Jarvis Law Office

What You Need to Know About Long-term Care for Aging Parents in Ohio

It’s an unfortunate fact of aging that most seniors will require a stay at a long-term care center. Some stays are brief, such as when a nursing home is necessary for rehabilitation. Others are more permanent, especially in cases of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. If you are struggling with finding and paying for the right long-term care center for your parent in Ohio, here are some things you need to know.

Appropriate Level of Care

The first thing you need to know when considering a long-term care center is the level of care your parent requires. Long-term care encompasses many different levels of care, so it’s important to match up the care center with the individual needs of your parent. Different types of centers include skilled nursing and rehabilitation or nursing home, custodial care or assisted living communities, and intermediate care or independent living communities. While it’s not always possible to plan ahead for nursing home care, especially if it comes as the result of an emergency or accident, it may be a good idea to become familiar with some of the long-term care centers in your area. When the time comes for long-term care, an elder law attorney can assist you in helping to determine the level of care required for your parent by guiding you through a needs assessment process and making connections to the appropriate long-term care center.

Paying for Long-term Care

Another important concern is how to pay for your parent’s long-term care. Care centers often cost anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 per month, depending on the level of care required. Long-term care insurance policies may help defray some of these costs, but very rarely do those policies cover the entire amount needed. Special benefits are available to veterans through the VA, and Medicare may help pay for a very short amount of time in a nursing home. Medicaid is the most common option to help pay for long-term care, but there are strict eligibility requirements attached to that assistance, and it is very easy to become disqualified from that care if your parent exceeds asset or income limits or has made gifts of their assets. It is important to speak with an Ohio elder law attorney to review your available options and determine the best course of action to pay for your parent’s long-term care.

For more information about long-term care centers and how to make the best choice for your elderly parent, please call our elder law office at 877-653-3450 to schedule a complimentary initial consultation.

Is Long-Term Care Insurance a Safe Investment in Ohio?

Modern medicine has increased lifespans exponentially over the past 60 years. The sad reality, though, is that as people age, they need more long-term care.  This type of care is extremely expensive, costing more than $10,000 a month in some cases. Some solutions have been formulated to combat this problem, including long-term care insurance. But as with anything, there are pros and cons to long-term care insurance, and there are many concerns you should address before investing in that type of insurance.

Long-term care insurance is often marketed as providing protection against the high costs associated with skilled nursing facilities and other long-term care. The problem is that long-term care insurance comes with many restrictions and requirements and may only provide a certain amount of protection from long-term care costs—sometimes less than what you may have spent in insurance premiums.

These policies may not cover assisted living facilities.  And the fact is that most seniors cannot afford to keep paying long-term care insurance premiums during their later retirement years, typically just before the point when they would have a need for a stay at a long-term care facility.

With all this being said, however, there are still situations where long-term care insurance may be a good investment. Most financial experts state that paying long-term care insurance premiums that amount to 5% or less of your monthly income is a good idea, as long as you consider that income will drop and premiums will rise as you age. This is why it’s important to consult with an Ohio elder law attorney, as well as a financial advisor, before you decide to commit to long-term care insurance. An elder law attorney can review your individual situation and advise whether or not such insurance is necessary, and can work with you to determine what your financial needs and opportunities may look like as you age.

For more information about long-term care insurance and to see if it’s the right choice for your situation, or if you’d like to review your options concerning long-term care, please contact our elder law office at 877-653-3450 to schedule an appointment.

Avoiding Will Contests in Ohio

Will contests can occur when a family member or other beneficiary receives less of a share of their inheritance, or were completely written out of a last will and testament, and feel that the decisions regarding their inheritance render the will invalid. A case is brought in the probate court, and the validity of the will is determined by a judge. Will contests cause all those involved a significant amount of money and can leave family relationships beyond repair. No-contest clauses allow will makers an option to at least try to avoid some of the consequences of a will contest.

In the simplest terms, a no-contest clause is inserted into a last will and testament and states that if any beneficiary should challenge the validity of the will in court and lose, they will also lose whatever inheritance was left to them in the will. It may cause your disgruntled beneficiaries to think twice before bringing a will contest before a judge, because they risk losing out on their entire inheritance and will be saddled with some fairly expensive legal fees. In addition, Ohio state law does not recognize good faith or probable cause issues concerning no-contest clauses in will contests. This is different from many other states, which hold that if a person brings a will contest forward with probable cause, good faith, or other justifications, the no-contest clause may be ruled invalid.

However, no-contest clauses do not eliminate the threat of will contests entirely. For example, if you completely disinherit a family member from your last will and testament who otherwise would have received some sort of inheritance, a no-contest clause will not stop them from bringing a challenge to court, since they already have nothing to lose. A person bringing a will contest may also win their challenge, rendering the no-contest clause invalid and changing beneficiary distributions from what the will originally laid out.

If you think a will contest is possible after your death, it’s important to speak with an Ohio will attorney about your options, including adding a no-contest clause. An experienced attorney can run through possible scenarios with you, and provide advice relevant to your individual situation.

For more information about no-contest clauses and how they can help avoid legal challenges after your death, or if you’d like to review your current estate plan, please contact our office at 877-653-3450 to schedule an initial complimentary consultation.

5 Keys to a Comprehensive Estate Plan

Most people know about estate planning basics: documents like the last will and testament, power of attorney, living will, and sometimes a living trust. While these documents provide protection and peace of mind both before and after death, they still don’t make up an entire, complete estate plan. The following are five ways you can make your estate plan more comprehensive.

Beneficiary Forms

Insurance policies and some financial and retirement accounts are not always impacted by estate planning, since they rely on beneficiary designations when distributing funds to beneficiaries. However, there are times when these policies and accounts should be adjusted along with the estate plan.  Additionally, if there is no beneficiary listed on any of those policies or accounts, or if the beneficiary listed has already passed away, then those assets must go through probate following death. An Ohio elder law attorney can work with you to set up proper beneficiary designations on your insurance policies and financial accounts.

Letter to Family

While a last will and testament or trust document can direct how your assets are distributed to your loved ones, they usually do not provide any explanations as to the decisions you’ve made concerning your legacy. This can be a problem, especially if certain loved ones do not receive as much of an inheritance as others. Leaving a letter explaining your decisions can help to quell family disputes or hard feelings that may arise after you pass away.

End of Life Arrangements

Like your decisions concerning inheritance, a last will and testament does not provide any instructions concerning your funeral or other final arrangements. These instructions can be left in a letter, or a document known as the disposition of remains. If you have specific wishes you’d like carried out after you pass away, speak with an Ohio elder law attorney to determine the best way to let your loved ones know your wishes in this matter.

Business Succession Plans

If you’re a small business owner, it’s important to craft a business succession plan alongside your estate plan. A business succession plan allows you to determine what happens to your business, or your share of a business, after your death. For more information, you should speak with an Ohio elder law attorney who has experience with business succession planning.

Safe Document Storage

Once all your decisions have been made and your documents are signed, you must make sure they do not disappear. Whether it’s in a physical safe or saved on the cloud, make sure your executor, trustee, or other agents know how to access your documents when the time comes.

For more information about crafting a comprehensive estate plan, or if you’d like to discuss your existing estate plan, please contact our Ohio elder law office at 877-653-3450 to schedule a complimentary initial consultation.