What advice do you have for claiming my elderly mother and disabled adult brother as dependents on my taxes?

BTW, I imagine that since your mother and brother are are Medicare that both are probably receiving SS, SSI, or SSDI. These payments are income and are of a size that will prevent most recipients from being claimed as dependents.

Life insurance is not relevant to claiming someone as a dependent. The IRS has very strict requirements. The person must be related to you and you provided support for them while they lived in your home. They can't have made more than $3650 in income for the year. To check their eligibility to be claimed as dependents, google the IRS requirements for claiming a dependent on your taxes and make sure you mother and brother fit the requirements. (These requirements are also provided on you Form 1040 publication.) Hope this helps.