Prime Time - Jane Fonda [119]
It is possible that you will not be able to afford long-term-care insurance. Many Americans cannot buy this type of insurance because it is expensive and their savings may be gone by the time they need such care. I saw, up close and personal, what lack of long-term care can do to a family. I had an uncle who developed Parkinson’s disease. His was a very protracted illness that ended up draining all the family’s savings. This is why you should try, if at all possible, to have your estate planning include insurance coverage for long-term incapacity, including assisted living, nursing homes, and in-home care, which Medicare does not cover long-term. If you’re old and impoverished, the state will put you in a Medicaid-funded nursing home. If at all possible, it is wise to identify an attorney, accountant, or estate planner who can work with you to develop a plan to cover long-term care when rising insurance premiums may be more than you can afford. For information on long-term-care insurance policies, go to www.MagaLTC.com—independent agents, specializing in this type of insurance. Different strategies can include reverse mortgages or living trusts. The younger you are when you take out long-term-care insurance, the less expensive the premiums will be.
Mary Madden is a sixty-two-year-old Atlanta businesswoman who is dating a man she met online. She told me, “I just recently got long-term care, and I asked when I got it if I got married what it would take to put someone else on it. Turns out the other person can be included pretty easily. Because that’s what worries me—the long-term care if we ended up together and one of us got sick. If you are getting married at this point in your life, you need to make sure everyone has long-term-care insurance because otherwise it could jeopardize what you leave your children. So I talked to my life insurance agent and we moved things around so I would have long-term care.”
You can go to AoA.gov for information on many elder care services, including housing and seniors’ rights, and Medicare.gov/nhcompare for information on the quality and performance of every nursing home in the country that is certified by Medicare or Medicaid.
Making Your Will
Many people put off making a will. It does, after all, require facing the time when you’ll no longer be around. My estate planner, with whom I started working thirty years ago, when my children were very young, tells me that many of her clients have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the process, whereas I see it as a fascinating, ever-evolving exercise that forces me to imagine what my children and grandchildren will become and which of my organizational efforts I want to endow if I am able and in what form. So, if you haven’t already, get to work on a will or a revocable living trust and make sure that all legal documents, deeds to your house, insurance policies, and so forth are with a lawyer or in a safe-deposit box that has a signer you trust.
Durable Power of Attorney
Another document you need is a durable power of attorney. This gives the authority to make legal decisions to a child or other trusted individual should you be incapacitated. In this way, you make it possible for them to avoid legal hassles with banks, doctors, and so on. This document should be created in conjunction with your will, or the person to make these decisions can be the “successor trustee” of your revocable trust. Think carefully about the person you choose for this responsibility; it should be someone who loves and understands you, and who will be available in an emergency situation.
Palliative Care
Knowing from my own