Our life care planning services can help, giving you a a proactive approach to planning for the needs of an elder as he or she becomes more dependent on others.
At Moynihan Lyons we take a team approach to life care planning, incorporating a team of both lawyers and our geriatric care coordinator.
Our lawyers create a sound legal framework for your plan, while our life care coordinator will help to create a custom life care plan tailored to the individual needs of your loved one.
There are three steps to creating a successful life care plan. Finding appropriate care, obtaining that care and paying for that care. At Moynihan Lyons, we help you with all three steps; identifying appropriate care facilities and providers, getting your loved one the care they need and helping manage the cost of care with private funds and public benefits that may be available to you.
At Moynihan Lyons, we support our clients through the entire process, from creating an initial plan through the ongoing work of care management. We’re here to guide you through events as they occur.
Introduction:
Don and Marie are a married couple in their 70s. They live in Riverside in the house where they raised their 3 kids, Al, Bob and Carol. Al lives in San Diego. Bob is in Texas. Carol lives in Riverside and helps mom and dad.
Recently Don was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Marie and Carol have been providing round-the-clock care themselves but know that he needs more help than they can provide. Marie’s health is starting to decline, partially due to the stress of taking care of Don. And Carol, who has been taking time away from her job, needs to go back to work. Al and Bob feel helpless being so far away and worry that they aren’t up-to-date on their parents’ needs.
Everyone wants to do the right thing and make sure that Don gets the care he needs. They want to honor his wishes to live at home. But they worry about his safety and Marie’s, too. Don and Marie are also worried about spending all of their money on his care and leaving Marie with nothing. They didn’t know what to do.
After an initial meeting at Moynihan Lyons, they decided to design a Life Care Plan. After meeting with our Geriatric Care Coordinator, they made some changes to the house, which made it much safer for both Don and Marie. Our Geriatric Care Coordinator helped them select reliable and trustworthy in-home caregivers which relieved much of the stress on Marie and Carol. She also recommended a few assisted living facilities for the future. Because Don was a Veteran, they may be able to access the Veteran’s Special Pension to help pay for care in the assisted living facility.
Their legal planning was designed to give Carol authority to help manage their finances. Furthermore, the plan will allow them to access public benefits to pay for nursing home care if that becomes necessary while protecting the family house from estate recovery.
While disability and retirement planning, and special needs planning can be ‘top of mind’ issues for boomers or older seniors, there are two additional essential estate planning needs that are not directly tied to the economy. These two concerns, if not addressed adequately, are responsible for a lot of family discord and discontent, not to [...]
Here’s another great tip that Jeff Lanza shared at his identity theft presentation last week.
Don’t believe caller id.
Just because the name or number on a display looks like it from a legitimate source, you could be the victim of a spoofer.
Bad guys can use “spoof cards” to make the caller id readout display any name/number they want.
Are you prepared? Have you given someone the legal authority to make medical decisions on your behalf if you are unable to do so through an Advance Directive or Healthcare Power of Attorney? Does that person know what you want AND what you don’t want? Do you have a Living Will which addresses your end-of-life [...]
Maureen just returned from the joint meeting of Northern & Southern California chapters of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys in San Jose. A great group of colleagues shared a wealth of valuable information. Thanks to all. In particular, thanks to Julie Fiedler of San Ramon for spearheading the efforts.