Long-Term Care Planning

When planning how to pay for retirement and what to leave to heirs, the possible expense of long-term care, such as skilled nursing care, can be cause for concern. If such care is needed, it will be expensive. Many people worry that it will completely exhaust their savings. However, you can and should plan for this possibility to protect your assets. The assistance of an experienced elder law attorney is essential to helping you make the right decisions.

Long-term care insurance is one option to address this possible need. If this type of insurance is part of your plan, or if you would like to incorporate it, we can advise you. You might also choose to make the changes necessary to protect all or most of your assets and still qualify for Medi-Cal benefits to cover the cost of care.

Many people are under the impression that Medi-Cal, California's Medicaid program, is only available to those who are financially destitute. The term “spend down” is often misunderstood to mean that all of one's assets must be exhausted before one can become eligible for Medi-Cal. While there are asset and income limits that determine eligibility, financial exhaustion is not necessary for qualification. Instead, changes can be made that will protect some of your assets while allowing you to receive coverage from the program for the cost of long-term care.

At Gilfix & LaPoll, we have decades of experience in Medi-Cal and Medicaid planning and in elder law. We can advise you throughout the complicated process of protecting your assets while achieving Medi-Cal eligibility.

Complex Process

The process for achieving this is complex. Some assets are already protected from Medi-Cal's eligibility requirements. Other assets can legally be transferred while avoiding triggering a period of ineligibility. It may be appropriate to create an irrevocable trust to hold title to your home. We will be careful to take the steps necessary to avoid an estate claim (in which Medi-Cal would attempt to recover the cost of the program from your estate after your death). Throughout this process, we follow Medi-Cal's rules strictly while using every exception to help you.

Planning for retirement and the possible necessity of long-term care can be stressful. You should not go through it alone. Call the professionals at Gilfix & LaPoll (650) 683-9200 for a consultation, and let us show you how we can help.

YOU ARE AND SHOULD BE WORRIED ABOUT THE COST OF LONG-TERM CARE.

You are reading this book because you are concerned, perhaps worried to your wits' end, about getting and paying for quality long-term care for yourself or a loved one. You are looking for reliable, understandable information about options, different levels of care, and how the potentially devastating cost can be paid.

This book will deliver. Based on over 40 years’ experience, the authors answer your questions and give you the information you need to develop a plan that works for you. It is "agnostic," in that it does not presume a solution for any given situation. It identifies the three ways the cost can be covered – paying out of your own pocket or "self-insuring," purchasing long-term care insurance, or looking to Medi-Cal and other government programs that can pay all or part of the cost of long-term care. Often, it is a combination of two or all three of these approaches.

The authors appreciate that these challenges are difficult and emotional. Their goal is to make this complicated world of long-term care – and long-term care financing – manageable for you and your family. ORDER NOW