Today our Baby Boomers are living longer than anticipated. With their extended lifespans the need for planning for the last 20 years of life has eclipsed the focus on after death planning.
With the proliferation of dementia, Alzheimer’s and a host of other crippling diseases, many boomers are faced with deterioration of life for years prior to death. They face serious decisions about who will take care of them, who will make their medical and financial decisions and how they will pay for long term care costs. Those decisions must be made while you are still competent and capable of understanding what you are doing. If time runs out and you have not made those decisions you then have to turn to the court for the appointment of guardians and conservators.
Today many boomers are without long term care insurance and will not qualify. The insurance rates are rising steadily making it unaffordable for all but a few. Many are concerned that without long term care insurance their assets will be consumed by catastrophic long term care expenses. Planning for Medicaid long term care benefits is essential. This is especially true for married couples when one of the spouses is likely to well outlive the other. Assets need to be protected to provide for well spouse.
All too often boomers wait until there is a crisis before addressing the planning. A simple rule is that you will have more planning options and solutions the earlier the planning is addressed.
Planning for the last 20 years of life includes long term care planning as well as estate planning. In today’s “boomer world” the long term care planning conversation must be addressed any time you are considering estate planning.
I focus my practice on planning for the last 20 years of life through long term care and estate planning to provide my clients with solutions for the obstacles to come.
