Elder Law Report

Planning for Aging Parents: Legal Essentials for Aging Well

Greg McIntyre, J.D., M.B.A.

Early Conversations and Legal Documents for Aging Parents: Jordan McIntyre emphasized the importance of discussing aging and estate planning early to ensure legal documents are in place. These crucial documents include powers of attorney and a will, which help manage assets outside of probate. Greg McIntyre highlighted the dangers of not having these documents, such as losing capacity and needing to go through guardianship proceedings to manage financial, legal, or healthcare matters.

Protecting the Home and Tailored Planning: Jordan McIntyre suggested a "lady bird" deed as a simple and powerful way to protect a home. Greg McIntyre added that a trust could also protect the home and other financial assets, stressing that each family's situation, assets, and needs are unique, requiring an individualized plan. They mentioned that foundational documents like a general durable power of attorney, healthcare power of attorney, living will, and last will and testament are mandatory to avoid future complications and forced guardianships.

Key Planning Tools and Consultations: Greg McIntyre further elaborated on essential planning tools, including deed protections like life estate deeds and ladybird deeds, as well as various trusts such as revocable living trusts and irrevocable trusts like Medicaid asset protection trusts. They concluded by offering consultations for families to create a tailored plan for their specific needs, which can be scheduled at mcelderlaw.com/scheduling


Greg McIntyre:

planning for aging parents. I am a parent. I am here with my son. If I'm lucky, I'm going to keep aging. Jordan, you're an attorney at our firm. You plan for clients aging parents all the time and you see areas where how about, where there's room for improvement or things that are dangers for parents as they age. What are some of the things that you see?

Jordan McIntyre:

Well, I think the most important thing that everyone should do is have the conversation early. You know, I thought that my dad was going to stay 25 forever. That's what he's been telling me my whole life but the reality is that everyone's going to age. So I think you want to be in a situation where the parents are unwilling to get estate planning figured out, or their dad's not planning figured out, or, you know, their dad's not an elder law attorney. Then really have that conversation early and get the right legal documents in place. Get your powers of attorneys, get a will, figure out how to get your assets outside of probate and just start thinking about it right, and then you can give your experience to add on what you've seen right and then you can give your experience, dad, on what you've seen.

Greg McIntyre:

What are some of the dangers as we age and not having key things in place like a general, durable power of attorney or health care power of attorney. What, what are some of our dangers in that situation? Losing capacity and having to go after guardianship right. The family having to step in and go after guardianship to manage financial, legal or healthcare matters right.

Jordan McIntyre:

Yeah, and having to go through the courts to get that authority, rather than during your life and while you're competent, just choosing that person you trust yourself, sure, sure.

Greg McIntyre:

Sure, sure, absolutely. And and then you know, if we have those things in place, we might want to look at another danger. You know the the whether we might need long-term care or not, right. And whether a parent might need long-term care for assisted living or nursing home care, right. And then let's say we have a home. What are some options to protect my home in that situation?

Jordan McIntyre:

I think the most powerful one and a simple plan is to have that Lady Birdie in place.

Greg McIntyre:

Sure, you know, I could also use a trust to protect the home and other financial assets as well. So, you know, I think the most important thing is everybody's family is different, everybody's assets are different. Everybody's assets are different. Everybody's needs are different. Therefore, everyone's plan can be different and should be an individualized plan.

Greg McIntyre:

So our attorneys including myself, my son, jordan McIntyre, who may be planning for this aging parent one day Although when I asked him he said you probably plan for yourself and he's probably right but and I do plan to stay young forever, and I think we all do but there's a danger in that and it's sometimes a failure to plan.

Greg McIntyre:

We sit down with families, the parents, with the entire family sometimes and we help look at what the goals are and flesh out the goals and create a plan to fit your needs health care, power of attorney, living will, last will and testament. That is really mandatory to put in place if you want to avoid friction and problems and jams and kind of being forced to go after guardianships in the future and leave someone available to help kind of clean up things and protect assets if you fail to plan. I think, from a planning perspective, investigating deed protection, like life, estate deeds, ladybird deeds, as well as trust revocable living trust versus irrevocable trust like a Medicaid asset protection trust those are extremely important planning tools that we use in our estate planning process. So if you would like to schedule a consultation to sit down and tailor a plan to your needs and your family's needs, we would offer that. Give us a call 1-888-999-6600, or you can go online and schedule directly on our calendars at mcelderlawcom slash scheduling. Thank you, jordan.

Jordan McIntyre:

Thank you, dad.