Long-Term Care Planning
Long-Term Care Planning in New York
Serving Clients in New York City and the New York Metropolitan Area
Introduction
A long-term care plan is essential for every individual entering the retirement years. It provides orderly management of financial and medical decisions in the event of disability or incapacity. We offer a clear three-point plan, which will:
- Help you maintain the highest degree of independence in the face of illness or incapacity.
- Document your wishes and needs.
- Assemble the right combination of financial options and legal tools to meet your current, ongoing and future needs.
Maintaining Independence
Most people want to continue living in the environment they know best — their home or community. We work with our clients —and their families — to help determine how much independence is possible. We begin with a few steps:
- We start with an assessment to determine what assistance is needed
- We connect our clients to community support organizations, at-home caregivers and other resources. See our Care Advocacy section for ways we can help your family manage needed changes in living situations.
- We help document your wishes through advance directives such as a Durable Power of Attorney or Health Care Proxy.
Planning Ahead: Documenting Wishes and Needs
Self-determination and control is the goal in a successful long-term care plan for the later years, but they may not always be possible. Planning ahead can ensure that your wishes are carried out by your appointed agent. When well-informed and equipped with good legal tools your representative can make sure this will happen.
Basic legal documents are the essential tools the Grimaldi Yeung Legal Group provides — known as Advance Directives — to implement your plan. Arrange to execute a Power of Attorney, a Health Care Proxy, a medical release (called a HIPAA Release), and other instructions which will allow your agent to supervise and direct your wishes when you cannot.
Options For Financial Security
Living longer means that you may have to plan more carefully for your financial security. Our firm can create a plan to better cover extraordinary medical and living expenses, such as home care services, assisted living facilities, nursing homes or other long-term care arrangements. These expenses may be paid for in various ways, including:
- Private payment/family savings
- Medicare
- Health insurance options
- Private long-term care insurance
- Medicaid for nursing home and community based home care services
- Prescription drug coverage
- Other local community and government services
With the high cost of care, insurance and government benefits — such as Medicare/Medicaid — are paying a larger and larger share of these escalating costs. In spite of this, unprotected private savings are still expected to be fully used before most types of public funds become available. The right plan, initially using your available resources, will ensure that your care needs and costs can be covered. Some key facts to consider in forming your long-term health care plan:
- Medicare does not fully cover care costs for the long-term, but Medicaid can. Establishing Medicaid eligibility is complicated and based on income and resources eligibility, not just health needs. Start early and work with a professional — such as the Grimaldi Yeung Law Group — because our staff understands the rules and the process, this will increase your chances of success.
- Private payment of catastrophic medical and care expenses will reduce your savings, leaving you less funds for your daily needs and shrink the financial legacy you hoped to pass to your heirs.
- No matter how you fund your health care, there are tax implications. Liquidating long held savings can result in income tax and capital gains tax. Careful planning with a skilled professional can minimize your tax liability.
Meet with the attorney at Grimaldi Yeung Law Group to develop Long Term Care Plan that addresses your personal concerns about your needs in your late life and considers your available resources and the community and government benefits need to provide you what you will need.
Contact us at information@gylawny.com.