The Holistic Approach to Estate Planning

As an estate planning and elder law attorney, I strive to find solutions to my clients’ needs and goals. When it comes to elder law issues, my clients rely on me for more than traditional legal advice. I try to help my clients navigate the myriad issues relating to the aging process. This includes issues relating to health, disability, caregiving, finances, family relationships, estate planning, quality of life and end-of-life decision making. All of these issues are much more complicated than discussing the legal options regarding asset protection and preservation.

Inadequacy of Traditional Estate Planning

Traditionally, the avoidance or minimization of estate taxes was the biggest factor motivating people to engage in estate planning. However, with estates of up to $3.5 million passing estate tax free in 2009, and with no estate tax due in 2010, this is of less concern. Other reasons for planning include providing the legal framework necessary to spare loved ones the anxiety and frustrations that can come from pre-death guardianship and post-death probate court proceedings.

Traditional estate planning involves the preparation of wills or trusts, powers of attorney, health care proxies and living wills. These documents are generally predicated on the premise that you will pass away quickly and easily in your sleep. Thus, the biggest issue the estate plan needs to address is how to make it easier for your loved ones to administer your estate. Alternatively, the traditional estate plan will ensure that your appointed agents will be able to manage your financial and medical affairs should you become incapacitated.

However, these solutions do not address the more urgent threat or the real issue of unexpected medical costs and the depletion of your assets to support quality-of-life goals. The payment of estate taxes is not the prime concern or threat. Rather, it is the threat of unexpected or unanticipated long-term care costs.

The reality today is that one of eight people over age 65 and one of two people over age 85 will face dementia-related incapacities for which neither Medicare nor any health insurance will pay. Without proper planning, many people risk depleting their estates to pay for these very expensive and often lengthy chronic care costs.

Though traditional estate planning includes advance directives for end-of-life planning, more comprehensive planning is required. Traditional estate planning neither asks about your daily living preferences if you have a chronic illness nor about your preferences about quality-of-life issues. Traditional planning neither asks your chosen agents about their familiarity with long-term care issues nor about their willingness to reach out for assistance in executing their assigned roles.

Your agents may not have the skills or knowledge necessary to make informed decisions about your quality of life or the time necessary to study the issues to make informed decisions. Consequently, your quality of life will likely be based on input given to your agents by doctors, hospital staff, nursing homes and others consulted by your agents, which may be traditional advice based on prevalent institutional biases. As a result, your quality of life may suffer. In addition, the quality of life of your loved ones may also suffer while they are trying to deal with complicated and time-consuming issues with which they may not be ready or have the time to deal. This may cause them to make decisions that they themselves do not deep down agree with (e.g. admitting you to a nursing home against your known wishes and expressed desires).

These issues can be overcome by Life Care Planning.

Life Care Planning

Although the estate planning we provide is comprehensive and includes Life Care Planning, it is not complete unless we provide ongoing guidance and assistance to our clients and their chosen agents and fiduciaries. The guidance and assistance we provide is designed to: (1) aid in asset protection and preservation through legal solutions; and (2) help our clients and their agents or family members provide the quality of life they desire and so deserve.

Life Care Planning is a holistic estate planning process that addresses these issues. It does so by understanding that most families dealing with the disability or death of a loved one do not simply seek to protect assets, but rather to ensure that the protected wealth is used to address the care needs of the incapacitated person and those affected by the incapacity, or to bring a peaceful closure to the passing of a loved one.

Life Care Planning is a proactive process which allows you to ensure that your instructions will be carried out -- and that you will be cared for the way you want to be cared for -- should you become incapacitated. It also allows you to remove much of the complicated decision-making – and hence much of the stress-- that your loved ones will ultimately face while caring for you during your incapacity.