Long-term care costs have the potential to wipe out almost any estate. In the Oshkosh area, the average cost of a private room at a nursing home is $9,591 per month, or just under $115,000 per year. This is the third-highest average cost in all of Wisconsin. And these costs are going up at about 4% per year, which means private nursing home rooms will top $200,000 per year in just over 14 years.
And while assisted living facilities are more affordable and better suited for individuals that do not need round-the-clock care, you are still looking at average yearly costs of $56,400. And those costs are going up even faster than those of nursing homes.
While it’s easy to say “that will never happen to me,” it’s important that everyone know that 70% of Americans age 65 and older will eventually require some form of long-term care. That means that every married couple 65 or older has a 91% chance that at least one spouse will need long-term care.
The first line of defense against these costs is always long-term care insurance. But for folks without insurance or who are looking to supplement their policy, meeting with an experienced elder law attorney is a must.
Joe McCleer is Oshkosh’s only attorney that is a member of both ElderCounsel and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, the most preeminent associations of attorneys that practice in long-term care planning. Joe will review with you all the options you or your loved one has available to ensure that everything they had worked hard for decades to earn isn’t lost. Whether it’s the house, the family cottage, the farm that has been with the family for generations, or the life savings earned through years of scrupulous saving, there are options available to ensure that you or your loved one gets the care needed and be able to keep what’s most important to you.
Frequently Asked Questions About Long-Term Care Planning
For the unprepared, long-term care costs can easily swallow an entire estate. In the Oshkosh area, the average cost of a private room at a nursing home is over $115,000 per year. And the average cost for a room at an assisted living facility is over $56,000 per year.
Indeed, they will. These costs have been rising at a rate of about 4-5% every year. If they continue at this rate, nursing home costs will top $200,000 per year in less than 15 years.
According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, persons age 65 and older have a 70% chance of needing long-term care at some point in their lifetime. That means a married couple over 65 has a 91% chance that at least one spouse will require long-term care eventually.
The sooner the better! But it largely depends on the type of planning you are looking for. Trust-based planning with an Elder Law attorney can usually wait until your retirement years, but insurance-based planning will have to start much sooner than that.
You should look at long-term care insurance options long before you’d ever need it. The longer you wait, the costlier it will be and the fewer options you will have. The best time to look around at options is in your 40s and 50s. Affordable options may still be available to you in your 60s, but it’s usually best to get your foot in the door before then.
Insurance is the first line of defense against long-term care costs, but it is not the only line of defense. An experienced Elder Law attorney can reveal the options you still have to help ensure that long-term care costs won’t take your bottom dollar from you.
As said earlier, insurance is the first line of defense, but sometimes your policy might not be enough. Many policies have daily, monthly, and lifetime benefit limits that may prevent you from getting all the help you need. Even if you have a long-term care policy, it’s best to still consult with an Elder Law attorney to learn how you can better safeguard your most prized assets.
The alternative to insurance is qualifying for Medicaid. Experienced Elder Law attorneys can help you become qualified for Medicaid without spending through every asset you’ve acquired during your years and decades of hard work and saving. Typical planning will incorporate an irrevocable trust which, if drafted correctly, will protect the assets transferred into it from having to be spent down to pay for long-term care costs.
There is no hard-and-fast rule of what age you should be before engaging in long-term care planning with an Elder Law attorney, but there typically is no need until you are in your 60s (this may differ depending on one’s health and family history). The goal is to complete your long-term care planning at least five years before your need for long-term care arises. Of course, nobody knows for sure when that time will come, but it’s always better to be too early than too late.
It’s certainly too late for insurance, but it’s never too late to meet with an Elder Law attorney to discuss your options. Experienced Elder Law attorneys can typically protect at least 50% of an individual’s assets even if that individual is already in the nursing home.
There is a wide variety of types of assets that can be preserved when you work with an experienced Elder Law attorney, but the most popular assets to protect and easiest to work with tend to be real estate and life insurance.