Elder Law Report - Groundhog Day

I’m Greg McIntyre and I’m here with Brenton Begley. Brenton is an attorney with our firm and runs our Charlotte office and this is the elder law report.

I was looking through our past reports recently and decided to do a show on Groundhog Day, because sometimes I feel like I’m doing and saying the same thing over and over. So, this is a lesson in doing the right thing and taking action.

It’s easy to find yourself living in Groundhog Day. We all go through days where we must make life, business, crisis decisions and sometimes that requires us to do new and different things.

BB: Groundhog Day is a great subject right now because we’re heading into the new year and people are making all these resolutions to change. Most are saying the same thing over and over, the same resolutions from the previous years but never making a change. Like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day, he doesn’t make a change, nothing changes, it’s like purgatory until he figures out, I have to change myself to change my surroundings.

We tell ourselves every day how we’re going to change our eating habits, get fit, and we’re going to start tomorrow, always tomorrow. The same thing applies to estate planning, people love to put that off and it’s so easy to put it off, because, it is hard to think about. It’s hard to face your own mortality, it’s not always easy to discuss that. Everybody knows in the back of their mind that they need to do it, it’s like flossing, you know you need to do it and if you avoid it, it can be a big deal over time.

GM: It can be a pain to do it every day, but if you do, you keep your teeth. In the movie Groundhog Day, the surroundings were always fixed. They changed because of the changes he made within himself, which as you said, does apply to estate planning.

I see groundhog with clients all the time. Someone is facing a long-term care situation, but they did not put in place a General Durable Power of Attorney. That means no-one can make decisions for that person whether they’re incompetent or incapacitated. In that case we would have to go for Guardianship. Then you have court oversights locked down so you’re begging the court to do this or that to save the assets or put a Ladybird Deed on the house that may have been in the family for generations.

They are stuck in the same pattern of thinking every day and did not look for a solution and take action to implement that solution. Or they didn’t protect assets because they didn’t know there was a better way and that’s why we’re here right now. I don’t want you to be stuck in the same Groundhog Day of information you’re fed by the general public and street lawyers out there. I have to fight that information and those stigmas all the time. My own Groundhog Day is saying, “No, that’s not how it is, or no that’s not how it works.”

That is what this report is here to clarify. Every week we are putting out a report about seniors and senior care. We interview experts in their field from nursing homes to transportation services, in-home care, something affecting seniors.

BB: Some of the misinformation you’re talking about is because these rules change, and no one says anything about it.

GM: Elder law is not for the faint of heart because the way you set up the plan today, may change come next year.

BB: And many attorneys will do elder law on the side, which, in my opinion is a mistake because you have to keep up on these laws. That’s where a lot of misinformation comes from.

Another thing that happens which goes along with the Groundhog Day theme is people have generally good intentions when it comes to your family, or you’re trying to help a family member out because of a long-term care situation, but it can seem complicated to jump through the hoops to get a benefit, so you put it off and off. You just keep paying the money down instead of simplifying the process by coming to an elder law firm such as ours. If you know what you’re doing and you know the laws, it’s not that difficult.

GM: We’re a great resource for financial planners also. Instead of riding someone’s money down to zero, we can give you other options. If you plan ahead, which is best, with for example, Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts, then the financial planner can still manage the money because we are isolating it, protecting it in case a long-term care situation arises. Even with emergency situations there are options to protect and save assets.

A financial planner cannot give legal advice so, planning ahead with foundational documents really is the best option. During this holiday, yes, enjoy, have a great new year celebration, but also have a conversation with your mum or dad or whomever about their Will or foundational documents, start putting a plan together. It can be a difficult conversation, this really is eating the live frog first kind of thing, but it is important.

BB: Even having that conversation brings about peace of mind, but taking that step, getting into place those foundational documents, your estate plan, really puts your life in order. If you have any questions about whether or not peace of mind exists after that process, just look at our reviews on our website.

GM: One of the issues is, people think they have plenty of time, they put off making those important decisions, many times until a crisis situation occurs and it’s too late.

So, get out of Groundhog Day and take action, manage your decisions, don’t put it off any longer.

There is an amazing peace of mind that comes with making good decisions and with getting your affairs squared away. You have worked your whole life and put all this time and energy into building a life and family to have tragedy strike such as a healthcare situation which needlessly can take it all away, that really is tragic, but we can help by providing solutions.

If you want more information about elder law and estate planning, you can visit our website mcelderlaw.com and sign up for our e-newsletter. You can call our Charlotte office and talk to Brenton at 704-998-5800, or call us here in Shelby at 704-259-7040. You will speak with Tiffany who will schedule an appointment, so you can stop repeating Groundhog Day.