One of the questions I get is “Is it necessary to take care of your elderly parents as they age? And the answer is, of course no. But this raises the question of who will take care of your parents as they age and how will it be paid for?

In this country, we have a system of a variety of different levels of care for elderly people. This ranges from independent living apartments all the way to skilled nursing care. Now, the question of who pays for it is an important one. In this country, we do not have a solid social safety net for our elderly citizens. And so what that means is that there are typically three ways to pay for elderly care and long term care.

The first is that the elder, the senior, uses his or her assets to pay for nursing home care. The second is that if the senior has long-term care insurance and that long-term care insurance is activated, they could then use that long-term care insurance to pay for the cost of care. The third way is that they protect their assets so that they get qualified for medical for long term care or certain VA benefits such as aid and attendance benefits.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.

One of the questions I get in estate planning is whether an inheritance constitutes income for income tax purposes. And the answer to this question is no.

Inherited property does not constitute income for income tax purposes. It’s a gift. Somebody who is giving you property. It’s not income that you earned. 

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.

One of the questions I get is who should I choose to be my agent under a healthcare power of attorney?

Now, a healthcare power of attorney is a document where you can appoint someone to make health care decisions for you if you are no longer able to manage your day-to-day health care.

Typically, people will choose someone that they know and trust intimately to make those kinds of healthcare decisions. If a couple is married, the spouses will choose the other spouse. If a person has children, that person will typically choose the adult children to make those healthcare decisions.

But even if you don’t have a spouse or children, you probably have friends. And, if you have a close personal friend who you trust to make those kind of healthcare decisions for you, you can appoint that person to make those decisions.

If you don’t have anyone that you’re comfortable with appointing, you could always appoint a professional private fiduciary who is a licensed professional within the state of California, and that person will be able to make healthcare decisions for you if you appoint them. And that person will also be able to make financial decisions for you if you appoint them to make the financial decisions as well.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.

One of the questions I get in estate planning is whether 30 years old is too young to do estate planning.

And the answer to this question is no, it’s not too young to do estate planning if you’re 30 years old. Now, doing estate planning is one of the core financial skill sets that’s important for every legal adult to have.

What this means is that once you reach the age of 18, you should have some type of estate planning in place. Even if it’s only a will and a powerof attorney and a healthcare directive, it’s still important to have those documents in place for you.

Once you become older and you start acquiring assets, maybe you purchase a home, maybe you have retirement or savings or investment accounts. It even becomes more important.

In fact, I recommend that everyone18 or older do estate planning.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.

One of the questions I get is how will the elderly pay for long term care? Now there are three ways to pay for long term care generally.

The first is you pay out of pocket. The second is you have long term care insurance that is triggered or activated. The third is you qualify for a government program.

Now the most common government programs that we help people plan for are medical for long term care or VA aid and attendance.

So this is how people who are elderly can pay for long term care.

Quick Question Corner is a video segment where we answer common questions about estate planning and elder law. If you have similar questions, leave them in the comment section and we can feature them in one of our videos in the future.