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Southgate at Shrewsbury

Retirement community near Shrewsbury and Worcester, MA

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1.800.492.8331

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Lifestyle

Estate Planning: In Asset Protection We Trust!

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You’ve worked hard all your life. Now’s the time to protect your precious assets if you haven’t already taken the estate planning steps to ensure that they stay financially intact for the benefit of you and your progeny.

This week, we’re exploring a key asset protection to put your “trust” in! A trust can be a tremendously helpful tool for protecting the assets you’ve amassed. In addition, a trust may help decrease your tax burdens and minimize the risk of creditors taking your assets.

Now, let’s take a look at what is perhaps the most common type of trust used in estate planning—the revocable trust, and the three reasons why having one may make the most sense for you!

First, let’s define the term revocable trust. Yes, revocable meaning just what you think it does—this type of trust can be altered at any time.

Now on to three reasons to consider a revocable trust:

1)    It’s a useful tool for avoiding probate. When you have a will, it goes through the probate process to carry out the wishes of the “testator.” Probate can be costly and time consuming whereas with a living trust, assets can be distributed to heirs practically immediately.

2)    A revocable trust gives you the peace of mind in knowing that if you become incapacitated your trustee can step in to manage your affairs without skipping a beat.

3)    The terms of a revocable trust are private whereas with a will the distribution of an estate’s assets become part of the public record.

Do you have questions about revocable living trusts, durable power of attorney, health care proxies and more? Most people do! Here at Southgate at Shrewsbury we bring in professionals whose mission is to educate our residents on how estate planning can work for them.

In fact, this month, we’re hosting Attorney Kristina Vickstrom of Vickstrom Law who is presenting an elder law & estate planning seminar for our residents. She’ll shed some great insight into the ways in which our residents can use trusts to their financial benefit and for peace of mind!

We bring those with professional know-how to Southgate at Shrewsbury on a regular basis to educate our residents on a variety of topics, such as managing their estate planning needs.

Knowledge is power! That’s why Southgate at Shrewsbury’s extensive calendar of monthly events are chock full of educationally focused program. Visit our website to view our full calendar of event offerings so you can see for yourself the types of thought-provoking seminars we offer to engage, educate and inspire our residents!

Is This the Best Decade of Your Life?

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Ten years is a long time, and a lot can happen in the 3,650 days it takes to make up a decade. Southgate at Shrewsbury hopes that no matter what decade of your life you’re in, you’re enjoying yourself!

Recently, UnitedHealthcare released the results of its 100@100 survey, which is designed to analyze how the lifestyles and attitudes of those in retirement compare with those from 35 years ago. The ninth installment of this annual survey had some interesting findings that we’d like to share with you.

For starters, the health benefits provider, which surveyed those of centenarian age down to those from the baby boomer era, found that, on average, the centenarians surveyed reported feeling around 83 years young, with baby boomers at age 65 said they felt about 10 years younger.

Also, in response to a question about how they felt about living to be 100, many centenarians replied that they felt “blessed ” and “happy” and “[n]ot one report[ed] feeling sad or burdened,” UnitedHealthcare explained in a recent press release.

In addition, more than half of the centenarians polled—53 percent—said they continue to live independently. This is really encouraging news for Southgate at Shrewsbury to hear because supporting the independent lifestyles of seniors is one of our fundamental missions.

We also found something else really interesting—and equally encouraging—about the respondent centenarians and baby boomers: Some of their key drivers for happiness rested with:

  • their ability to remain close with family and friends;
  • keeping that ever-important sense of independence; and
  • eating right.

Wow—we’re feeling like perhaps many of our happy, engaged and vibrant Southgate at Shrewsbury residents contributed to this survey! That’s because we offer our residents with the opportunity to fulfill all three of those fundamentally important drivers of happiness:

1) Southgate at Shrewsbury is a close-knit and readily accessible community where family and friends are always welcome. Visit in your private residence, treat your guests to a delicious gourmet meal in our restaurant or hang out by the fire while enjoying a tasty beverage—with so many options, steering your own welcome wagon has never been so easy!

2) Southgate at Shrewsbury is the premier independent living community for seniors here in Massachusetts. And, our residents aren’t just from here in the Bay State. In fact they’re far from it, with many Floridian snow birds call Southgate at Shrewsbury home during the summer months!

3) Southgate at Shrewsbury’s culinary experts plan and prepare nutritious—and scrumptious—meals so our residents don’t have to fuss with mundane tasks like grocery shopping or figuring out what to make for dinner.

