For several reasons, including illness and physical limitations, many people will require long-term care at some point in their lives. When that time comes, choosing a nursing home can be an overwhelming decision, especially when it comes to planning for a family member, such as a parent.
According to the Florida Health Care Association, there are over 691 licensed nursing homes in Florida alone. With so many options for care, it can be difficult to know where to start when researching nursing homes.
There are a few key factors to consider when choosing the right nursing home, whether you are planning for yourself or a loved one.
Protecting your assets makes sense and is a good thing to do in terms of preparing for your future, as well as your family’s future. Some risks to your assets are more serious than others, and it is essential to be aware of what can impact you and your family. With that in mind, we will discuss the biggest predators to your assets.
First, it may be worth having a discussion with an estate planning attorney about some of the risks that can come up. It may seem counterintuitive to speak with an attorney before a problem comes up. It is a good idea, however, to know about all the risks out there and how you can handle them.
When people set up wills or trusts to protect their assets, it is to ensure their assets go where they want them to go. If you do not make plans in advance to protect your assets, you risk not having any say where they go. It will be left to the state to distribute your assets through a process called probate. In fact, not protecting your assets can have an impact on a number of areas of life, way before you are thinking about end-of-life planning. It can impact how you pay for long-term care, how your family pays for your care, what you stand to lose in litigation, and other areas.
Trusts are an essential tool in estate planning. They are also a great way to ensure that needs and wishes are met while still protecting assets from probate. There are several types of trusts, as well as several reasons why someone would use one to protect their assets and ensure they go to the right entities. From irrevocable trusts to living trusts, they all serve a specific purpose, depending on your needs. In order for a trust to work properly, a successor trustee must be named, who will administer the trust. Upon death of the grantor, the successor trustee will take over the assets and distribute them in the way the grantor laid out. This should be someone the grantor trusts to see their wishes through, as they have written them. Choosing a trustee that the grantor believes will follow through on their wishes and instructions set forth in the trust is important. Choosing the wrong trustee can be bad for the trust.
A generation-skipping trust, or GST, allows a grantor to transfer assets to a benefactor, while skipping a generation of the family. It is usually used in cases where a grandparent wants to leave assets to a grandchild. It is a trust that can be used in situations where the grantor has significant wealth and assets and may be a way to preserve that wealth for the grantor’s descendants.
Going into nursing home care requires families to consider issues like the cost of care, how to protect assets, and what to do if one spouse is already in a nursing home.
Having a spouse transition into a nursing home is stressful for everyone involved, including the spouse living at home. It involves difficult decisions and a lot of anxiety. Some of that anxiety is due to how complex financing the nursing home care can seem. For many spouses still living at home, the thought of losing all their assets comes to mind. Families should know that there are ways to cover the costs of a loved one being in a nursing home without draining assets.
Proper estate planning is known to be vital for married couples. However, what about unmarried couples? Is it important for them, as well? The answer is yes. Estate planning for unmarried couples is as important as estate planning for married couples. In fact, it may be even more important for couples who live together but are unmarried. Without an estate plan, unmarried couples will not be able to make end-of-life decisions or inherit from each other.
Aging is a part of life and may lead to needing long-term care. Going into nursing home care requires us to examine a host of issues, including how we should protect our assets, including our homes. Long-term care lasts from 2.5 years for women, to 1.5 years for men, on average. Nearly 14 percent of people who enter a nursing home will be there over five years. That is to say; we should have a plan in place for our homes before it’s time to enter a nursing home.
Protecting your assets from things such as lawsuits, Medicaid recovery, and creditors is an important part of estate planning. Generally, people want their assets going to loved ones or beneficiaries they choose. There are a number of ways to do this, and make sure your assets are protected. Whether a trust is right for you depends on what you want to protect and from whom.
As we age, we start looking at end of life care more seriously. We know that when we turn 65, Medicare will kick in, and it will cover our doctor visits and prescriptions and hospital visits. However, when it comes to long-term care, what is Medicare’s role, and how do we protect our assets?
