October 19, 2016
Michigan Eldercare Lawyer helps Protect Assets from Long-term Care Costs
Many people wonder what the difference between a Michigan eldercare lawyer and an estate planning lawyer, is there even a difference? There is a huge difference. Estate planning lawyers are typically only thinking about what happens if you pass away, versus an eldercare lawyer is focused, not on what happens if you pass away, but what happens if you don’t pass away and continue to age and face all the issues that goes along with aging.
The Long-term Care Journey
In the past people would go from healthy to passing away, now we have the long-term care or elder care journey. Typically people start out living healthy at home. Then as they begin to age or if diagnosed with a chronic illness or disease, they need help. That help starts typically with a spouse or child, then becomes a commercial home care company. Then after the home care company, many families will look to independent or assisted living for their loved one. Think of assisted living as a hotel or apartment type environments with additional services provided. From there many families will continue on to need assisted living with memory care. This is similar to assisted living but in this situation, there will be a more protective environment and additional services available for memory care. The last stop in the eldercare journey is nursing home level care, which is like a hospital in terms of care versus hotel or apartment type environment.
The Cost of Long-term Care In Michigan
As a family goes through the eldercare journey they begin to understand the cost of long-term care. Starting out meeting home care the family may spend $1,000 to $3,000 per month if they’re buying a couple hours per day couple times per week. If they’re paying for 24/7 home care than the cost could easily exceed $15,000 per month. As they continue down the eldercare journey of now needing assisted living or independent living, that can run between two to $5,000 per month. If your loved one needs assisted living with memory care that will run five to $7,000 per month. In the final step on the eldercare journey of meeting nursing home care, will cost a family eight to $12,000 per month.
An Eldercare Lawyer Will Help You Find Ways to Pay For Long-term Care
A Michigan eldercare lawyer can help you find ways to pay for long-term care. In fact, there are six ways to pay for long-term care.
First, you can private pay. That means you can pay out of your own funds. So, add up all of your IRAs, 401(k)s, investments, brokerage accounts, cash value life insurance and the value of your home, then use that to pay for long-term care.
The second way we can pay for long-term care is by having the kids pay. Now, understand the kids typically do not use their own funds to pay for long-term care, but instead to pay for long-term care through their time. Everything in life is time or money and often many children put their life on hold to take care of their mom or dad.
The third way to pay for long-term care is with long-term care insurance. Their two types long-term care insurance. The first type of long-term care insurance is pure long-term care insurance, which many people do not like to use at this point. The second type of long-term care insurance is asset-base long-term care insurance, which many more families are looking to utilize.
The fourth way to pay for long-term care is Medicare, which does not pay for long-term care, but only pays for short-term rehab in a nursing home after a hospital stay.
The fifth way to pay for long-term care is the veterans benefit which can pay up to $2,120 per month for a veteran in an assisted living or needing home care.
The sixth way to pay for long-term care is Medicaid, which pays for long-term care in a nursing home.
An eldercare lawyer can help you navigate the long-term-care journey finding the best way to pay for long-term care
How to Find the Best Eldercare Lawyer in Michigan
If you want to find the best elder care lawyer in Michigan you will want to know the qualifications of any potential elder care lawyers. The most important thing to look for is to see if they are a Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA). The certified of law attorney designation is the gold standard for estate planning elder law. There are currently 19 Certified Elder Law Attorneys in Michigan, 400 across the whole nation. In addition you want to look to see if your elder care attorney has published any books on the topic. Last, you will want to look to see if your elder care attorney is given back to the legal community by either teaching other lawyers or teaching other law students eldercare law.
How Can an Elder Care Lawyer Protect Against Long-term Care Costs
To see how an elder care attorney in Michigan can help protect against long-term care costs, the next step is to attend a life care planning workshop. At these workshops a certified elder law attorney will go over the steps necessary to protect you and your family against the devastating cost of long-term care.
