If you’re like many of our clients—smart, successful, and planning for retirement—you’ve likely created an estate plan. Maybe you’ve set up a will, a trust, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives. You’ve dotted the i’s and crossed the t’s. You’ve done everything right.
Or so you thought.
But even the most well-prepared retirees often miss one critical piece.
They don’t include elder law planning in their estate plan.
This one mistake could cost you everything you’ve worked so hard to build—your home, your savings, even your ability to leave something behind for your spouse and kids.
Estate Planning vs. Elder Law: What’s the Difference?
Estate Planning: Planning for Incapacity and What Happens After You Pass
Estate planning is essential. It allows you to:
- Choose who makes decisions for you if you become incapacitated
- Decide who receives your assets after you pass
- Minimize taxes and avoid probate
You’ve likely heard of wills, trusts, health care directives, and powers of attorney. These are the tools of estate planning.
But here’s what most people don’t realize: a will or revocable living trust does not fully protect your home and savings from long-term care costs.
Elder Law: Protecting Your Home and Savings During Your Lifetime
Elder law focuses on something estate planning doesn’t: protecting your assets while you’re still alive.
Specifically, it helps you protect your home and life savings from being wiped out by long-term care and nursing home costs.
Here’s why that matters.
The Harsh Reality of Long-Term Care
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than 70% of people over age 65 will need some form of long-term care.
That might be:
- A home health aide to help with dressing or bathing
- An assisted living facility
- Or a full-time stay in a nursing home
And it’s not cheap.
The Costs Are Staggering
Depending on where you live and what type of care you need, long-term care can cost between $10,000 and $15,000 per month. That’s $120,000 to $180,000 a year. And the average length of care for a man is 2.2 years and the average length of care for a woman is 3.7 years.
For a married couple, the total lifetime cost can easily exceed $500,000 or more.
And here’s the kicker: Medicare does not cover it.
Medicare vs. Medicaid: Know the Difference
Many retirees assume Medicare will pay for long-term care. It doesn’t.
Medicare only covers short-term rehab—usually after a qualifying hospital stay. If you need ongoing help with daily tasks like eating, bathing, or medication management, you’re on your own.
Medicaid does cover long-term care, but to qualify, you have to spend down nearly all your assets. That includes your savings and, in some cases, even your home.
A Common—and Costly—Misconception
Let me tell you about Bob and Susan, a retired couple in their early 70s. They had a will and a revocable trust drafted by another attorney years ago. They thought they were covered.
Then Bob had a stroke.
He needed nursing home care. The monthly cost? $12,500.
They quickly learned:
- Medicare didn’t cover it
- Their trust didn’t protect their assets
- And they were expected to pay out-of-pocket until they were nearly broke
They came to us desperate, asking, “Why didn’t anyone tell us this?”
Elder Law Planning Could Have Saved Them
With elder law planning, we can often protect a client’s home and life savings—even if they need care soon.
We use legal tools like:
- Family asset protection trusts;
- Medicaid-compliant annuities;
- Carefully timed transfers;
- Spousal protection strategies;
These strategies are 100% legal and used by people just like you every day. But you won’t get this kind of planning from a standard estate plan.
Do You Already Have an Estate Plan? You Still Need Elder Law Planning
You may already have a will or trust. Maybe another attorney helped you set it up. But unless that attorney also practices elder law, chances are your plan does not protect your assets from long-term care costs.
It’s like locking your doors but leaving the windows wide open.
You Don’t Have to Go Broke to Get Care
The truth is, you don’t have to lose everything to long-term care. You don’t have to choose between quality care and protecting your spouse’s financial future. You don’t have to give up your dream of leaving something behind for your kids.
But you do need the right kind of planning.
That’s where we come in.
Real Clients, Real Results
We recently helped a couple from Minnetonka protect their $600,000 home and $400,000 in savings—just two months before the husband entered a memory care facility. Thanks to proactive planning strategies, they were able to preserve their nest egg, qualify for benefits, and give the wife peace of mind.
Another couple we helped had worked with another attorney years ago. They thought they were protected—until a health scare revealed otherwise. We restructured their plan and saved them nearly $300,000 in projected nursing home costs.
Don’t Wait Until It’s Too Late
The best time to plan is before you need care. The second-best time is now.
If you’re between the ages of 60 and 82, you owe it to yourself and your family to protect what you’ve worked so hard to build.
If you would like to protect your family, your home, and your life savings from long-term care costs, call us today at either our Minnetonka, MN office at 763-420-5087 or our Florida office at 941-909-4644 to schedule a consultation to discuss your planning goals and how we can work with you to put a plan in place to achieve them. Or you can fill out the contact form on this page and a member of our team will reach out to you to schedule your consultation.
Because the biggest mistake smart retirees make is assuming they’ve already done everything right.
Now’s the time to make sure you truly have.
If you are not yet ready to schedule a consultation, but would like to discover more, here are two resources for you:
