let your relatives comment about you or post photographs because disability insurance carriers will do an investigation of your social media posting so i tell my clients not a know we are going to pull the plug and you're going to be disconnected from social media that's an excellent tip very hurt that so many problems can arise by divulging too much of your day to day on social media for a variety of reasons can you just give me one example of a claim that sticks out in your head before we have to wrap up sir i've had the honor of representing a female marine corps major who had a distinguished service and when she retired she became employed at a defense for in washington d c unfortunately she had a stroke and when she applied for disability benefits the insurance company said it's all in your head it's horrible it's psychiatric it's not organic ultimately we filed an appeal we filed a lawsuit and for the first time vivian the disability insurance carrier got to meet my client and i said to them range don't cry so you do a great benefit not just every american who ends up being your client but to those who have served keeping america safe thank you so much nancy that is extremely informative to everyone who needs  of the year award for two thousand and sixteen in the state of new jersey congratulations danell that's a fantastic achievement thank you and to bell specifically practices employment and education will and counsels clients who are generally company owners managers schools and school districts on how to address disability and disability accommodations in the context of work and school to now i really appreciate because i know this affects perhaps what jude's of thousands of new jerseyans and of course people from around the area because of course a lot of new york new jersey and so much of this area intermingled so this really does affect the large established in one nine hundred ninety to offer broad protection to individuals with disabilities and by broad protections what i mean is that the eighty eight not only prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities but it includes an affirmative obligation to offer reasonable accommodations to disabled individuals you know when you say reasonable accommodation so we're talking naturally at work and school so there my question lies would decides what is reasonable is there a panel somewhere is that the government who does make that judgement call of what is deemed to be reasonable because for example what is the percentage of small business owners in the cereal i believe it's something effective around thirty to thirty five percent of the population is a small business owner and of course it's an average of forty five percent of the workforce employed by small business owners so this is quite substantial numbers so but fortunately a lot of accommodations could be potentially cost prohibitive so who has the right is it the small business owner that by hiring someone who might have a handicap that might not even be obvious what happens if they don't make the succumb edition and  there's all kinds of accommodations what if they have a and i've even heard about this a comfort animal i mean there's all kind of for somebody who may have a psychological challenge and when you hire someone like that as a small business owner this disability is not visible it's not as if they're walking in with a cane or wheelchair that's visible so could that be something that could happen in the workplace or at school so there are a lot of questions that were built into that and i'll try to tease them apart as i address them in portions but i'll start with the number first of all if you're right a lot of potential combinations could be quite cost prohibitive for employers and that is part of the analysis so no it's not going to be the case that employee can you know simply dictate some extraordinary you know accommodation and then on their own the the employer is obligated to fulfill that obligation it's it's quite a ways away from that but i'll start with first of all who needs to comply with this it's not every single small business owner hundred four the idea really applies to employers of fifteen or more employees so starting there what should happen is that the employer is the one who really is obligated more or less to place the employer on notice of the fact that they are and individual with a disability that needs an accommodation and then from that point there needs to be sort of a reasonable discussion a collaboration to figure out what kind of an accommodation is most appropriate for the employee so really the employee and the employer together figure out what the combination ought to be so going into what type of disability can occur so obviously there's money to obvious disability for example if you have a child the sort of example that you're talking about triggers a number of different federal and state statutes when you're talking about a disability as far as the eighty a the a d a s protects individuals who are disabled and by disabled it means that they have a physical or mental impairment so a specific learning disability something like that would qualify as a mental disability but it needs to be one that substantially inhibits a major life activity and so major life activities can be things like walking talking hearing seeing as long as there is one or more of those that are substantially impaired they can be regarded as a disabled individual under the eighty eight in terms of students within an education context there are other laws that come into play such as the i that's the individuals with disabilities act and you referenced a moment ago i e p's those are individual education programs that are designed to help students with their behavioral or mental or learning disabilities so it's a it's a collection of items that are discussed amongst a group of experts within the school who together with the parent sort of figure out how do we address the students learning needs so let me go into now the workplace environment and i actually have a friend who has a child who is autistic ok and unfortunately his wife is not a driver it so he then has to take the time off of work to take his son to appointments for the baby doctor appointments they're looking into a speciali school now he happens to own his own company thank goodness this isn't something has to report to a boss about but let's face it not everyone is going to be self employed with this issue there's a lot of cases where what work is given to someone could maybe be up to the employer's