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THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, February 7, 2025 Page 19 OBITUARIES Ann Louise Riley-Ellis Of Malden. Passed away peacefully, surrounded by her children and loved ones, on January 30, 2025 at the age of 75. Ann was a lifetime resident of Malden. She dedicated years of her life as a special education teacher at the Medford elementary public schools. She was loved by all her students and staff and developed many meaningful bonds that extended outside of the classroom. In addition to education, Ann was passionate about art, history and animals. She adopted and fostered many cats, including those that were disabled, sick, or nearing end of life and was involved with The Kitty Connection in Medford. She always provided animals with special care, love, and patience. She often donated to organizations that help to save animals from abuse, endangerment, or provide them with safe and loving homes. On several occasions she symbolically “adopted” an animal as a gift to her grandchildren to help with global efforts to protect wild animals and their habitats. Ann was a funny, loving, and true-to-self mother, grandmother, daughter, sister, and friend. She had a great appreciation for humor and believed laughter was the key for resilience throughout life. Some of her most fond memories were her summers spent at Hampton Beach. She enjoyed crashing with the waves, reading in her beach chair, and watching her grandchildren playing on the beach. Ann felt a special connection with music and was a beautiful piano player throughout her life. Ann is the loving mother of Moira A. McKenna, Joseph P. Ellis and his wife Linda; Cherished grandmother of Kayla, Christopher, Shannon, Michael, and John (Jack) McKenna; Adored sister of Mary Murphy and husband Kevin, Norman Riley, and Eileen Riley. She is the beloved daughter of late Geraldine (Gerry) A. (Grogan) and William P. Riley, whom we know welcome her with loving arms. She will be deeply missed by everyone who was blessed enough to know her. Funeral services will take place at the A. J. Spadafora Funeral Home, 865 Main Street, Malden on Friday February 7th. visiting hours are from 9:30 - 11:30 am, followed by a Mass of Christian burial at St. Joseph’s Church, 770 Salem Street, Malden at 12:00pm, prior to the Committal Service at Forest Dale Cemetery. Funeral Repast is at Spinelli’s Function Facility in Peabody at 2pm. Family and friends are invited. In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to an animal charity to continue Ann’s passion for helping and protecting animals. We kindly ask that you choose from one of the organizations below or donate to a local charity. World Wild Life https://www. worldwildlife.org, World Animal Protection https://www.worldanimalprotection.org or International Fund for Animal Welfare https://www.ifaw.org Waclaw "Wally" Kusmierz A longtime resident of Malden. Passed away on Sunday, February 2nd, at the age of 61, after a brief illness. Waclaw was born in Boston in 1963, the son of Eugene and Sophie (Misiag) Kusmierz. He spent much of his childhood in South Boston, before the family moved to Malden in 1978. There he completed his education graduating from Malden High School with the Class of 1982. He went on to become a Building Mechanic, handling all aspects of maintenance for first the Annemark Nursing Home, and then Advinia Health care. Both at work and at home, he was a Mr. Fixit, and could repair pretty much anything from plumbing to electronics. He was especially skilled with anything electrical, and would build his on home security systems as well has his own computers. He will always be remembered for his strong work ethic. He is survived by his sisters, Grazyna “Grace” Plewinski of Malden, Wanda Lycak of Malden, and Jacqueline “Jackie” Plewa of M Malden, his nice Natalia Llorca of Malden, and his very dear friend Alex Schiava. Funeral Services was held from the Weir-MacCuish Golden Rule Funeral Home, Malden on Wednesday, February 5th, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial in the Immaculate Conception Church, Malden. Interment to follow in Holy Cross Cemetery, Malden. COMMUNITY SPOUSE PROTECTION OF ASSETS Therefore, in Massachusetts, the entire $157,920 may be kept and no spend down is necessary. The income of the communiedicaid (MassHealth in Massachusetts) law provides certain protections for the spouse of a nursing home resident in order to make sure he or she has the minimum support necessary to live in the community. If the MassHealth applicant is married, the countable assets of both the community spouse and institutionalized spouse are totaled as of the date of “institutionalization”, the day on which the ill spouse enters either a hospital or a longterm care facility in which he or she then stays for at least 30 days. This is also commonly referred to as the “snapshot” date because MassHealth is taking a picture of the couple’s assets as of this date. For calendar year 2025, the community spouse may keep up to a maximum of $157,920. Called the “community spouse resource allowance”, this is the most that a state may allow a community spouse to retain without a hearing or a court order. Example: If a couple has $159,920 in countable assets on the date the applicant enters a nursing home, the institutionalized spouse will be eligible for MassHealth. The community spouse may keep $157,920 in his or her own name while the institutionalized spouse may keep up to $2,000 in his or her own name. ty spouse will continue undisturbed. He or she will not have to use his or her income to support the nursing home spouse receiving MassHealth benefits. What if most of the couple’s income is in the name of the institutionalized spouse, and the community spouse’s income is not sufficient to live on? In such cases, the community spouse is entitled to some or all of the monthly income of the institutionalized spouse. How much the community spouse is entitled to depends on what MassHealth determines to be the minimum income level for the community spouse. This figure, known as the minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance or MMMNA, is calculated for each community spouse according to a complicated formula based on his or her housing costs. From July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025, the MMMNA may range from a low of $2,555 to a high of $3,948. If the community spouse’s income falls below his or her MMMNA, the shortfall is made up from the nursing home spouse’s income. In some instances community spouses may seek to retain more of the couple’s countable assets and/or some of the institutionalized spouse’s income by asking for a Fair Hearing with MassHealth. The spousal resource allowance is adjusted on January 1st of each year. It is important to know that for a married couple, there may not be a need to transfer assets directly to the children if the countable assets are at or below the $157,920 figure and one spouse is healthy and at home. Planning ahead of time with married couples is very important from an asset protection standpoint. Avoiding an unnecessary spend down is often critical in terms of maintaining some sense of financial stability for the community spouse. It is important to know all of the options available to you under the law. For example, there are numerous key exceptions to certain asset transfers that would otherwise constitute a disqualifying transfer under MassHealth rules. It is important to know whether or not you might fall under one of these exceptions. Obtaining MassHealth eligibility is no easy task. Caseworkers are often overburdened and many times take a long time before they even start to work on reviewing the application and all of the supporting documentation. Invariably, the caseworker will send out a Request For Information once the initial review of the application is completed. Denial notices are issued all of the time. Once a denial notice is issued, you must then file an appeal in order to preserve your initial application date and your benefit start date. It is submitted to the Board of Hearings. Most often, an appeal can be withdrawn upon providing the additional information requested by the caseworker and an agreement by the caseworker to approve the application. Joseph D. Cataldo is an estate planning/elder law attorney, Certified Public Accountant, Certified Financial Planner, AICPA Personal Financial Specialist and holds a master’s degree in taxation.

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