Long-Term Care Planning

How We Help Our Clients

While most of us desire to live out our days in our own home, many of us will need help as our health and capabilities change. As our dependence on others increases, other living solutions may be appropriate, available, and acceptable to us.

Depending on your financial resources, family support, health care needs, and other factors, there are likely options available to you, each with its benefits and challenges. These include:

staying in your home, by bringing in personal aids and other support,
living with family members,
moving to an assisted-living residence,
moving to a skilled-nursing facility (nursing home), or
moving to a continuing care community, which provides a range of levels of independence and care options.

Determining the type of care option that best fits your needs and wishes is one part of the puzzle. Another is determining how to pay for it. This will be based on your financial resources and various legal and financial planning strategies we will recommend to you.

What Happens When We Meet?

When we meet, we will work together through a two-step planning process.

Step 1: Discovery and Fact-finding

We start by learning about you, your family, and loved ones. We will discuss your goals, hopes, strengths and challenges as it relates to your family and your health care needs.

We will also discuss the details of your assets, liabilities, sources of income and your living expenses.

Once we have a “picture” of your situation, we will help you prioritize your goals so that we are planning for the most important ones. We are then ready to move on to step two.

Step 2: Discuss Options and Recommendations

Once we have an understanding of your goals and the specifics of your situation, we will then discuss our recommendations for various planning strategies. Each strategy typically has pros and cons. There is usually no perfect solution. However, these strategies can help you accomplish your own care and family goals.

We will strive to help you understand the available strategies to you, the pros and cons of each, and the cost to put these in place. You will then be armed to make an informed decision toward your planning goals.

Our Fees

For our long-term care planning we charge flat fees that include

all strategy and plan design meetings after the initial consultation,
the documents required to implement your plan,
a meeting to discuss your documents and questions you have,
a document execution meeting, and
directions to ensure your plan is properly funded.

We have several planning strategies at different price points. These fees typically range from $3,500 to $8,500, depending on the complexity of the planning solution you choose. We will provide you with the exact flat fees for various options after our initial consultation. You can then decide which option makes the most sense to you.

Why Us?

Like many long-term care attorneys, our attorneys are members of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and members of Elder Counsel, both networks of Elder Law attorneys that provide exceptional resources to help us stay on top of the latest and greatest planning techniques, as well as to stay in touch with outstanding practitioners in the field.

One of the reasons we love this work is the satisfaction of helping our clients find a clear path forward. Our clients face many planning challenges, including:

difficult choices about their own care and the needs of their family,
“dynamics” and conflict with their children,
tax exposure (and planning opportunities),
decisions about what to do with their home (to stay, to go, and where to go), and
navigating the complexity of Medicaid rules.

We find great satisfaction in helping our clients come to peace with a plan that addresses what matters most to them, and then executing that plan. We consider this our greatest value to our clients as long-term care attorneys.

Questions?

We'd love to hear from you. Contact Susan Traganos to sign up for an initial consultation.