Southgate at Shrewsbury offers senior residents the best of dining, fitness, entertainment, recreational and social activities, so they can enjoy every day—no matter what decade of life they’re in.

So, we ask you again: Is this the best decade of your life? At Southgate at Shrewsbury we like to think that each and every decade spent with us is better than the last.

Visit Southgate at Shrewsbury to see how our independent living community for discerning seniors contributes to residents’ overall sense of independence, well being and happiness!

We also urge you to read our weekly blog, where you’ll find myriad topics of interest to sophisticated seniors. Our blog give us the opportunity to share our philosophy on maintaining a healthy, active, independent and happy lifestyle with the world. Happy reading, everyone!

Seniors: Consider This Tax Benefit When Moving

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April 15—Tax Day—has come and gone, and we hope you got a refund, or at the very least didn’t wind up owing any additional tax payments for the 2013 tax year!

Seniors can be particularly susceptible to financial predicaments when it comes to owing taxes. Once retired, most seniors are on a fixed income, and having to pay Uncle Sam money they weren’t planning on, come each April, can result in additional financial burdens and accompanying worry. This got Southgate at Shrewsbury thinking. So, we did a little digging and found a great tip on Nolo.com that could help seniors save big!

The website, which provides consumers and small businesses with recommendations on how to address everyday legal and business questions, noted that seniors may be in a position to sell their homes in favor of independent living communities like Southgate at Shrewsbury. When seniors sell their homes, often they will yield big profits as a result of the sale because they likely have built up a substantial amount of equity prior to the sale, it explained.

A situation like this could result in a capital gains tax. But, paying tax on that profit isn’t always the case, Nolo noted. If you live in the home for two out of the five years preceding the sale, the profit, up to $500,000 for married joint filers and up to $250,000 for a single filer isn’t taxable, it explained.

Have you owned and lived in your home for the past couple of years? Are you ready to make a fantastic change by embracing the independent senior living lifestyle that Southgate at Shrewsbury can offer you? If so, now may be the ideal time to make the leap to “downsize.” We say “downsize” because when you move into Southgate at Shrewsbury, all you’re really downsizing on is the grind of daily home maintenance! Living in an independent senior living community gives you the freedom and flexibility to enjoy an amazing variety of dining, entertainment, and living options that enhance, or “upsize” your lifestyle!

Of course, none of the information contained here should be construed as legal or tax advice. We encourage you to reach out to a tax attorney and/or accountant to discuss specific concerns about the taxable nature of any profit made on the sale of your home as you buy into our senior living community. But, with tax time upon us, we thought this was some mighty valuable and timely food for thought!

Senior Living: Drive Your Way to Happiness

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According to AARP’s Public Policy Institute National Household Travel Survey, more than one-fifth of adults who are age 65 or older do not drive. AARP reports that more seniors “will be clamoring for rides as the country’s 78 million boomers, now ages 49 to 67, shed their car keys.”

That’s some fuel for thought. For many individuals in our society, younger and older  Americans alike, our cars, trucks and SUVs represent a form of freedom in a way—providing us with the vehicle—pun intended!—to get up and go when we want, how we want and for as long as we want.

AARP noted that getting older Americans where they need to go could turn into what it classified as a “national conundrum.” Here at Southgate at Shrewsbury, we can certainly appreciate that sentiment. But, we’re very pleased that our community offers independent living solutions that virtually take the need for travel out of your daily regime if you decide you don’t want to or can’t drive anymore.

And, for those who continue to drive, our interwoven community of gourmet restaurants, entertainment, apartment-style living, educational outlets and fitness activities leave many of our residents thinking about ditching their wheels altogether. In fact, many of the residents here at Southgate at Shrewsbury have embraced the hassle-free lifestyle, much like someone burrowing in Greenwich Village on the most cosmopolitan island in the world—Manhattan—would!

What it boils down to is this: If you don’t have “the world” at your doorstep having a car may make sense. And, for many, driving is something they will always want and need to do. But, when you choose to live in an independent senior living community like Southgate at Shrewsbury, that “world” is at your doorstep, literally, so if you’re thinking about retiring your vehicle, this very well could be the place for you!

What drives your happiness—your car or your ability to enjoy the things you savor most in life? Contact Southgate at Shrewsbury to learn how our comprehensive array of residential lifestyle options can steer you toward the future you’ve always wanted, and most certainly deserve.