Long-Term Disability Benefits Law – Looking at Options
May 15, 2013 | John T. BuchmanPersonal Injury and Long-Term Disability It’s no secret that employees are working longer and people are living longer than ever before. The economic conditions have caused many employees to push back their retirement date. One consequence of these facts is that there has been a marked increase in long-term disability claims by disabled employees. Many employers provide long-term disability benefits as part of their employment package. I recently assisted two clients in obtaining “LTD” benefits. These turned out to be quite involved and time intensive. One required an internal appeal in which we were successful. In order to be entitled to long term disability benefits, a person has to be “disabled” continuously for the initial “elimination” or waiting period and beyond. This disability need not be, and in fact is often not, due to a work-related injury. Disability can be established by a combination of unrelated injuries, conditions or illnesses that combine to prevent a person from working for the required period of time. Different policies can define “disability” differently. Many policies adopt the definition of disability found in the Social Security Disability Act. However, the policies need not use that definition and many do not. Generally, these definitions require that the person be unable to perform the material and substantial duties of…
Read MoreWhen Does Child Support End in Minnesota?
May 13, 2013 | Elizabeth A. SchadingWhile you might feel like your child support obligation is going to go on forever there is an ending date. In Minnesota, your child support will end when all of your children from the marriage have turned eighteen, or when they graduate from high school, whichever is later. Child support obligations do not extend past the age of 20 even if the child has not graduated from high school. There’s only one exception to this: if you have a special needs child that is unlikely to be physically or mentally capable of meeting his or her own needs. Each of these cases is determined on a case-by-case basis, taking into consideration receipt of social security or other financial benefits available to the child. [maxbutton id=”1″ url=”https://bgs.com/contact-us/?july” text=”Get Legal Help Now” ] What about college? You and your spouse might agree to send a child to college together, but you’re not obligated to do so unless you and your spouse signed something to that effect during your divorce settlement. Child support ends automatically. You don’t have to go back to court. You can simply stop paying the support unless you had an income withholding order. If you did, you’ll need to make sure that your case manager knows the child’s 18th birthday or high…
Read MoreWhat Happens to My Business During a Divorce in Minnesota?
May 9, 2013 | Elizabeth A. SchadingIf you opened or created a business during a marriage in the state of Minnesota, the business is marital property. That means that it counts as one of the assets that will be factored into the divorce settlement. If you continued to work at a business created prior to the marriage, the business will have aspects of non-marital and marital value, which may be tricky to determine. Minnesota law demands that marital property be divided equitably (though not necessarily equally). This does not mean you will necessarily lose your business, however. It simply means that the business is an asset which must be taken into account. Business valuation is a complicated process. It’s complicated even when you simply want to sell the business. It can get even more complicated during a divorce. You have to understand this because your business value may be larger or smaller than you think it is. Business valuation takes many factors into account, including the company inventory, the company assets, the income received by the business, and even intangible factors like “customer goodwill.” Two business valuation agents may not even entirely agree on what a business should sell for, even if they look at the same set of books and the same set of factors, all things being…
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