Most of our parents get to the age (after retirement) when it can be very hard to think up gift ideas. They have or plan to downsize their homes for easier maintenance and less cost. This makes many of their collections a burden rather than a source of joy. Many seniors begin to give away their collections to kids or grandchildren in order to declutter. Others may have had to move into smaller quarters to get assistance with their daily activities or memory care support. Even for those still “at home”, former hobbies may be impaired by decrease in energy levels or vision. As some of our clients tell us, they “just don’t need any more things.”
If you have a parent like this, a Life Care Plan could be the perfect gift. Life Care Planning is a multi-disciplinary approach to providing support for seniors. A Life Care Plan provides support from a team which includes a probate attorney in Naples FL and other attorneys, benefit planners, and those with social work backgrounds. The Life Care team can help you or your loved one plan for late-in-life issues such as estate planning and planning for potential disability.
The Life Care Plan places special emphasis on issues surrounding long life. The Life Care Plan includes important information about you, including where you live, your health, your family, and the resources that are available to you to help you take care of yourself. Also included are a discussion of your goals and concerns, and ideas and options that we have identified as being suitable for your circumstances.
Planning Goals
There are three principal goals of the Life Care Plan that we help you develop and implement:
- We help make sure that you get good care, whether that care is at home or outside the traditional home setting. Getting good care is the most important of all goals, for it goes to the very heart of your quality of life in your later years. Your Life Care Plan is focused first on your good health, safety and well-being.
- We help you make decisions relating to your long-term care and special needs. We are your resource of experienced, supportive, knowledgeable and objective advisors.
- We help you find sources to pay for good long-term care. We work with you through the maze of choices and options to find the best, or often, the most comfortable solution to the asset protection problem created by the need to pay for quality long-term care.
Your Care Questions Answered
We will help you answer your questions about your long-term care and health care choices:
- What health care, chronic care, and long-term care services are available to me? How can I get the good care I need and desire, whether in my home, in a residential community or assisted-living facility, in my child’s home, or in a nursing home?
- How will financial and health care decisions be made for me if I cannot make them for myself? Who can I rely on to make sure that decisions to be made are the right ones?
- If I can’t take care of myself, who will make sure my spouse continues to have a good quality of life?
- If there is a health care crisis, what will we have to do? Where do we turn for the help we need?
- How do I know if I am getting good care? Who will advocate and intervene for me if necessary to ensure my right to quality health care and long-term care?
Other Questions
A Life Care Plan helps you and your loved ones answer other pressing questions as well:
- How do I assure my financial security as I get older?
- What public benefits am I entitled to, and what do I have to do to qualify for them?
- Should I rely on Medicaid or other government benefits to help pay for my care?
- Should I buy long-term care insurance?
- How do I apply for benefits?
- What kinds of insurance do I need? Should I use Medicare Advantage?
- How and when should I distribute my assets? Can I save taxes and avoid probate?
- Do I have to spend all of my money on my care, whether in my home or in a residential care facility such as a nursing home? How can I protect my assets to take care of my spouse, to insure I get good care, or to leave to my children?
- How do I provide for family members with special needs?
Your Really Appreciated (“perfect”) Gift
Since the Life Care Plan is customized to your loved one’s desires and needs, it can be the perfect gift. We can help them plan for the later stages of life and achieve their care and asset protection goals. When changes occur (and they will), we stay with you every step of the way to help you shift to another plan as it becomes necessary. If you would like to give your parents or your spouse the gift of a Life Care Plan, contact our office at 239-434-8557 to set an appointment to discuss how to begin.