Florida Elder Law Blog - ElderLawAssociates.com

Remember when your parents were lecturing you on the rules for taking the car for a spin? Dad would put his face in front of yours and say, “Are you listening?” Of course you would say “sure” even though your mind was miles away on the adventure to come.

Today, as adults, the children who received the counsel and wisdom of their parents are facing a reverse situation in their lives. They are finding themselves concerned about their aging parents and what their needs will be as their health and mental abilities fail them. In some cases the children must take the role as parent in securing the safety and well being of an elderly family member.

Julie lives 600 miles from her mother. Knowing her mothers health is frail and she lives alone, Julie calls her every evening after work. The conversation always goes like this:

“How are you doing today Mom, Julie asks?
“Everything’s fine”, Mother replies.
“Are you taking your pills?”
“Yes, everything’s fine.”
“Do you need anything?”
“Everything’s fine.”

Julie does not get much more conversation from her mother. Perhaps everything is fine, or perhaps Julie’s mother just wants Julie to think she can take care of herself. Even worse, mother could think all is fine and be forgetting her medication and not eating properly.

Is Julie really listening? ARE YOU LISTENING?

It may be time to put your face in front of your parent and listen.

Assuming that all is well and that your elderly family member knows and does what is best for them, may be putting them at risk.

Become a partner with them in their care. The best time to form the partnership is before a crisis happens.

Donna Schempp, a licensed clinical social worker and program director at the Family Caregiver Alliance, states that in talking to your parents, "The sooner, the better." If you bring up the subject before your parents need any extra support, "then it's not crisis driven," she explains. "It's not a way of saying, 'Mom, Dad, there's something wrong with you.”

A good way to begin is to sit with your parents and ask questions like, what are your concerns for the future. Do you want to remain in your home? Are you worried about losing your independence? Listen to their answers. You might relate your concerns as well, or you desire to be of help.

In become a partner in planning for care and helping your loved one, you need to know what legal and financial arrangements are in place. By asking, “What if you had a stroke, Mom, I would need to know where your medical and insurance documents are and what you would have me do in your behalf.”

The next step might be to accompany them to their doctor appointment so to understand what their medical needs are and help create a plan for future needs.

The National Care Planning Council's book “The 4 Steps of Long Term Care Planning” gives the following list of most common services family care givers will provide for their parents.

• Walking, lifting, and bathing
• Using the bathroom and with incontinence
• Providing pain management
• Preventing unsafe behavior and preventing wandering
• Providing comfort and assurance or arranging for professional counseling
• Feeding
• Answering the phone
• Making arrangements for therapy, meeting medical needs, and doctors' appointments
• Providing meals
• Maintaining the household
• Shopping and running errands
• Providing transportation
• Administering medications
• Managing money and paying bills
• Doing the laundry
• Attending to personal hygiene and personal grooming
• Writing letters or notes
• Making repairs to the home, maintaining a yard

There are many resources available to help families in caring for their elder parents. As you become involved you will know when it is time to bring in professional services to help or when the need to find new living arrangements is necessary. Beginning now to talk, listen and plan together can make the journey more pleasant for everyone involved.

The first step should be to consult with a qualified, experienced South Florida Elder Law Attorney.

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Only two states (Oklahoma and Idaho) have statutes that directly address digital assets in a probate context - and then only in the administration phase. Few estate planners provide digital asset planning for their clients, which may lead to significant problems as these assets are increasingly valuable and difficult to handle without proper planning. This Harris Private Bank Study reviews the following aspects of digital asset planning: Importance, Results without planning, Planning techniques and obstacles. Click here to read the entire study.

Of course, before making any final legal decisions, please consult with a qualified South Florida Elder Law Attorney that has expertise in estate planning.

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A recent USA Today article states that there is an increase in seniors living over the age of 90.  According to author Haya El Nasser “The number of people living to age 90 and beyond has tripled in the past three decades to almost 2 million and is likely to quadruple by 2050”.
Seniors who live longer generally have some sort of disability or need help at some level of living. Sandy Markwood, CEO of the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging, indicates that the focus needs to be on being able to help these seniors live at home as long as possible as nursing home cost could rise to average $72,000 a year.

Long Term Care at any level, in the home, assisted living or nursing home can add a tremendous cost to seniors and their families.

Government Programs Only Pay For About 16% Of Long Term Care
Government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and the Veterans Administration will cover the cost of long-term care under certain conditions. Medicare will cover rehabilitation from a hospital stay or limited care at home if there is a skilled (medical) need. The Veterans Administration will cover the cost of nursing home care indefinitely if the veteran is at least 70% service-connected disabled. The VA will also cover other forms of home-based or community-based care if there is a medical need.

Medicaid will cover both medical and non-medical related long-term care but in order to qualify for Medicaid a person has to have less than $2,000 in assets and income that is insufficient to pay the cost of care.

