Hello, my name is Christopher Lavin. I’m an attorney with the Lavin Law Group. We are an elder law firm here in Lebanon, Ohio. Elder law is both traditional estate planning as well as long-term care planning. And unfortunately, long-term care planning does mean full skilled care or nursing home care.
It’s a valuable service, but it is intimidating if you don’t know how to navigate the system or navigate the waters. A lot of folks will come to us, and people are starting to plan for long-term care at earlier life stages. I think we’ve gotten a little more informed of it as a community, and the attorneys on our side—we’ve gotten a little better at helping you. We didn’t have the same tools that we have now ten years ago. So, we’re getting better at it.
And everybody will say, ‘Well, when should I start?’ It’s a personal choice depending on family heritage, health concerns… you know, if you’ve been through it, most folks will start a little earlier than others. But the biggest question we get is: ‘Well, what about this five years? When do I want to get the five years ticking?’
Five years is a statutory number; it’s called the look-back period. And basically, it gives the state the right to look back for five years and ask any question they want. Where’d the house go? Where’d the money go? The stocks go? The car go? Where is everything that we now feel a responsibility to help you cover the cost of care?
The state doesn’t want to pay the bill any more than we do, and they don’t really feel a responsibility to help cover the cost of care until you have what’s called ‘complete spend-down,’ or you have total resources below $2,000. That’s an intimidating number. It’s a ridiculously low number for quality of life, but you can prevent having to spend all the way down to $2,000. Don’t be afraid of the five years, but do get it—it is very time-sensitive, so you do want to try and get the five years started as soon as possible, especially while you’re healthy in some effect. Talk to your advisors about the possibility of doing so.