Elder law helps clients plan for retirement by planning for long-term care challenges while also preserving financial resources and protecting assets to pass on to loved ones. It’s also one of the key components of Amoruso & Amoruso LLP’s innovative comprehensive estate planning — a custom-made plan that comprises tax law, asset protection and health care decisions with family dynamics, and more.
As children of aging parents as well as attorneys, we understand the importance of solid planning. Amoruso & Amoruso LLP is here to help you or a loved one craft a practical, effective plan that meets your needs and goals. With experience in a variety of practice areas, our team can handle complex cases, including crisis planning.
If you need help planning for your later years or assistance with a parent’s existing plan, contact a New York elder law attorney from Amoruso & Amoruso LLP, where our goal is Empowering You to Care for the Ones You Love™.
What Is Elder Law?
Elder law involves counseling older adults and their families on healthcare, long-term care, public benefits, surrogate decision-making, legal capacity, and estate planning. It also focuses on the implementation of the individual’s decisions and wishes. Attorneys who practice elder law will alert clients about potential tax consequences of their planning as well.
When Should You Contact an Elder Law Attorney?
You should contact an elder law attorney if you, your parent, older sibling, spouse, or other relative needs legal protections, benefits, or services. For instance, they may need help getting long-term healthcare or personal care. You can contact an elder law attorney anytime to begin planning for your or their later years. You may begin working with an elder law attorney before you retire or need to move into an assisted living facility or nursing home. Early planning means individuals and families have full legal options for long-term planning.
An elder law attorney can help family members plan for their loved one’s later years by securing government benefits and services while also protecting a loved one’s assets to pass on to family and friends.
How Can Elder Law Planning Help Me Protect My Assets?
Elder law planning provides several avenues to protect your or a loved one’s assets as you or they age. First, elder law planning adds many more planning options that help turn a regular estate plan into a comprehensive estate plan, including writing wills, establishing revocable and irrevocable trusts, ensuring solid advance directives (like power of attorney and health care proxy) are in place, and executing beneficiary designations. A well-crafted comprehensive estate plan can help people preserve their hard-earned wealth and pass it on to loved ones. With a knowledgeable and experienced elder law attorney from Amoruso & Amoruso LLP doing the legwork, the estate plan should preserve tax savings and minimize legal costs that can eat into assets before they pass to heirs and beneficiaries.
More importantly, elder law can help protect assets if expensive long-term care is required. The increasing costs of home health services, assisted living, and nursing homes can deplete a person’s retirement savings. Although Medicaid benefits can cover the cost of long-term care, applicants may need to use up their assets before accessing these benefits. Elder law planning can provide strategies and mechanisms to protect your assets if you need long-term care in your later years. An elder law attorney from Amoruso & Amoruso LLP can also tell you about other options for covering the cost of long-term care. This might include purchasing long-term care insurance.
Does Elder Law Planning Help Me Avoid Probate?
A New York elder law attorney from Amoruso & Amoruso LLP can help you and your family avoid probate. Your lawyer can help you set up trusts to pass property to loved ones without the need to probate those assets before the court.
Avoiding probate means your loved ones do not have to wait to receive their inheritance or spend time, money, or emotion on probating an estate.
How Much Preparation Should I Do to Meet Long-Term Care Expenses?
Although everyone hopes to spend their final years living at home in good health, many people will need some degree of long-term care as they age. Statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show that about 70 percent of retirees will need some form of long-term care in the future. Furthermore, the HHS reports that 20 percent will need long-term care for five or more years.
Everyone should have a plan to handle long-term care costs in their later years. The amount a person needs will depend on their health, family medical history, and whether they want to stay home or move to a nursing home. An experienced elder law attorney from Amoruso & Amoruso LLP can review your situation and tell you how much preparation you need.
