Nursing Home Payment & Long-Term Care Insurance:
In this Elder Law Minute, Kaye DeSelms Dent reveals some tough aspects of estate planning that some people don’t realize until they seek help from a trusted attorney, like DCEL.
Video Transcript:
Hi, I’m Kaye DeSelms Dent with Dent Coulson Elder Law, Here with an Elder Law Minute for you. These videos are intended to educate you about the elder care journey, which begins earlier in life than you might think. We hope that you find them useful, and if you have further questions, please call us at Dent Coulson Elder Law.
Today we’re going to discuss how your kids situations, can and in fact should affect your estate planning.
You know a lot of times, people come to me and they want a simple plan, they want to just leave everything to their three kids in equal shares and that’s all good, and well but here’s the problem, depending on your kids ages, they may or may not really be able to handle money if they’re minors, you definitely need to consider leaving money to them in trust or through a guardian. If your children are married, guess what, they’re not making their decisions on their own and at night there’s somebody on the pillow next to them who’s giving their two cents worth. Is that somebody that you really want involved in the decisions or do you want to protect from the, I guess I’ll call them outlaws, or from your daughters or sons in law. If you are concerned that one of your children or more than one, might later get divorced, how do you keep assets that you leave to that child from going to their divorcing spouse. Again, the answer is often a trust.
This becomes very important when we’re dealing with family businesses and family farmland, but for a lot of folks, they don’t want the daughter or son-in-law who they may love today, getting the family assets if they leave the family tomorrow.
A child’s disability is also something that really has to be considered, and in that case you’ve really really got to absolutely consider a supplemental or special needs trust for the child. This is to preserve government benefits and to make certain that somebody who is responsible is in control of assets and not going to take advantage of the child. So, there are a number of things to consider about your children’s situations, even including their debt if you’ve got a spendthrift child. You may want to make sure that they can’t just blow through an inheritance. There is something called lottery syndrome, which says that statistically, within 18 months the typical person will blow through a windfall, no matter how big it is whether its 1800 or 18 million dollars, they can blow through it very quickly. So, you have to look at your kids and ask yourself sometimes some tough questions when you’re doing your own estate planning, and these are the questions that Wes and I ask all of our clients to make sure that you’re getting an estate plan that will work for you and actually take care of your family in the manner that you intend it to.
So, if you need to make an estate plan or update an existing estate plan, give Wes and I a call at Dent Coulson Elder Law. We’ll be happy to help.
You have just read an article about Nursing Home Payment and Long Term Care Insurance, but if you are also looking for information about Medicaid and Asset Preservation? Visit these articles:
“Your Trusted Advisor on the Elder Care Journey”
Dent-Coulson Elder Law is dedicated to providing families in the St. Louis area with their Elder Law needs. Our practice areas include Asset Preservation Planning, Veterans Benefits, Medicaid Eligibility, Alzheimer’s Planning, Special Needs Planning, Estate Planning and more. We understand the financial challenges you may face as you and your loved ones grow older. At Dent-Coulson Elder Law, our clients’ well-being is our number one priority. For immediate help, call (618) 632-7000 (IL) or (314) 567-9292 (MO), or Contact Us and we will get in touch as soon as possible.
