Jarvis Law Office

Is Your Parent Ready for Assisted Living?

It can be a difficult situation when you suspect your parent is not capable of living on their own anymore. This is a person you’ve looked up to your whole life for guidance and strength, and now they are entering a stage of life where they may be losing the ability to care for themselves. It’s not easy for either you or your parent to address the situation, and if left unaddressed, your parent may very well miss out on the care they need and deserve. However, there are some helpful ways you can approach the subject if you believe your parent can no longer live alone and needs the help of an assisted living community.

Typically, an objective third party can help start the conversation about assisted living care. This may be a physician, geriatric care manager, elder law attorney, or another professional who is experienced with age-related issues. Speaking with one of these professionals can be especially helpful if your parent is suffering from physical or mental effects of aging, and you’re not sure what level of care is appropriate for your parent. A professional can help assess the level of care necessary at the present and also help prepare you for the type of care your parent may need in the future.

Keep in mind that while assisted living communities provide a certain amount of care, you should select a place that offers an appropriate level of independence for your loved one, as well. For example, some communities will handle cleaning and laundry for their residents, but those residents still have the ability to cook for themselves. Others provide transportation to doctor appointments or social activities, but also allow seniors to park and drive their own vehicles if they’re still able. This kind of independence is important for seniors who do not yet need round-the-clock care, as it allows them to maintain an active, social lifestyle and not feel as though they’ve lost all control. It’s important to speak with your parent to determine their wishes and, once again, to consult with an elder care professional to get an accurate assessment of the type of care your parent requires.

For more information about assisted living communities and how to help your parent make the transition from living at home, please contact our Ohio elder law offices at 877-653-3450 to schedule a free initial consultation.

Is Ohio Home Care Right for Your Parent?

It is the goal of many senior citizens to stay in their own home as long as they can. However, as physical abilities decline and health problems mount, it’s not always a possibility. Long-term health care within the confines of a senior’s home is a solution, but it must fit in with a senior’s individual situation. If you’re considering arranging long-term home care for your parent, you should speak with an Ohio elder law attorney to find out if it’s the right move for your parent.

For example, if your parent is in need of round-the-clock, intensive health care, a home care set up may not be the best solution. The financial cost may be too much to handle, and planning for the different types of care your parent needs can become difficult. In this case, an assisted living community or skilled nursing facility could be the best choice for your parent. Seeking out the opinion of professionals who are experienced with elder care issues, such as geriatric care managers, geriatricians, and elder law attorneys, can help you determine the right type of care for your parent.

If it’s determined that your parent is capable of receiving care in their own home, there are several advantages they can benefit from, the most important being the feeling of independence and the comfort of remaining in their own home. These feelings cannot be overestimated, as the positive impact on their mental health can also provide some benefits to their physical health. However, it’s also important to note that socialization and companionship can affect your parent’s mental state. So, if they do stay in their own home, arrangements should be made for them to meet with friends and family on a regular basis, or to make trips to senior centers or adult day care centers.

Unfortunately, while home care may work for your parent during the current stage of their aging process, there’s no guarantee that they will be able to remain in their home for the duration. While your parent is still in his or her home, you should take the time to examine what other options are out there in the event that their required level of care increases, and how you can transition them from their home to a senior care community.

For more information about home care and how to help determine if it’s right for your parent, please contact one our Ohio elder offices at 877-653-3450 to schedule a free initial consultation.

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.

Ohio Elder Law Attorney: What to Know About Respite Care

It’s no secret that caregivers of elderly parents and/or elderly family members have a difficult job, especially when many take care of their own children as well. It is a demanding task, often leaving caregivers burnt out and exhausted. Therefore, elder law attorneys often advise clients about respite care and adult day care.  These services provide caregivers a chance to relax, refresh, and recharge – meaning they’ll be better able to care for their loved ones.

 

Respite Care

Respite care is often performed by family members, trusted friends, or professional caregivers and can be beneficial to both the caregiver and the senior. It allows the caregiver a chance to take a break or attend to other responsibilities, while the senior can benefit from a change of pace. Respite care often takes place in the home, but sometimes churches and senior centers offer respite care services. These services include companionship, personal care, meal preparation, and assistance with medication. If you don’t have family members or friends who can provide respite care, your local elder law attorney can give you a list of locations that provide respite care, as well as agencies that refer respite caregivers. Take note: when hiring a caregiver through an agency, be sure to do your research and make sure the agency is licensed and insured.

Adult Day Care

Adult day care facilities differ from respite care in that they are organized programs and provide more care options for seniors. In addition to the options listed above, adult day care centers are also great places for seniors to socialize and participate in activities. Caregivers can also take advantage of the services offered by adult day cares, such as referrals to other care organizations and certain types of social services. Adult day care facilities differ from nursing homes in that they offer little to no medical services to seniors, even if they are associated with a hospital or other medical care facility. Typically, adult day care centers only help with administering medication and sometimes with physical therapy.  As with respite care agencies, elder law attorneys urge you to research adult day care centers in your area to make sure they have a good reputation and offer the kind of services needed for your elderly loved one.

If you have questions about respite care or adult day care facilities for your elderly parents or family members, or if you’d like to explore different ways to pay for care, please contact our office at 1-877-653-3450.

Ohio Elder Law Attorney: 5 Ways the Elderly Can Avoid Financial Abuse

It’s no secret that the elderly are a favorite target of scam artists. Criminals will troll the internet and phone lists looking for seniors that are easy to prey upon due to an illness, disability, or cognitive impairment. Another reason scam artists love to attack seniors is the expectation that they have accumulated wealth over the course of their lifetime.  They anticipate a huge pay day whenever a senior is involved.

