As dementia progresses, estate planning must become more proactive and strategic than ever to avoid court and conflict over your loved one’s wishes in the future. If dementia becomes too advanced before planning is complete, the question of who will manage your loved one’s assets and care will be left to a judge who doesn’t know your loved one or their wishes.

Creating a special needs trust (SNT), also sometimes referred to as a supplemental needs trust, can help you provide for a loved one who is disabled or has special needs while maintaining your loved one’s current benefits or leaving open the option for need-based governmental aid in the future, even if your loved one receives an inheritance. As long as the SNT meets certain legal criteria, the existence of the SNT and the amount of money and property inside it will not affect your loved one’s means test.

Our parents age and their physical and mental capacities diminish.  We, as their adult children recognize our parents’ decreasing ability to care for themselves.  We see that we need to step in and help them. Often, one of us children will take over the bulk of the responsibilities such as taking the parent to doctor’s appointments or the attorney’s office. We see our parent begin to depend on thatchild more and more.  So, our parent decides to appoint that child as a trusted decision maker.  Our parent may even give them a larger inheritance to compensate them for their time. At the same time, the other childre must take extreme care to ensure that our elderly parent is not being exploited by a manipulative caretaker.   We need to ask ourselves, is our sibling caretake being a dutiful child or a financial manipulator?

So what exactly does an elder law attorney do for seniors anyway? Elderly or disabled individuals are the focus of a broad array of legal concerns referred to as elder law. Practitioners of elder law are legal advocates who strive to devise appropriate legal strategies to help seniors and their families improve their lives. Elder law encompasses an extensive range of topics, including retirement planning, Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, estate planning, long-term care planning, guardianships, and many others.

Estate Planning and Elder Law go hand in hand. While Estate Planning deals with what happens when you die; elder law deals with what happens as you age and /or become disabled.

Elder law and estate planning are two concepts that are commonly confused. Nevertheless, these areas of law differ in important ways. Although there may be some overlap between them, it is essential to understand and utilize strategies from both fields to ensure a prosperous aging process and safeguard a family's heritage.  So, dive in and learn what is life care planning and why you need it.