Funding Long Term Care with your Life Insurance Policy

Drawing cash from life insurance or changing a life insurance policy should only be done after reviewing with an expert advisor.  Loss of the policy and death benefit could prove to be a detriment.  If, however you have accumulated cash in a life insurance policy and no longer need the coverage you may consider using the cash for long term care or purchasing a LTC rider to your current policy.
New insurance products are being developed to cover both life insurance and long term care insurance. ElderLawAnswers reports:

“A new law makes the purchase of products that combine annuities or insurance policies with long-term care insurance more attractive. These "hybrid" products are gaining in popularity due to a law that went into effect January 1, 2010, making distributions from life insurance and annuities tax-free when used to pay for long-term care. The same law also allows owners of annuities or life insurance policies to exchange their old policies for long-term care insurance or hybrid policies without being taxed.”

Combination sales which include life insurance, annuities and traditional long-term care coverage are becoming popular with insurance companies and may prove a method of financing long term care.  Investigate closely, however to find what exactly will be covered.  Some policies do not cover home care costs or complete costs of nursing homes.

Long Term Care Insurance Funding for All Long Term Care Needs
The first long-term care policies were offered about 40 years ago. These were primarily nursing home-only policies designed to take over when Medicare rehabilitation ran out. They were not the comprehensive benefit policies we see today.

Long Term Care Insurance policies today are greatly diversified in their coverage.  Home care, nursing home costs, adult day care, physical therapy, skilled and non-skilled nursing care are some of the services covered.  Policies vary in price and what they cover.  There is also a very restricted qualification of physical and mental heath to get a policy.  Purchasing a policy at a younger age makes it easier to qualify and also provides cheaper premiums. It is best to consult with a long term care insurance professional about the type of policy that fits your needs and budget.

Veterans Aid and Attendance Pension Benefit
Though not an insurance policy, the VA Pension Benefit should be mentioned as a way to pay for long term care needs.  A veteran or spouse of a veteran who served during a period of war can receive money, up to $2,019 a month, to pay for long term care medical expenses, home health care, and assisted living cost.  A qualified Veteran Consultant can help you determine if you qualify for this benefit.

Pre-Need Burial Insurance
One might ask what Pre-need burial insurance has to do with long term care. The purpose of preneed life insurance is to set aside funds for your funeral, before the need arises.

It is an insurance policy that covers the cost of the predetermined expenses of a funeral, cremation or burial.  It gives the purchaser the opportunity to preplan the services and peace of mind in having it paid for.  This is usually an insurance policy that pays at time of death for these expenses. There are many insurance companies that offer these packages as well as funeral homes.

The saddest cases of long term care needs we hear are:

“Mother can no longer live alone and she has no money to go live in a care facility.”
“ Is there someone that can come help me take care of my wife?  We live on our Social Security and I can not pay what home care costs.”
“Father died last night and we have no money to bury him, what do we do?”

It is important to make the necessary arrangements to cover long term care and end of life costs.  There is no government program that will cover all those needs. Before making any final legal decisions, please consult an experienced South Florida Elder Law Attorney.

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A new study finds that when medical personnel know what kind of care a patient wants at the end of life, Medicare can be spared significant sums and the patient is more likely to die at home rather than in a hospital, at least in certain areas.

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I ran across an interesting article in the Palm Beach Post today titled, Living past 90: Five Palm Beach County residents describe what it's like.

And it got me thinking: are you (or I) really ready to live past 90? Are our documents (will, power of attorney, end of life decisions, health care proxies and the like) in the shape we want them to be if we do live past 90? Do you (or I) have long term care insurance? Have we really planned out how long our assets should and will last?

If any of those questions are bothering you, I highly suggest that you get in touch with us, as we're experienced South Florida Elder Law Attorneys, and we can help you prepare your documents and make sure your elder days don't leave you stranded.

Labels: Florida Elder Care, Florida Elder Law Attorney, Florida Estate Planning, Florida Health Care Surrogates, Florida Long Term Care Insurance, Florida Medicaid Planning, Florida Medicare Planning, Florida Wills

After receiving no cost-of-living increase (COLA) for two years running, the nation's Social Security recipients, including Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) beneficiaries, will get a 3.6 percent increase in payments in 2012.

Starting in January 2012, the average monthly Social Security payment for a worker with disabilities will rise from $1,072 to $1,111 a month. The federal SSI payment standard will increase to $698 a month for an individual and $1,048 a month for a couple. The SSI student exclusion limit (the amount of earned income that an SSI beneficiary who regularly attends school may exclude from her SSI benefit calculation) will remain the same at $1,700 a month, with a yearly cap of $6,840.

Although the SSI resource allowance also remains the same at $2,000 for an individual and $3,000 for a couple, the amount of money that a person can earn without engaging in Substantial Gainful Activity (which triggers a process that can result in the loss of SSDI or SSI benefits) is going to increase to $1,010 a month for a person who is not blind and $1,690 for a person who is blind. The Trial Work Period limit of $720 a month stays the same.

For a complete list of the 2012 Social Security changes, please contact a qualified South Florida Elder Law Attorney.

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Costs. Private room nursing home rates rose 4.4 percent to $87,235 a year or $239 a day, while assisted living facility costs jumped 5.6 percent on average to $41,724 a year or $3,477 a month.

Before making any final decisions, one should consult with an experienced South Florida Elder Law Attorney.

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