By Kenneth Corbin

Some aging Americans are disowning nearly all of their assets in a bid to qualify for Medicaid coverage to shoulder the potential costs of long-term care. Medicaid has asset caps for eligibility, though those vary by state and marital status. Financial professionals can help clients think through the process of disowning their assets, which can include gifting, trusts, and transfers, but they caution that the project can be incredibly complex. Here our writer offers six tips for thinking about going broke for long-term care.

Among other most-read wealth management articles this week:

Overpriced, but still attractive . More investors than ever say that U.S. stocks are overpriced, but they are continuing to increase their investments in those equities, according to a new Bank of America survey. The survey points to the muddled nature of investor sentiment in the months following the Trump administration's tariff rollout this spring. Ninety-one percent of investors said that U.S. equities are overpriced in the August poll, while investors were 16% underweight on those stocks, down from 23% in July.

Fugitive advisor sentenced . A former investment advisor and television pundit has been sentenced to five years in prison for operating a Ponzi scheme after his investment strategy cost his clients tens of millions of dollars. James Arthur McDonald Jr. bet on a massive market collapse in 2020 following the presidential election and amid the fallout from the pandemic. When that didn't occur, he began fraudulently soliciting investments in his advisory business without disclosing the money his clients lost. After skipping a Securities and Exchange Commission hearing where he was supposed to testify, McDonald was considered a fugitive and was ultimately arrested last June at a residence in Washington state, where he was found in possession of a fake driver's license.

Massachusetts woman implicated in Ponzi scheme . A Massachusetts woman is accused of operating a long-running fraud under the guise of a well-respected family business. State authorities allege in a civil complaint that since 2019, Barbara Hirshfield ran Ideal Financial Holdings, which originated as a consumer-loan business, as a Ponzi scheme. Hirshfield sold promissory notes in a business that had lost its primary revenue stream and used new investors' money to make interest or principal payments to earlier ones, authorities allege. In all, regulators say she raised more than $7.6 million from at least 180 investors.

LPL advisor benched . Regulators have fined and suspended an LPL advisor for allegedly steering a 95-year-old client toward a complex product with a potential downside that greatly exceeded his risk profile. Finra, the brokerage industry's self-regulatory authority, suspended Brenton Ditto for four months and fined him $5,000 for allegedly investing the elderly client's money in General National Mortgage Association bonds, which were essentially bundled mortgages with a hierarchy that determined which investors got paid out first. Ultimately Ditto's client lost $19,000 on his investment, Finra says.

Surviving the economic doomscroll . There has been no shortage of troublesome economic reports lately, from weak hiring numbers to erratic tariff announcements and slackening manufacturing. Yet the markets have been performing well. We asked a handful of top advisors how concerned they are about economic conditions in this week's Big Q feature. One said the lack of net job losses is encouraging, while others are bracing for a potential market correction, and one professed crypto skeptic is finding reasons to make a short-term play with digital assets.

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August 15, 2025 13:04 ET (17:04 GMT)

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