Planning for Nursing Home Costs

While none of us want to think about the possibility that we, or someone we care about, will need long-term care, it is not a good idea to stick our heads in the sand and hope that everything will work out the way we want.

In order to offset some of the shock of assisted or nursing care, it is a good idea to contact Safe Harbor WIlls & Trusts in Syracuse and Watertown. Our law firm is dedicated to helping people who are currently dealing with an elder law crisis and anyone who wants to take a proactive first step to avoid a crisis later on.

When you need a will, would like more information about forming a trust, need assistance applying for Medicaid, or you want to begin the process of protecting your assets while finding a way to plan for long-term care, call us. We don’t offer “one-plan-fits-all” solutions because we know all too well that every person, every family, and every situation is unique and deserves a personalized touch.

Call Safe Harbor Wills & Trusts today to set up an appointment or for more information about how we can help you plan for nursing home costs. We offer free asset protection workshops in the Syracuse and Watertown areas that can help you start the process.

Average Costs Of Nursing Homes And Other Kinds Of Long-Term Care

Even if you haven’t checked the prices of nursing homes in your area, you’ve probably heard that the average yearly cost of long-term and nursing care has increased dramatically. In the next few sections, we will discuss what you or your loved ones may be forced to pay in the near future if you need in-home care, assisted living, or nursing home care.

If you see these figures and feel worried, call Safe Harbor Wills & Trusts right away. With offices in Watertown and Syracuse, our lawyer is here and ready to help you.

Nursing Home Costs

While many factors, including location, age, and the level of care one needs, can change the price of a room in a nursing home, the national average price can still be difficult to fathom. For a semi-private room, the average American can expect to pay $225 per day, or more than $6,800 each month. For a private room, the costs are even higher: $253 per day, and almost $7,700 each month. If you or one of your family members spend a full year in a nursing home, the overall cost will range from more than $82,000 to nearly $93,000.

For New Yorkers, these costs are significantly higher: the cost of a semi-private room for a month averages out to just over $11,000, while a private room costs more than $11,700 per month. In order to be able to afford even a single month of nursing care, most people would have to use a significant percentage of their savings.

While these prices are already high, imagine what is going to happen in the future. For everyone who cannot afford nursing home care at today’s prices, it is a good idea to start planning with our lawyer at Safe Harbor Wills & Trusts in Watertown and Syracuse. We will help you build a plan to keep your assets safe while also providing you with the ability to pay for nursing home costs.

Assisted Living Costs

Assisted living is a good option for people who need some help performing some tasks each day but who still want their independence and their own space. There are many different kinds of assisted living communities, but few of them come cheap. According to research from 2015, the average monthly cost of assisted living is around $3,600. Assisted living facilities do a lot for this money, including providing safer spaces for seniors to live, meals, housekeeping, wellness programs, and activities.

In-Home Care Costs

In-home care is another option available to aging seniors as well as people with certain types of disabilities. The cost of this kind of care varies greatly depending on the amount of time that a caregiver will need to be in the home, but the AARP estimates that the cost of home health aides average out to approximately $125 per day. If you need to find someone to help with non-medical care, including housekeeping, cooking, laundry, etc., the cost is lower than that of a health aide.

As it is plain to see, even temporary care can be prohibitively expensive for anyone who has not taken steps to ensure that they are covered. When you call Safe Harbor Wills & Trusts in Syracuse and Watertown now to start building a plan, you can avoid many of the problems that follow an emergency medical condition.. With help from our lawyer, you can save yourself, and your family, from the debilitating price of care.

Medicare Coverage Amounts

Once you have reached the age of 65, you are entitled to a number of benefits from Medicare, including a limited amount of nursing care that covers illnesses or injuries. These benefits can be incredibly helpful to people of all income levels, but they come with a number of strict caveats that may be confusing or disqualifying depending on the nature of an illness. We will cover some of these conditions further down on this page, so make sure to check that section to learn about how Medicare can be applied in specific situations.

There isn’t one solution that works for every family, so we will begin the process by determining what your needs are now and what they may be in the future. With early planning, much of the financial distress that comes with a large healthcare bill can be avoided or, at the very least, reduced. Our attorney can help you create a trust, secure insurance that can help you pay for long-term care, and help you apply for Medicaid to help further reduce your costs.

Why You Need a Lawyer to Help You Plan for Nursing Home Costs

As the information above shows, the cost of in-home and nursing home care is so high that very few people can afford it on their own. That doesn’t mean that you should panic, though; instead, pick up the phone and contact Safe Harbor Wills & Trusts in Watertown and Syracuse. When you meet with our attorney, he will help you find the best ways to protect yourself from the exorbitant costs of nursing homes.

Safe Harbor Wills & Trusts was established to help people protect their assets. To best accomplish this goal, we help people create trusts, write wills, assist them with Medicaid applications, and offer representation to people during elder law crises.

In addition to these services, we also provide the community with free workshops that are designed to help people find ways to protect their homes and life savings from creditors and nursing homes. If you attend one of these workshops, we will provide you with a free consultation and evaluation that can help you decide what your next steps should be.

Call us now for more information about these workshops or for help protecting your home and assets from nursing homes. Read on for more information that can help you take the right steps to safeguard everything you have spent your life working for.

Early Prep Is Always Better

Taking the time to prepare for possibilities, as well as eventualities, is one of the most surefire methods to protecting yourself. The more protections you have in place before something bad happens, the less likely those troubles are to cause you unmanageable stress, either mental or financial. In the sections below, you can learn about a few easy ways that you can start getting prepared for long-term care before you need it.

Use Your Family History as a Starting Point

If you don’t know how to begin the process of securing your assets in the event of a medical emergency, start by thinking about your family history. If you come from a family with very few health problems, you may be able to prepare less than other people, though not putting any protections into place can be a terrible idea, even if your family history is clean. Remember, just because the rest of your family has not had to deal with any major health issues does not mean that you are forever free of them.

If your family history shows some troubling patterns, make sure to do what you can to limit the negative effects as much as you can. Visit the doctor as recommended, get physical examinations at least once per year, get exercise, and take the medications you have been prescribed. Not only will taking charge of your health make you healthier, but it can also help you forestall a lot of financial and physical problems.

While you are healthy, you should be preparing for the times when you may be less healthy. While no one wants to sock money away for something that may seem a long way off, you will be thankful that the money is there when it is most needed.

Insurance

Along with your own savings, insurance policies that cover gaps in Medicare coverage or policies that provide nursing home care, may be a good investment for you to make. Some of these policies can be expensive, especially if you think you are years away from needing them, but there is no way to know exactly when you will need this coverage. Contact our office today to make an appointment with our lawyer to discuss the best way to handle long-term care and nursing home insurance coverage as a part of your larger asset protection plan.

Trusts

In our practice, we have found that one of the best ways to help your protect your assets is with a trust. Trusts can provide a shield from nursing homes as well as a number of other creditors, and even from some lawsuits. A trust is a legal arrangement that allows someone to hold and distribute assets on behalf of the named beneficiaries of the trust. Simply put, you transfer ownership of some or all of your assets to a trust and create an arrangement for how those assets can be used or how they are distributed over time.

In addition to reducing your overall worth (which can help you qualify for Medicaid), a trust also lets you spell out exactly how you want your estate managed after you have passed away or are no longer able to make decisions for yourself.

A trust sounds like an extreme solution to a lot of people, but there are can be many benefits to creating a trust, including added privacy. Wills go through probate which means that they become part of the public record.

Be sure to talk to our lawyer at Safe Harbor Wills & Trusts about the ways that a trust can help make your later years more comfortable and less stressful. If you know that your long-term care will be taken care of if or when you need it, you can spend your time doing the things that make life worth living. With some forethought, you won’t have to worry about burdening your children or watching as a nursing home swallows everything you have earned.