The Elder Care Financial Crisis Can Begin Long Before a Medical Emergency
There are plenty of ways to measure the vast divide between the fortunate few and everyone else. You have managed to live a happy life by being at peace with the fact that everyone has finite financial resources. Most of the time, it does not cause you great emotional distress. You are fine with showing your relatives you care by showing up for them through road trips and Zoom calls when you can’t afford airfare. The most difficult part of a parent-child relationship is the final act, though, when elderly parents lose their independence. The wealthiest people can keep their house and let it become generational wealth while using their cash savings, their long-term care insurance, or both, to pay for residence in a comfortable assisted living facility. Elder care costs time and money. The wealthiest seniors spend their own money and the time of paid caregivers. For everyone else, it is younger family members who contribute time, money, or both. A better solution than daydreaming about a windfall is to start planning now for a future when family members have no one but themselves and each other to provide elder care. Whether you are a retiree, a senior who can probably never afford to retire, or an overworked member of the sandwich generation, and you need help making realistic plans about lean times that are here to stay, contact a Bronx estate planning lawyer.
The Little Expenditures of Time and Money Can Add Up Quickly
Have you ever tried to calculate how much time and money you spend on your children? Try this exercise with elder care. In both cases, the amounts are always shifting in response to the demands. Many working adults start out helping their parents with occasional tasks or expenses, but the demands on the younger generation’s time and money gradually increases, until the demands of caregiving become so relentless that you would not know where to turn for help. You feel like the proverbial frog in a pot of boiling water that does not think to try to jump to safety until it is too late.
An Estate Planning Lawyer Can Help You Escape From the Financial Death Spiral
Don’t look at elder care as a road that inevitably leads somewhere that is too horrible to think about. Instead, expect that the elder generation will eventually receive Medicaid long-term care benefits. The people who suffer the worst financial devastation because of Medicaid asset recovery are the ones who were blindsided by the need to apply for Medicaid or the fact that it was even an option. The best thing you can do is to make plans now for the transfer of the house or to set up a Medicaid asset protection trust.
Schedule a Confidential Consultation With a Bronx Estate Planning Attorney
An estate planning lawyer can help you make long-term plans for elder care in a family with limited means. Contact Cavallo & Cavallo in the Bronx, New York to set up a consultation.