discretion their immediate supervisor is a case where if someone feels that they've been discriminated against because of their home obligations so let same my friend was employed at a traditional company not self employed ok and he had project work he had to take care of perhaps a supervisor deemed that because of having the obligations of taking his son to doctor's appointments he should be given a more prestigious project to work on home and is that possible that that is a discrimination at the workplace because of his child's impediment and his home circumstances while as a indicated before the  protect individuals with disabilities themselves and in this particular scenario what you're suggesting is that the employee is not the disabled person but rather their child is the disabled person and that they may need some sort of accommodation for working or going home rather to take care of their child under the eighty eight there are a lot of accommodations that can be made work schedule flexibility that's one of the things that can be treated as an accommodation for disabled employee let's say if the employee finds that they are being discriminated against or he or she is being discriminated against based on their child's status as a disabled individual then that is something that the actually offers protection for because you know you don't you what the a da does is protect individuals who have known associations or relationships with disabled individuals so that they are not punished based on those known associations or relationships so that someone who is they themselves are not the same but they are a parent for example of a disabled child they would still be afforded those benefits through the a da they are not permitted to be discriminated against based on their relationship with their child or their association with their child so let me ask you this if that does occur and they feel that they were treated differently in the workplace because of that is there potential for discrimination lawsuit there well i mean typically you want to have conversations before you have lawsuits so really though i mean you won't talk to your employer but what if the employer says comes out and says it well this project is very timely and i don't believe you have the time because you have to take your child every tuesday or whatever the case may be and the employee said well if you would just give me a chance i would have found another accommodation somehow some way and they just don't see that they could come to an agreement on that what can someone do in that case is there any kind of recourse so there are a couple of things i think are involved in that question one of the things has to do with the ways that an employer can treat an employee who he perceives to be disabled or who he or she perceives to be affiliated with someone who's disabled they would not be able to discriminate against the employee in terms of hiring promotion job assignments or one of the things right so we the eighty eight does not allow for employees to be discriminated against in any of those areas projects assignments would be included among those things but again if the employee actually thinks that they qualify for  accommodation it would be the employee's obligation to make sure that the employer is aware of any accommodation that he or she might need including work schedule changes to deal with different things so that perhaps they can take on different assignments or limit  commitments in the workplace what i love as your own attorney explaining how we can come to agreement instead of jumping to a lawsuit it's true a lot of you know the practice that i do is litigation but the things that you don't hear about th things are the things that don't become litigious because really this is designed to create a base the reasonable accommodation is a space where employers and employees can sort of figure out what works a lot of times what employers are most concerned with is costs and am i going to not have a person be able to fulfill the obligation that i actually you know hire them to fulfill so those are the concerns are on the employer's mind and we as you know counselors for largely management side employers we help them to think about what are cost effective efficient ways that you can actually still go ahead and accommodate your employee well you are someone as an employer especially when you're looking to minimize because of course as employers they're always worried about employee retention because it is far more expensive to obtain a new employer than it is to accommodate a current employer that they're otherwise happy with thank you very much to now for coming on the show and educating our audience on how to handle any kind of potential conflict with yourself or a family member with a disability thank you for having me vivian thank you so much  our next guest running at each is here to shed some light on helping special needs families keep life simple welcome ron so my first question is can you explain to me how complex having a walk in things are really tense everybody is on you know a pressure type of environment things are flying and there are a lot of expectations and all of a sudden you have to take all the ingredients and you have to kind of make something beautiful so that's what that's what walking into a life of a family who has a child with special needs is like you don't know what you're going to get the families are very unique and very different the individual special needs is very different and the social dynamic of the entire family really shifts and changes depending on how the family handles the situation well so many people talk about a five twenty i'm sure what is a five twenty nine a table account it's fairly new explain the place ok so before explaining that you have to understand there is a new program out there the five tonight a able account is pretty new can you please explain that for us sure but first i'd like to explain why that may be significant to a family has a chill a child with special  order to get services in most all the states and individual special needs has to have a certain amount of a certain amount of need and be on a certain level of poverty line so for the most part under two thousand dollars in assets in order to get benefits so security disability benefits etc so what happens if somebody wanted to getting a gift for us we texting or graduation or a bar  mitzvah that money adds up so where does that money go so the government came up with this idea of having a five twenty nine account