THE WAELA WIRE: Information and Updates from the WAELA Board of Directors

July 2021

THE WAELA WIRE

Information and Updates from the WAELA Board of Directors

HOT TOPICS SUMMER WEBINAR SERIES:

The recording of ‘The Secure Act’ webinar, presented by John Creahan, founder of Cairn Law, and originally presented on June 17, 2021, will soon be available for purchase on the WAELA website. If you missed the webinar we hope you will take the opportunity to watch the recording and access the materials.

In the final webinar of the series, on September 16, 2021, Josh Brothers of Brothers & Hender son, P.S. will talk with us about advising families and their adult children with disabilities in, “Transitioning to Adulthood: Advising Families with a Child with Disabilities as Their World Changes.” This is a 1.5 hour presentation, presented via Zoom from 11:00 to 12:30. Josh will provide substantive information, practical tips, and practice pointers in this area of law.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION ARRIVED IN YOUR INBOX THE WEEK OF JULY 26, 2021 – please sign up!

FALL BOOTCAMP & CLE:

The WAELA Programming Committee is working hard to finalize the agenda for the "WAELA Fall Bootcamp & CLE".

MARK YOUR CALENDAR - The programs will be held virtually on Thursday, October 15 and Friday October 16, 2021, as follows:

BOOTCAMP: October 14 from 1:00 – 5:30

CLE: October 15^th from 8:00 – 12:15

CLE Advanced Topics: October 15^th from 1:00 – 5:30

The BOOTCAMP will cover substantive and practical topics for attorneys interested in learning more about Elder and Special Needs law, including overviews of estate planning issues, public benefits, and practice building and management. Please consider inviting your colleagues to attend to learn more about Elder Law.

CLE: We are very happy to announce that David Goldfarb, Director of NAELA Advocacy, will again join us to talk about the numerous legislative issues being addressed at the federal level and NAELA’s advocacy efforts for our clients. Other CLE topics include Gun Trusts, substantive law and drafting of Special Needs Trusts, and the Nuts and Bolts of the new Adult Guardianship Law.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION WILL BE COMING SOON.

2022 UNPROGRAM - SAVE THE DATE:

WAELA is in the planning stages of the 2022 Unprogram with the goal of holding it April 22-24, 2021 at Campbell’s Resort in Chelan, Washington. Feedback from our membership survey overwhelmingly supported meeting in person at this traditional location and members can’t wait to get together! We will, of course, closely follow any issues with the COVID-19 virus and pivot to a virtual platform if necessary.

JOIN THE WAELA BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

DIRECTOR: Three Open Positions for 2022

Every year WAELA members have the opportunity to fill the three Director positions that expire annually (at the completion of a 3-year term). There is no term limit for Directors, so the slate will often include returning Directors and new members interested in participating.

TREASURER: Open Position for 2022

Officer positions are one-year terms. These include President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. Michael Bresson has served WAELA as treasurer for the last 5 years, and will not be running for reelection. We are very grateful to Mike for his service in this capacity. The WAELA board is looking for a member who is willing to serve as WAELA treasurer for 2022.

PLEASE CONSIDER RUNNING FOR THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS.

You may submit your own name or the name of a colleague who is a WAELA member to Carissa Linnane.

The deadline for submitting nominations is October 1, 2021, and the election will be held at the Annual General Meeting on November 9, 2021.

WAELA WEBSITE

Updated by Steve King, Committee Chair

Here are the latest updates to the WAELA website:

2021 CLE Materials - The speaker materials from the 2021 Unprogram are now available for download in the Member Resources section of the site. Even if you didn’t attend the Unprogram, you have access these materials as a WAELA member. We now have all of the speaker materials for WAELA CLEs going back to 2017.

WAELA Wire - Copies of the WAELA Wire going back to April 2020 are also available in the Member Resources section of the site.

Legislative Information - On the Legislative Information page, we now have a spreadsheet of the elder and special needs law-related bills that passed during the 2021 legislative session.

To access the Member Resources section of the site, you will need to set up your member profile.

To set up your profile:

Go to WAELA.org.
Click on the Member Login link at the top of the page.
Click on the register button on the Login page opens. You will then receive an email with your password (your default login ID is your email).

WAELA PUBLIC POLICY COMMITTEE:

Update by Bryana Cross Bean, Committee Chair

Quite a few bills were passed by the state legislature in the session ending April 25, 2021. One bill in particular went into effect on July 25, 2021, and is likely to affect your estate and long-term care planning clients. E2SHB 1277 – titled “Providing for an additional revenue source for eviction prevention and housing stability services,” increases deed recording fees by $100. The purpose of the funds raised from this additional revenue is to provide more money to fund various housing services. The bill created the Eviction Prevention Rental Assistance Program, also known as the Treasury Rent Assistance Program (T-RAP). This program, like the name indicates, seeks to prevent evictions by paying rent for those impacted by the pandemic. More information about T-RAP can be found here.

PLEASE CONSIDER JOINING: We are continuing to seek committee members who practice guardianship law in different areas of the state. The Committee will be meeting on the first Thursday of each month from 12:00 to 1:00; the next meeting is Thursday, August 5, 2021. We also welcome collaboration with other stakeholder groups who have input on this issue; please let us know if you know of such a group.

In the meantime, please email Bryana Cross Bean with any feedback or analysis about the UGA.

We hope you are enjoying the warm and beautiful summer. Please contact WAELA if we can be of assistance to you.