Estate planning, Medicaid Planning, and Elder Care – How does it all fit together?
I have been involved in a small practice, in a small town, for my entire professional life. I have watched my practice grow, change and age with my clients around me. I began to see a shift from estate planning to needs for guardianships and conservatorships and then to more and more elder care issues. My practice has nothing to do with criminal or divorce but has everything to do with money and money problems. So when clients have little to nothing, we seem to be the right place for their problems and when they have far more assets than they will need to make it through the end of their life, we seem to be the right place as well.
Elder care is a relatively new term and is really an area in its beginnings in the law. We have clients who are planning for senior care, clients who are dealing with the onset of senior conditions and clients who are already past the point of being able to plan. I have been there through client transitions, been a part of plans and have been asked to do clean up for situations inside of families, where sometimes the parents or elderly people were abused or taken advantage of by those who were entrusted to carry the burden for them.
If you are in this position, we can help. Our process starts with a good team of people – legal, accounting, and investment. Steps are laid out to create a well drafted estate plan. Be careful: Many clients do not want to pay for this step to be done well and later they are saddled with poorly drafted estate plans, which cause more headaches than help. Once the estate plan is in place I always suggest that the client finalize the funeral arrangements that will be needed. Finally, steps should be taken to understand if long term care insurance is appropriate and whether the client needs to go through the steps of reducing their estate for possible medicaid planning or any taxes that will occur in an eventual estate transfer.
If you are in a position of needing estate planning, medicaid planning, or any other area of elder care, then please give my office a call and set up an appointment to discuss your situation, to put a plan in place to protect your loved ones.
Todd Courser 810-245-0813