where this individual special needs can have up to fourteen thousand dollars a year put in without impacting their services that's great yes as i was i actually have a family member now who was told that noted to get medicaid assistance they had to get rid of almost all their assets similar to the two thousand dollars so is that part of someone's on the cusp is it possible to do a spend down in order to get that qualifying amount you definitely can do is spend down it depends on the family's situation the ideal is to have a special needs family trust that's very expensive and it's not so easy for a family to come up with three to five thousand dollars to create a trust so this is another option for families to be able to save to have that  that they could get the services but there is a little bit of a difference between a special needs trust in the five twenty nine the special needs trust after the trust asked of after the individual expires or dies that that money can get dispersed to anybody and the government doesn't go in and claw it back so i have a relative who have someone with a special needs but she's now an adult could have parents in their seventy's are concerned so we have a twitter thing right now about children but even though this person is an adult if you're talking about a child who is maybe sixteen seventeen even twenty twenty one years old but they don't the parents don't see that child being able to care for themselves do you recommend that because unfortunately people do pass away together parents so what if they're going out together for any reason whatsoever and they have to leave this child with a caretaker do you recommend a special provision in a will as part of being a responsible parent to take care of this child maybe have a trust how do they disperse a large or any size of my me and a will to this child to make sure they're maintained and taken care of ok so there are really two parts of this one part i would say it's important to have another component besides for the well something the families don't do often enough it's called the letter of intent oh what is a letter of intent letter of intent is basically a guide to give the next person who's going to be taking care of your child to be able to fulfill that child's life the way you envision it as complex as their personal habits their personal needs you know johnny you know is having a really tough time going to sleep every single night and no one knows why because mom forgot to tell the person who is caring either in a group home or what or whatever environment that johnny needs his pink pacifier in his left hand over as he will go to sleep or certain you know hygiene care or a certain medical care so the letter of intent is crucial and then side by side to that you definitely want to have a will definitely want to have a will articulating who the money is going towards but if you could afford it ideally you want to have a special needs family trust so there is such any kind of place that they can go to provide resources to get help for this or do they only have the resource of going to an attorney and that's any suggestions on that so i would say families really should reach out to two groups one is arc any any not for profit in the little arc so arc is a not for profit most communities have the focus on families of children special needs providing resources providing workshops they're really amazing and it's also a good opportunity to meet other families in similar type of situation where they could network well so they can have a support group as well as other types of resources provided for them correct correct so families find you know i find a lot of families are under a lot of stress  unfortunately you know divorce right i are insanely special needs so that is a notice just because of course we've had specials on our show previously attorneys and other guests so let me ask you this big and you have more of a pressure cooker situation because of course it's special needs child what i would assume a nightly cost more for the family and be more of a financial burden just the day to day operations do you ever see someone who works a lot frequently with the specialize in this type of family to see more divorce the stress or maybe other financial constraints for example increased domestic violence or perhaps maybe increased likelihood of losing their home because of that financial pressure put on upon them by the special needs child ok so there is definitely pressure financially but there's also pressure socially what i hear a lot is you know from the parents and from the siblings siblings are really key part of this i lose i'm losing self and losing my sense of self i'm not there the sibling is feeling like the entire families revolving around this child where is their place why are people caring for them what is going to happen when mom and dad are not around and i just expected to take care of the child i didn't ask for this why am i in this position so the the social emotional component i find to be really crucial of course there's the financial piece and we're very thankful to organizations like the state and the federal and not for profits that really step in and help guide families through the financial component as well as individuals like myself who focus on families especially it's fantastic now we do have to wrap up so can you have a sister one little quick takeaway on what you'd recommend for parents of disabled children to do what something that they could have is a great resource ok so can you tell me real quick what's the last one last parting pearl of wisdom you can provide get advice get advice or who are they look for advice is a c p a situation is it a attorney situation or it is they just trust that you think that arc is a great place for anyone of any kind of disability because i know it originally stood for association of retired retarded citizens correct correctly but this is a long time ago sort of course they broaden the scope so do you think anyone could go to have they could provide them for their information so i would say arc is one is definitely a backbone in the special needs community getting advice you know if individuals want help with taxes they go to a tax attorney they go to a c individuals want help medically they go to a doctor it's important to seek guidance because you don't have to have this on your plate and that financial pressure can be relieved if you get the right support great thank you so much and i appreciate you coming in and saying there's help our viewing audience