Missouri Elder Law: Legal Help in Branson and Springfield

How Can a Branson or Springfield Elder Lawyer Help?

Elder Law addresses issues associated with aging. Such issues include the possibility of disability, the probability of long-term care, and the certainty of death. You need an elder lawyer who can provide experienced and compassionate assistance with managing your estate.

What is Elder Law?

Elder law encompasses many different issues involved with aging, including medical powers of attorney, living wills, retirement planning, life insurance, and the prospect of long-term care and the expenses of living in a nursing home.

Why do I need to be concerned with it?

These issues will greatly affect you in your later years, so it is important that you consider your options now and make informed, thoughtful decisions. If you don’t take control of your future, the government might end up deciding what happens to your income, wealth, and family. Wouldn’t you rather decide these things for yourself?

When My Future Is so Uncertain, How Can I Plan for It?

Through proactive planning you can ensure your assets are protected and your plan has the flexibility to adapt to your uncertain future. With the help of a lawyer experienced in elder law, you can begin making some of those difficult decisions.

What should I expect when it comes to meeting with an Elder Lawyer? 

Some of the most important choices you will make involve the following:

  • Estate Planning: You need to choose how you will be provided for during your life if you are disabled and who will inherit which pieces of your estate and under what conditions.  Estate Planning puts you in control of your property and financial affairs!

  • Probate: Probate is the court system’s method of processing a person’s estate after they have died. It can be costly and time-consuming, so your goal is to avoid it altogether. Estate Planning will help you do this.

  • Medicaid: Medicaid is the program which will pay for your nursing home care if you are impoverished.  Medicaid will force you to spend down nearly ALL of your assets before qualifying.  If you plan for this scenario ahead of time, a Springfield elder lawyer can help you plan how to get the best possible care, while protecting the most amount of assets.  This is one of the most important parts of planning for an individual he or she can do.

  • Advance Directives: These documents state what you would like to happen if you are not able to make healthcare decisions for yourself in the future. If you don’t prepare this in advance, the court will appoint a guardian to make these decisions for you.

What Is the Purpose of an Elder Lawyer?

So what is elder law? It’s many things! Estate planning, Medicaid planning, advance directives, protecting assets and more. It’s a very broad term and it covers many legal issues which encompass the aging process. It’s an important subject for all of us, but it’s especially critical for those who are concerned about how to pay for the rising costs of nursing home care.

DISABILITY PLANNING IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF ELDER LAW 

What will happen if you become disabled? Who will pay your bills, advocate with your insurance company, or protect your assets? Who will make your healthcare decisions? Will a court or doctor make these decisions? Disability planning is a consideration when our elder lawyers help clients with what we call crisis planning; including power of attorney.

The reality is this: if you do not have validly executed documents in place providing the answers to these questions, you will no longer be in control when you become disabled. By executing power of attorney and other crucial documents, you will remain in control through those people you hand-select to be your advocates during a time of disability.

PROVISIONS FOR LONG-TERM CARE

At Parks & Jones Attorneys at Law, our elder law practice is devoted to providing viable solutions to safeguard your assets from the only potential creditor many estates face: the nursing home. We focus on tangible solutions to lessen the burden for individuals and families concerned about future nursing home costs or those who may already be facing these costs.

Each elder lawyer at Parks & Jones will help you select the right tools to preserve assets from nursing home costs and can even help limit or eliminate the need to spend down assets. The goal of our elder law practice is to enable you and your family (NOT the government) to control your income and wealth so you are in charge of what happens to your property and assets.

Some of these tools involve proactive planning (assets are protected from nursing home costs in five years) while others are meant to preserve assets when the nursing home costs are imminent. Proactive planning is designed to maximize asset preservation and control, so it is the preferred planning option if you have time on your side. But if you find yourself or a loved one at the nursing home without a plan, it is not too late! Contact us immediately for a no-cost consultation to see how this planning can make a difference for you and your family.

ESTATE PLANNING IS AN IMPORTANT ASPECT OF ELDER LAW

Will there be anything left to leave your beneficiaries when you die? Most people wish to leave something to the next generation. Ensuring you have a plan in place to protect yourself and maintain your quality of life in case of disability or long-term care all but ensures you will have something to leave your beneficiaries upon your passing. With proper elder law and estate planning, both you and your beneficiaries will enjoy the protection elder law planning affords.

Consider This Elder Law Scenario

You have the desire to make a difference and want to leave a legacy, and you have $100,000 to use towards that goal. If you find 100,000 different individuals or charities and give each of them $1 you will have wasted your resource and really helped no one. Conversely, if you identified 3 people or charities, or loved ones (or some combination) and each received $33,333 you will have USED (not wasted) your resource, AND you will have targeted your resource in a way that makes a significant difference. Elder care planning is about keeping your assets in the family, so you do not waste your resources and can positively benefit you and your spouse, children, or other beneficiaries.

Services Our Branson & Springfield Elder Lawyers Provide

Making decisions about end-of-life concerns can bring up a lot of emotions, and cause discord for clients and their families. Sometimes, what a parent may want will be different from what their child had in mind, or a child may feel like they are unable to care for their parent in the manner that they deserve. Hesitation, fear, and anger may be feelings that arise, and our attorneys fortunately have experienced diffusing these emotions and finding solutions that work for everyone involved. 

Regardless of age, income level, or stage in life, we offer a suite of services designed to help our clients take full advantage of the government benefits available to them while additionally making plans that allow our clients to enter this next phase with dignity, compassion and respect. Because navigating elder law issues frequently encompasses a multitude of legal arenas, our clients benefit from our firm’s cross-disciplinary experience in estate planning, succession planning and more. Some of our services include:

Contact a Branson or Springfield Elder Lawyer Today for Compassionate and Experienced Representation

Please contact one of our two office locations for a FREE consultation with a Springfield elder lawyer or Branson elder lawyer to see what type of planning is right for you. As a law firm devoted to protecting clients in the area of elder law, we look forward to helping you and your family.