5 Dangerous Holes In Your Estate Plan

By Terry Douglas, Maryland Elder Law Attorney

Dangerous Hole #1 Disability Planning. You have two children who live within 30 minutes of you. Your third child lives out of state. You suffer a severe stroke and require monitoring 24 hours a day. One local child wants to move in with you and provide all of your care. The other local child thinks an assisted living facility would be safer and provide better care. And your out-of-state child wants you to use your income and savings to hire around-the-clock home health care aides so you can stay at home. Who decides on where you should live and how to use your money? Make sure you decide by properly planning for any disability or incapacity.

Dangerous Hole #2 Assisted Living Care Planning. One spouse requires assisted living care and the other spouse continues to live in the family home. Neither spouse wants to think about nursing home placement. After several years of paying privately for assisted living care, they have spent almost all of their life savings. Now, how will the healthy spouse avoid total financial ruin? Proper advance planning can prevent this terrible problem.

Dangerous Hole #3 Nursing Home Care Planning. Both spouses purchase long-term care insurance policies that cover nursing home costs for two years. One spouse enters the nursing home, which triggers the start of the policy. What steps should now be taken to protect assets for the healthy spouse while the long-term care insurance pays the nursing home costs? To be able to take the necessary steps, you must do proper planning in advance.

Dangerous Hole #4 Second-to-need-care Planning. One spouse gets sick. The other spouse cares for the sick spouse in their family home. Then, the caring spouse gets sick. Now, who cares for both the first and second spouse? Without proper advance planning, how can you hope to solve this problem?

Dangerous Hole #5 Who-takes-care-of-the-finances Planning. The spouse who handles the money and writes the checks dies. The surviving spouse is now left with handling the money, something he or she has never done. Now, who pays the bills? With proper advance planning, you can solve this problem.

Your needs are unique. Planning your estate is one of the most critical things you will accomplish during your lifetime. The best way to ensure you will choose the most beneficial plan is to have your individual situation assessed.

Death and illness aren't easy to talk about. Make a personal commitment to yourself and your family that you will do everything possible to protect your family and your assets.

Plan now. It will help your loved ones later.