No one wants to end up in a nursing home in the final years of their life. However, the people who need nursing home care do not have much of a choice in the matter. Some people are just going to need it.
The problem is that staying in a nursing home for any length of time is incredibly expensive. As the country ages, it is likely to get more expensive, since there will be competition for rooms. The government will actually pay for people's nursing home stays, but it is not exactly easy to qualify. Before the government will provide assistance, the value of a person’s assets must be below the asset limit, or have assets that are excluded, such as a homestead, as the Brentwood Home Page discusses in "Long-term planning for long-term care."
There are ways around this problem. However, planning needs to be done well in advance. For some people, purchasing an insurance policy will be an option but long-term care insurance is expensive and not always available. Other people will need to get creative, so their assets can still be passed on to their heirs and the government will still pay for nursing home care.
Figuring out how this can be done requires the assistance of an elder law or estate planning attorney. Ideally, this needs to be done at least five years before a person enters a nursing home, but the Petrosewicz Law Firm can also assist those who are already in a nursing home or about to enter one.
The Petrosewicz Law Firm can assist you with your elder law needs. Contact us today at (281) 344-9455 or [email protected].
Reference: Brentwood Home Page (May 28, 2018) "Long-term planning for long-term care."
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