Every client is unique. You have different goals, different care needs, different family. You shouldn’t have the same long-term care plan as the next guy, right?
So we start with a Family Care Meeting to identify what’s most important to you – “What do you want your plan to do?” If you’re facing a move to assisted living or an imminent nursing home stay for someone you love, your answer might include things like:
- “Take care of whatever Dad needs.”
- “Pay the nursing home.”
- “Save mom’s house.”
- “Save the farm for my kids.”
- “Get me on Medicaid.”
If that sounds like what you’re looking for, you may have already talked to an attorney who doesn’t specialize in elder law about Medicaid and nursing homes. You may have heard that lawyer say: “There’s not really anything you can do.”
Wrong.
“But I’m Not Sure Where to Start…”
During your Family Care Meeting, you’ll learn quickly that there are many options for planning for an imminent care need – whether at an assisted living facility or a nursing home. At the end of that meeting, we’ll schedule a second meeting that we call the Design Meeting.
Then we dig into your information and come up with all your options. Those options are spelled out in our trademark Comprehensive Analysis and Strategy Letter. We call it: “Building your CASL.”
“You left out some letters there…”
There’s no time for spelling! We have a plan to design!
I’m not gonna lie: we give you a huge amount of information in the CASL and at the Design Meeting
But we also give you options.
The CASL outlines your care need, your family, and your financial status. It explains the rules and regulations of Medicaid and VA benefits. And it lists every option that is a viable tool to use in your plan.
Because your goals are the blueprint. It’s our job to show you the tools we can use to build the plan that best accomplishes those goals.
And we go even further: at the Design Meeting we’ll show you the impact of using one tool over another. Are there tax consequences? How will you pay the mortgage and the nursing home? What happens to everything once the plan is finished?
Go Ahead. Boss us Around.
Now that you’re armed with all the options, the Design Meeting is where we ask our second big question: “What do you want your lawyer to do?”
When you shop for a car, you don’t pick the first one with four wheels and an engine. That might get you from Point A to Point B, but it might be too expensive or not have the features you want.
The same goes for long-term care planning. Care is imminent. You need a solution yesterday. But not just any solution; you need the right solution.
The nursing home might tell you, “You should prepay for your funeral(s) and then apply for Medicaid.”
Your tax lawyer might tell you, “You should just pay the bill out of pocket until you run out of money.”
But one of those options doesn’t have the features you want and the other is going to be expensive. Real expensive.
Take Charge.
We believe that you hire an expert to give you advice, to help you find the right solution for your specific circumstances. Don’t let anyone – not a lawyer and definitely not the nursing home – tell you what to do without finding out why they picked that option over another.
If you’re facing an imminent assisted living nursing home stay for someone you love, take the first step toward a payment solution that works for your family by calling us at (712) 737-3885.
