January 21, 2019

Estate Planning Lawyer vs Elder Law Lawyer | Berry’s Bites

Don’t make the mistake of using the wrong type of attorney. There is a big difference between an estate planning lawyer and an elder law lawyer when it comes to creating a legal plan for your family.

Hello. This is Attorney Chris Berry with another episode of Berry’s Bites and today, we’re gonna talk about the difference between estate planning and elder law and I had a situation a couple weeks ago where a family had sat down with an estate planning attorney, actually just down the street about two months ago with Mom and unfortunately, the attorney didn’t ask the right questions. They were too focused on what happens when Mom passes away. They weren’t as focused on the longterm care piece of what happens if Mom doesn’t pass away, continues to age and faces all the issues that go along with aging. So unfortunately, even though Mom sat down with what they thought was the right attorney, we had to update their plan because Mom just had a basic revocable trust that avoided probate and controlled the distribution. Mom was missing a personal care plan that gave instructions with regards to how best to care for Mom if she’s unable to make her own care decisions.

Estate Planning Lawyer vs Elder Law Lawyer Transcript:

Hello. This is Attorney Chris Berry with another episode of Berry’s Bites and today, we’re gonna talk about the difference between estate planning and elder law and I had a situation a couple weeks ago where a family had sat down with an estate planning attorney, actually just down the street about two months ago with Mom and unfortunately, the attorney didn’t ask the right questions. They were too focused on what happens when Mom passes away. They weren’t as focused on the longterm care piece of what happens if Mom doesn’t pass away, continues to age and faces all the issues that go along with aging. So unfortunately, even though Mom sat down with what they thought was the right attorney, we had to update their plan because Mom just had a basic revocable trust that avoided probate and controlled the distribution. Mom was missing a personal care plan that gave instructions with regards to how best to care for Mom if she’s unable to make her own care decisions.

But most importantly, Mom was missing an asset protection trust because she was concerned about the devastating cost of longterm care where if her aging process were to continue and she were to need nursing home care, she didn’t want all of her hard earned life savings wiped out by the devastating cost of longterm care and unfortunately when she sat down with the estate planning attorney down the street, they didn’t address that issue, nor did that estate planning attorney even ask if Mom was concerned about longterm care and this is where an elder law attorney, more specifically a certified elder law attorney can help a family because we’re not just concerned about what happens when you pass away. We’re also concerned about what happens if we don’t pass away, we continue to age and we face all the issues that go along with aging and then also, when we’re looking at the financial power of attorney document, it was severely lacking.

It was only about three to five pages and, to be honest, it was downloaded off of what’s called the Institute of Continued Legal Education, which is ICLE, where other attorneys can upload forms and they provide continued education where I’m one of the contributors to ICLE. But understand, all the attorney did was download a form and copy and paste, very different than our comprehensive financial powers of attorney that are typically over 20 pages and it’s not because we like killing trees or are paid by the word, it’s because we found that we need to specifically include all of this expanded language so that if you do have a loved one that does need longterm care, we can move the money around to try to protect that money to preserve that money so it lasts at least as long as your loved one does.

So while the family was upset that they had spent this money in this time with an attorney who didn’t meet their needs, they were very happy when they were finished working with us because now they had a plan that was aligned with their needs, not only planning for what happens if they pass away, but also what happens if Mom doesn’t pass away, she continues to age and faces all the issues that go along with aging. So if you do want true piece of mind so that your affairs are taken care of, not just if you pass away, but also if you were to need longterm care, if you’re to face the biggest issue, which is affecting many Americans today, which is longevity, then you want to sit down with an elder law attorney, not an estate planning attorney. So don’t make the mistake of sitting down with the wrong type of attorney. Sit down with an elder law attorney who’s really planning for the second half of life, not just planning for what happens when you pass away.