Obtain Essential Legal Documents

Your loved one should have the following key legal documents: a Will, Trust, Power of Attorney, and Advance Directives. We will discuss these documents in greater detail later. For now, it is important to note that these documents should be created, signed, and witnessed while your loved one is still capable of making legal decisions on his or her own.

Get the Whole Family Involved

It is important to have everyone in the family participate in caregiving decisions whenever possible. You may even want to put into writing “who is responsible for what”. While this is not a legal document, it can help avoid disagreements in the future.

Organize Your Loved One’s Important Papers

In addition to the essential legal documents mentioned above, you will want to find and organize several other documents, including:

Birth and Marriage Certificates
Divorce Decree
Citizenship Papers
Death Certificate of a Spouse or Parent
Deeds to Cemetery Plots
Deeds for Real Estate
Military Discharge Papers
Insurance Policies
Pension Benefits
Banking, Investment, and other Financial Accounts
Debts, Loans, and other Expenses

Investigate Opportunities for Financial Assistance

There are a many programs and services available to elders and/or individuals with disabilities. These include Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), veteran’s benefits, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicare, and Medicaid. You can use online tools like the AARP Foundation’s Local Assistance Directory and the National Council on Aging’s Benefits Checkup to determine local, state, and federal programs for which your loved one might be eligible.

You should also examine your loved one’s retirement and insurance plans to see if any of them cover in-home care, skilled nursing care, mental health services, physical therapy, and other forms of short-term assistance. Your loved one’s life insurance policy might even provide accelerated death payments to help pay for long-term care.

Also, if you must take a leave of absence from your job to care for a loved one, you may be eligible for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. In addition, some employers offer paid family leave, and eleven states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Washington) plus the District of Columbia have laws mandating paid leave for caregiving.

Explore Tax Breaks and Life Insurance Deals

Your loved one may be able to receive federal tax deductions for health care expenses such as a wheelchair or hospital bed, remodeling the home to make it more accessible, and hiring a short-term or part-time home health aide to provide respite for the primary caregiver. Be sure to save receipts for all medical expenses.

You can read the original AARP article here:

https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/financial-legal/info-2020/caregivers-legal-checklist.html

As Estate Planning and Elder Law Attorneys we are here to help guide you through your end of life planning. During a consultation with us, we will discuss what you have, what you want, and what you need to create your own personalized plan. We understand which Estate Planning documents you need and can tailor them to fit your lifestyle and family needs. We also offer Medicaid Qualification, Pre-Planning, and Crisis Planning. Call or text 989-872-5601 today to schedule your appointment with an experienced Estate Planning and Elder Law Attorney.