As a part of your estate plan, it’s smart to establish a long-term care plan. Your estate plan is there to help with a range of issues, like setting up your health care power of attorney and protecting your assets. It’s also there to assist you with Medicaid planning and your long-term care goals.
Why is it important to have long-term care plans?
There are several reasons why it’s important to have long-term care plans. To start with, if you have long-term care plans, you will:
- Be in control of decisions that affect you
- Make it so that family or friends are less overwhelmed if you are ill or die in the future
- Have more choices in your care in the future
Your long-term care plan can include many different topics.
What do you need to include in your long-term care plan?
In your long-term care plan, you will want to include information such as:
- The kind of technology you want to use to stay independent
- The people you want to have help you with housekeeping and daily chores
- Who you’ll hire or rely on for support with your personal care
- The skilled medical team that you’d like to work with
- Changes that you’ll make in your living environment to make it safer for you
Did you know that most people over the age of 65 will need long-term care support at one time or another? Planning for this care makes it so that you can afford the services that you want to use and make sure that your family is comfortable with the plans that you’ve put into place.
What should you do if you want to start long-term care planning?
The first thing to do is to talk to your attorney about your estate plan and how your long-term care planning fits in. Your attorney will discuss options that may help you manage your estate if you fall ill or need support. Long-term care planning has many different aspects to consider, so consider what you’d like to do in the future and work with your attorney to make sure those plans are set up and ready to go.
