PLANNING FOR INCAPACITY & LONG TERM CARE

Planning for your potential incapacity and long term care needs is an often overlooked but significant component of planning for your future. Our article, Five Tips for Affording the Cost of Long Term Care, highlights best practices and tips on getting the most out of your long term care benefits.

PLANNING FOR MEDICAID & LONG TERM CARE

The ability to pay for long term care is a rising concern among aging Americans. We advise clients on available assisted living options and develop strategies that will enable them to either pay for those options and/or qualify for government benefits, including medicaid, while preserving assets for their families. Lifetime planning can be especially challenging for those who may not possess close relatives or loved ones to inherit their estate. For more information on this topic, read our article on Lifetime Planning for the Mature Single Individual.

Estate Planning & Trusts

POWERS OF ATTORNEY

Powers of Attorney are important tools that allow an agent to make certain defined decisions on your behalf. In the event of incapacity it is crucial to have executed a power of attorney to designate a decision maker on their behalf to avoid the court process of appointing a guardian. More information on the implementation of powers of attorney are outlined in our article, Surrogate Financial Management Planning with Powers of Attorney & Revocable Trusts.

HEALTH CARE POWERS AND LIVING WILLS

Health care powers and living wills are vital planning documents that enable you to maintain a certain level of control over your health care during a time when you are not able to make decisions for yourself. They not only define your wishes in the event that you are incapacitated and unable to make your own decisions, but also designate an agent to make decisions for you according to those wishes. To learn more about implementing your health care planning, read our article titled Planning & Communicating Health Care Decisions & Surrogate Decision-Making.

SPECIAL NEEDS TRUSTS

For your beneficiary with special needs or challenges, we can design and implement trusts that are structured to prevent his or her disqualification from available public and private benefit programs. In particular, we can create trusts that are “non-countable” for medicaid and public benefit purposes.