Is It Too Late For Me To Save Any Money Or Other Resources If My Loved One Is Already In The Nursing Home?
No. We can almost always save money for the patient or their family even though they are already in the nursing home. However, I must confess that we cannot save as much money and we cannot do quite as excellent a job as if we had five to ten years to plan, but there’s still much we can do. I do hope that neither you nor your loved ones ever require long-term nursing care, but if you do, please keep us in mind. We can help you save money.
My Mom Ended Up In A Nursing Home Unexpectedly. We’ve Got Access To Her Checking Account, And She Has A Significant Sum Of Money There. What Should We Do?
I would suggest that one of the essential things you can do is make sure that your mother has a prepaid burial plan. I know it’s challenging to think of these things at such a time, but we all know that our time here is limited and will incur these final expenses. Therefore, as soon as is reasonable, set aside some of the parent’s money in an irrevocable burial account. This will ensure that the family will not be unduly burdened with an expense they cannot afford when they pass. Of course, we can do many other things in such a situation, but I recommend that you consider starting with a prepaid burial plan.
If you should find yourself with a loved one in a nursing home and unsure about what to do with all of their assets, we can help. I hope you reach out to our office and let us help guide you through this situation.
My Loved One Has To Go Into A Nursing Home Unexpectedly, Has Not Done Any Financial Preparation, And She Is Not In Any Condition To Make Good Medical And Financial Decisions At This Time. What Can We Do?
This is when you will need to reach out to the court system and seek a court order allowing you to make decisions for your loved one. You can be reasonably confident that someone will have to receive medical information and make very weighty decisions considering your loved one’s care and financial decisions. Usually, guardianship is an action that will be necessary. Your loved one will have nominated a guardian with any luck, and you will have access to that document. Still, usually, that is not the case, and the court will sometimes have to decide between competing parties and decide on how much power they will have. The use of powers of attorney can often avoid these sorts of situations. A general power of attorney for financial affairs and a medical power of attorney to decide what power and medical care are best in this situation.
Please put these plans in place before the time comes when these are needed. If you need our guidance through such a situation, we hope you will reach out to our office right away.
What If I Want To Disinherit My Family And Leave Everything To My New Spouse Or Partner?
You must seek the guidance and assistance of qualified estate planning counsel for this situation. Your estate planning attorney may be recommending that they interview you on video so that they can prove to the court that you understood who your friends and family were, that you understood the testamentary act when it went into effect, and you understood what you owned and the consequences of the action you were taking. They may even want to go further than this and ask you why you are disinheriting the people closest to you.
It is relatively inexpensive and easy to make a digital video recording and save a copy of that recording and share it with the person who will be inheriting from your estate just in case they are ever challenged on whether you were competent and whether this was really what you wanted to do. Please keep in mind that this will all work better if you make this recording and give your attorney instructions without the proposed beneficiary anywhere in the vicinity. I would suggest that having the beneficiary in the room or even in the building is almost always a bad idea. Sometimes it cannot be avoided, but often it can and should be.
For more information on When A Loved One Is In Long Term Care, an initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (405) 754-4166 today.
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