Whether it is an overseas predator thousands of miles away, or an unscrupulous home care provider, there are a number of steps you can take to protect yourself and those you love from financial scams.  When potential predators know that there are people watching out for the elderly person, they are much less likely to act due to fear of criminal prosecution. Here are some steps seniors and their family members can take to prevent financial abuse.

1.  Arrange for account oversight

Select someone that will help the senior manage their accounts and watch out for unusual activity, like large checks or large ATM withdraws. Having extra eyes on the senior’s bank statements or other transactions can help heed off fraudulent activity.

Sometimes it can help to add an adult child as a co-owner of certain accounts, so that they have the joint ability to write checks, make investment decisions, and take action to protect funds in those accounts. It also means the funds in those accounts can bypass probate. Trust is obviously a huge factor here, considering the co-owner will have full access to the senior’s money.  And, there are other risks involved with joint ownership that should prompt you to speak with an elder law attorney before going down this road.

2.  Create a living trust

It’s often a wise choice for a senior to move their assets into a living trust.  This legal tool protects the senior’s money and property, and allows someone that the senior trusts (the trustee) to manage the assets on the senior’s behalf whenever necessary.  However, unlike joint accounts, it does NOT give the trustee co-ownership of the senior’s funds or assets. And, it allows greater control in passing down the assets in the trust that the senior would not be afforded with under joint tenancy.  For example, if the senior has four children but only one is named as co-owner the senior’s accounts, at the time of their death, the co-owner becomes the sole owner of those funds and they are not required to share the inheritance with the other kids.  However, if the senior creates a trust, he or she retains oversight while alive, but also gets to choose how to distribute the funds after death however he or she wishes.  

3.  Get help paying bills

It is always helpful to have a second set of eyes on things, by recruiting someone else to help the senior pay bills, your family has a better chance of catching anything out of the ordinary. 

4.  Use a limited credit card

Utilize any credit monitoring services offered by the senior’s credit card companies, and where possible, limit the amount the senior can spend by using pre-paid cards or spending caps.

5.   Consult with an elder law attorney

An elder law attorney can help you create a plan to legally establish who can help you with financial management.

Unfortunately, there is no way to completely stop financial abuse. But, by doing a few of these things, you can definitely make yourself less of a target. If you are ready to build this wall of protection around your finances, contact our office at 1-877-653-3450 to set up a free consultation.

Do Wealthy Benefit the Most from Social Programs?

White Americans who are the least well-off financially are on average beginning to live shorter lives, while wealthier Americans are now seeing an increase in their lifespans, according to Financial Advisor in "The Rich Are Living Longer And Taking More From Taxpayers."

The result of this trend is that wealthy Americans are receiving a disproportionate amount from the Social Security and Medicare system. However, when all government benefit programs are considered, the lowest income levels and the wealthiest receive about the same overall.

The problem is that the Social Security system needs to be fixed, to make sure it remains solvent.

One way to fix it is to increase the retirement age, but that will make the problem worse. Wealthier Americans will not be affected as much as many poorer Americans who will not live to see any benefits. This will effectively make their payments into the system, a tax on them for the benefit of the wealthy.

Another solution is through means-testing Social Security, but the program was designed without means-testing to make it more difficult to cut later on.

Reference: Financial Advisor (April 24, 2017) "The Rich Are Living Longer And Taking More From Taxpayers."

Wealthy Look for Ways to Contribute to Society

A new trend has surfaced among wealthy couples asking for charitable donations on their wedding registries instead of gifts, according to The New York Times in "For Those Who Have It All, Charitable Wedding Registries."

The reality of a few people holding a large portion of the world’s wealth has received a lot of attention lately from all sides of the political spectrum.

However, while the political debate is raging, many wealthy people are looking for ways that they can use their wealth for good and to stop accumulating things for themselves.

One of the great things about charitable donations is that they are not only optional, but they also allow people to decide for themselves what to give away and to whom.

Wealthy people do not have to wade into the political debate to give to charity. Instead, they can use their money to support causes and organizations they believe in.

If you would like to give to charity, then it is important to do so the right way.

 An estate planning attorney can guide you.

Reference: New York Times (March 24, 2017) "For Those Who Have It All, Charitable Wedding Registries."

Digital History at the Cemetery

Information about the deceased’s life can now be displayed on a headstone with a screen, according to     Smithsonian.com in "Digital Tombstone Brings the Dead Back to Life."

Unfortunately a person can eventually be forgotten after death, because even a walk through a cemetery brings limited information from a tombstone and rarely has information on the deeds or details of the person’s life.

That might be about to change.

Technology continues to offer more and more ways to preserve information about the details of people's lives for posterity. One of the latest things comes from a cemetery in Slovenia, where people can pay to have a video screen on their tombstones.

Eventually, elderly people will need to confront whether they want to be remembered in detail after they pass away and, if so, for how long?

Reference: Smithsonian.com (April 13, 2017) "Digital Tombstone Brings the Dead Back to Life."

Preventing the Elderly from Becoming Victims

The elderly have often been an easy target for people who want to take advantage of them.  However, that is starting to change, according to The New York Times in "Declaring War on Financial Abuse of Older People."

Despite sometimes being easy targets, there has only been limited action to strengthen laws against elder financial abuse with many preferring to treat it as a private, family matter.

Thanks to the efforts of activists and elder law attorneys, lawmakers are taking increasing notice of the issue. Last year,  it was addressed in 33 state legislatures and proposals are currently pending in the Congress to toughen the law.

Some of these efforts are meant to help prevent the abuse from happening and to see that it is reported when it does. Other efforts are focused on making sure that elder financial abuse is treated appropriately as a criminal matter.

Reference: New York Times (April 14, 2017) "Declaring War on Financial Abuse of Older People."