Protecting your home, investments and other assets by using an Asset Preservation Trust can give you peace of mind that your life savings won’t be lost to the potentially devastating cost of long-term care.
With life expectancies increasing, the chances of needing long-term care later in life growing, the cost of long-term care increasing dramatically, and establishing eligibility for government assistance being made ever more difficult because of stricter laws, now is decidedly the time to put an asset preservation plan in place. With this in mind, however, the question becomes:
Should you put all of your life savings into an Asset Preservation Trust?
In this Elder Law Minute, Wes Coulson, Southern Illinois Elder Law attorney, discusses the misconception of putting all of your life savings into an asset preservation trust and explains why separating your assets into two “piles” makes sense.
Should You Put All of Your Life Savings Into an Asset Preservation Trust?
Transcript:
Hi, I’m Wes Coulson and this is your Elder Law Minute. Today I want to discuss another of the misconceptions that we sometimes deal with, with regard to long-term care asset preservation planning.
People hear the concept that while when, in order to protect assets, you want to put them into an asset preservation trust. And I’ve heard people say, “Well, I don’t like that idea. I don’t like not having control of my money, I don’t like the idea of not being able to buy things that I may want or need.”
Well, here’s the thing. We’ve never counseled anybody to put all of their assets into an asset preservation trust. Really what you’re doing instead is taking what’s now in one large pile, none of which is protected, and you want to separate it into two piles.
One would be that part of your life savings that you might want or need to spend on an ongoing basis, that should stay in your name.
The other pile would be the part of your life savings about which you could say, “Well, I probably won’t need that, either that’s the inheritance that I’m going to be able to leave for my loved ones or if that doesn’t happen, the reason it didn’t happen was that it was lost to long-term care costs.”
That’s what you want to put into the asset preservation trust. Thanks.
For more information on Asset Preservation Planning, visit these articles:
- Is Asset Preservation Planning Legal?
- The Morality of Benefits Planning
- What’s the Difference Between Estate Planning and Asset Preservation Planning?
- Long Term Care Costs: The Biggest Threat to your Financial Future
“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 (877)995-6876 or Contact Us and we will get in touch as soon as possible.
