If you are healthy, it can be difficult to imagine a situation where you would require full-time care in a nursing home. However, this is one possibility you should not ignore when you are thinking about the care and services you may need as you get older.
In fact, planning for this can be crucial, particularly if you anticipate utilizing Medicaid to pay for your care.
We often discuss estate plans in the context of how they can protect our property and our loved ones when we are gone. However, one question that people often have is where animal companions fit in. They are loved ones, to be sure, but in the eyes of the law, they are actually property.
So, how can you protect your pets in your estate plan?
As we get older, we can become increasingly dependent on others, and some people experience mental declines that affect memory and comprehension. These conditions make people vulnerable and, unfortunately, targets for financial exploitation.
To protect yourself, your spouse or an elderly parent from abuse, you might look to technological tools.
There can be a lot happening in the days and weeks following a loved one's passing. There may be calls to make and a funeral to arrange; people are coping with grief and loss; there may be traveling and moving to coordinate.
Adding in the complexity of the legal process can be overwhelming, particularly if your loved one left a will that you do not believe to be accurate or valid. Under these circumstances, you might consider contesting the will. If you are in this situation, read on to learn more about whether you can - and want to - contest a will.
If your parents or grandparents are in a nursing home, you may have become increasingly concerned about their safety and well-being in the last couple of months. The spread of the novel coronavirus, combined with stay-at-home orders, has put elderly patients in nursing home facilities at a higher risk of abuse and neglect.
And unfortunately, the remedies for this population are not improving. In states across the U.S., nursing home facilities are securing protection from civil liability if a patient suffers an injury, illness or death.
Topics like funeral plans, inheritances and incapacitation are not exactly topics that families enjoy discussing. However, as our parents get older, these difficult conversations can become increasingly valuable to have.
If you have not talked to your parents about their estate plans or wishes for end-of-life care, now can be a good time to do it.
If you fall seriously ill, loved ones can often be battling confusion, grief and fear. Under these conditions, it can be incredibly difficult to make decisions regarding a person's medical care.
To ensure your spouse, children or parents do not wind up in this upsetting position, it is important that you work with an attorney to create legal documents that establish your wishes concerning medical care and treatment.
Watching your parents get older can be upsetting, particularly when they get ill or begin to lose capabilities and independence. And as their children, it may not always be clear how we can help them or whether they even need help in the first place.
For instance, if a parent is experiencing dementia other types of compromised mental states, loved ones may be unsure of whether he or she has the mental capacity to make financial, medical or legal decisions. In these situations, seeking an assessment can be an important way to help your parent.
Estate planning is an important way for people to protect their wishes regarding distribution and management of their property. And though every estate plan will vary based on the creator and his or her interests, it also varies based on the parties receiving property.
For instance, if you have a child, sibling or other family member with physical or mental disabilities, you may want to consider setting up a special needs trust naming him or her as a beneficiary.
If you fall ill and cannot express your wishes regarding medical care, doctors will seek answers about your care by looking for: a living will, a medical durable power of attorney, or your loved ones.
Under these circumstances, having your family make decisions without your input can be incredibly stressful for them. It can also be difficult because of Colorado consensus statutes, which we explain below.
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Louisville Office
1805 Hwy. 42
Suite 100
Louisville,
CO
80027
Phone:
303-720-7260
Fax:
303-604-6052
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Englewood Office
5460 South Quebec Street
Suite 333
Englewood,
CO
80111
Phone:
303-500-5859
Fax:
303-723-8814
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