Elder Care - When a Nursing Home is Required

I recently spoke with a client whose 91 and 95 year old grandparents are in need of long term care. They can no longer stay in their home because the limited care they receive (4 hours a day) is not sufficient to meet their needs. However, the cost of a nursing home is prohibitive given their resources.

So, what is one to do? Their options are limited. Since both need to have 24 hour care, all of their resources would have to be paid to the nursing home until they qualify for medicaid. My client's grandparents could spend down on eligible items like prepaid funeral, medical bills and home repairs (which would be necessary to sell it). Other transfers, like to a trust or gifting to family members, would affect their eligibility for medicaid since there is a 5 year look back period on transfers.

The options are few given their advance age. Planning for long term care needs to be on everyones' radar since we are living longer and with that our medical needs increase. Leave your comments here or contact us at www.ythlaw.com

The Three Important Steps to Any Plan

It is a very windy day as I write this blog entry. Today my thougths are about the importance of planning. Whether estate planning, retirement planning, financial planning, long term care planning or personal and business planning, there are 3 important steps. You have to (1) access where you are, (2) determine where you would like to be and then (3) write down the strategies and action steps to get to where you want to go.

Along the way, have a great time because each and every moment is creating the life story that you want to leave as your legacy.

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Long Term Care Planning and You

Last week I attended a meeting where our speaker addressed long term care planning. Even as estate planning professionals, we had lots of questions for our speaker and all of them were answered. I thought I would share the hightlights with you.

Long term care planning is the creation of awareness and understanding and aceptance that it is possible for one to have special daily care needs at some point in our lives. Without long term care planning, you are exposed to the largest potential unfunded liability. Of course most of our questions pertained to long term care insurance. Generally, people are advised to get at least 3-5 years of coverage. Such coverage should be obtained early on to get the best rate. That generally means that you should obtain coverage while you are healthy and between the ages of 45 to 55 are the best time to secure the coverage.

Our speaker, John B. Linvill, Jr., CSA of J. Linvill LTC, specializes in long term care and is knowledgeable, professional and can be very helpful in your long term care planning.

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Day Four - Horizon Dock

Each morning I was up watching the sunrise from the hilltops and in the evening I watched the sunset on the horizon. This evening I sat on the dock awaiting the ferry to town as the sun made it descent towards the blue horizon. There has been much to celebrate with the pre-release of my first book. The bookstores are as anxious as I am for the arrival of my books in June. We have many planned events throughout the summer. I will keep you posted.

In the meantime, I answer the questions from a bookstore patron regarding long term care planning. I devoted an entire section of my book to Elder law which has become increasingly important. There are many planning steps that everyone should do to make sure their golden years are golden and not replete with regret from not planning.

Let me guide you through the answers to many of your long term care concerns.