Old age is a significant and highly delicate stage in everyone’s life that requires an equal delicate attention. As you get old, there are things you need to set aright and put in place, things you need to consider such as: who would pay your medical bills and taxes when you become too weak to do so? Who takes medical decisions on your behalf when you can no longer speak for yourself? Who benefits from your retirement plan and insurance policies when you die? What retirement plan best suits you and your financial situation?
If you are still contemplating hiring a retirement planning attorney for legal assistance for all these worries, then you should settle your doubt with this notion: your whole life’s work is at stake!
Not having a well-defined and solid estate plan as you enter into retirement can put everything you have worked for on the line. Peradventure you suddenly fall mentally ill, who would then make important decisions for you? Who would even know the deepest wishes of your heart and how to implement them?
These are the top reasons to hire a retirement planning attorney.
Getting long-term care
Long-term care is something that should be planned for when you are still healthy enough. When a good long-term care is in place, then your family can rest assured that you would be getting the kind of care which you specifically desire when you become ill or mentally incapacitated and unable to make any coherent decisions.
To get a personalized long-term care plan that particular suits your condition, you definitely would need the professional assistance of a qualified elder law attorney or retirement planning attorney. Retirement planning attorneys help people just like you plan for their retirement to ensure they get all the benefits due them in their old age.
Asset protection
This is another area where hiring a retirement planning attorney becomes crucial. If your assets are not protected before you lose your health or life, then all you have toiled for all your life may fall into the wrong hands and cause heavy distress and trauma for your surviving loved ones. Asset protection varies among individuals in as much as their financial situations and goals are different. A retirement planning attorney will help you create an individualized estate plan to take care of these issues, ensuring that considerable assets pass on to your heirs when you die after estate debts and taxes have been cleared.
Minimizing the cost of long-term care
The cost of long-term care can be so huge such that your estate if small can be open to risks of bankruptcy. These costs can wreck you and leave very little or nothing for your survivors if adequate planning is not put in place. You may not know what options of long-term care to take, hence another reason for hiring a retirement planning attorney. The attorney would recommend to you specific long-term insurance plan and strategies that would significantly cut down on your long-term are costs, thereby leaving maximal inheritance for your survivors.
Medicaid planning
Many senior citizens require Medicaid benefits for enhanced quality living, but there are criteria to qualify for Medicaid, one of which is having assets valuing below the Medicaid threshold.
This invariably points to the fact that you would have to indulge in a Medicaid spend down so as to go below this threshold and qualify for the benefits. This spend down can burn through your assets and considerably reduce the amount of inheritance you would be passing on to your heirs. The good news is estate planning and retirement planning attorneys can come up with strategies in your estate plan with which you can avoid this spend down, yet still qualify for Medicaid and help you finance long-term care. Retirement planning attorneys will guide you in making the best decisions to give optimum protection for your assets through financial planning.
Professional and compassionate advice
Retirement planning attorneys are known for giving the elderly candid, professional and compassionate advice. An ideal and professional attorney is never after how much cents he or she hopes to get from you, but delight in achieving the goals of their clients, thereby boosting their own charisma in the legal world.
In hiring a retirement planning attorney, ensure you are working with one who is highly skilled and experienced, with vast knowledge in Elder Law and has helped a number of clients achieve their own financial goals. Retirement planning attorneys work hard to fight for the interest and goals of their clients, ensuring that they are financially, medically and legally prepared to face their last days without discomfort.
To get your own peace of mind during your last days, contact a retirement planning attorney today.