Medicaid & Long-Term Care Planning
Do you need help navigating Medicaid and long-term care planning for you or a loved one? Learn how our Lexington attorneys can help you obtain Medicaid coverage and protect your assets.
More and more families are discovering that long-term care costs for an elderly family member can rapidly deplete an entire estate. To protect those assets, it’s vital to seek qualified legal assistance. This can be for matters related to Medicaid and long-term care planning.
Lexington estate planning attorneys have the knowledge to help you obtain Medicaid benefits. These benefits can either cover completely or greatly assist in paying for skilled nursing, assisted living, or in-home care when the time comes. Beginning the planning process as soon as possible can help you to protect estate assets. Additionally, while ensuring the elderly family member has sufficient care.
Understanding Medicaid and Long-Term Care Planning
Medicaid is a nationwide healthcare program designed to help low-income individuals and families obtain financial assistance. This assistance is for the costs involved in long-term care for seniors. With proper planning, families can access Medicaid resources rather than drain savings accounts and estates to cover the high costs of care.
Taking advantage of Medicaid can also help families afford the appropriate level of long-term care. Rather than settling for less than the individual needs for optimal health, comfort, and quality of life. An attorney with experience helping seniors qualify for Medicaid will have the knowledge and strategies to bring the individual and family members peace of mind during a challenging time.
What Kind of Long-Term Care Planning Is Available?
Lexington attorneys offer two types of long-term care planning, depending on the client’s situation:
- Pre-Planning: If you have five years or more to plan for a loved one’s long-term care, an attorney can help you through the pre-planning process. A pre-planning strategy will ensure plans are set in advance to facilitate the best care and maximum asset protection.
- Crisis planning: If you need immediate financial assistance through Medicaid for long-term care costs, an attorney can still help. Even if you don’t have time to make plans in advance. A Lexington law firm can provide ethical, legal strategies to help you afford the necessary care. All while avoiding asset depletion during a crisis.
Conservatorship & Guardianship
If you or someone you love is losing competency and needs protection in matters related to personal and medical care, a conservatorship may be the solution. Learn how a Lexington attorney can offer professional conservatorship or guardianship services.
A conservatorship’s goals often involve protection and supervision for a loved one who is losing competency or has diminished mental capacity. A knowledgeable Lexington conservatorship attorney can help families determine if a conservatorship is the right solution and, if so, which type of conservatorship is right for each unique situation.
What Are Conservatorship and Guardianship?
A conservatorship is a proceeding in which a judge appoints a conservator—an individual or organization—to make decisions on behalf of someone unable to make decisions on their own due to illness, injury, or mental capacity. While a conservatorship often deals with all decisions, including financial, personal, and medical, guardianship tends to focus on non-financial issues, such as medical directives.
Both conservatorship and guardianship are court-appointed. Conservatorship often refers to adults, and, in most cases, guardianship refers to the protection and supervision of minors.
There are four primary types of conservatorship:
- Conservatorship of estate: authority for management of finances
- Conservatorship of person: authority to manage personal lifestyle and health decisions
- Limited conservatorship: authority to make decisions for an adult with a disability, typically related to financial matters
- Joint Conservatorship: authority for two people to share the role of the conservator, such as siblings joining to help a parent
Why Consider a Conservatorship Attorney?
When a loved one is at risk of abuse, financial exploitation, or other issues threatening safety and well-being, an attorney with experience handling conservatorships can help. With the right structure and protective measures in place, a loved one with disabilities or medical issues, such as dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease, brain injury, or mental illness, will remain in the best care possible. A conservatorship attorney offers counsel and legal services to bring peace of mind to all parties involved while facilitating a higher quality of life for the loved one.
Call a Lexington Elder Law Attorney Today
If you or a family member requires an attorney who has in-depth knowledge of and experience in conservatorship and guardianship or Medicaid and long-term planning services, McCutchen McLean, LLC can offer the guidance you need. Contact our Lexington office today at 803-785-4529 to discuss how we can meet your needs.
