Thinking about Aging? Will You Need Long Term Care? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Many people will end up needing assistance to care for themselves, as they become elderly and that help may not be provided by their children. It might be wise to look into long term care costs now, according to The Detroit News in “What to know about aging and long-term care costs.”

Here’s what often happens:

  • More than a third of seniors will need to stay in a nursing home, where the median annual cost of a private room has skyrocketed to more than $100,000.
  • Four out of 10 people will opt for paid care at home. The median annual cost of a home health aide is more than $50,000.
  • More than 50% of all seniors will incur some kind of long-term care costs, and 15% of those will incur more than $250,000 in costs, according to a study by Vanguard Research and Mercer Health and Benefits.

Medicare doesn’t pay for long-term care. Medicare does not cover what it terms “custodial” care. For most Americans, who have a median of $126,000 in retirement savings, that’s an immediate financial wipeout. They will end up on Medicaid, the government health program that pays for about half of all nursing home and custodial care.

Those who live alone, are in poor health, or have chronic conditions are more likely than others to need long-term care. For women, there are special risks, since statistically women outlive husbands and may not have anyone to provide them with unpaid care.

Everyone approaching retirement needs a plan. The options are:

Long-term care insurance. The average annual premium for a 55-year-old couple was $3,050 in 2019. The older you are, the higher the cost, and if you have chronic conditions, you may not qualify.

Hybrid long-term care insurance. Life insurance or annuities with long-term care benefits now outsell traditional long-term care insurance by a rate of about four to one. This requires committing a large sum of money up front but is a way to obtain long-term care insurance.

Home equity. Selling a home to pay for nursing home care is not the best solution. However, it may be the only solution, particularly if it’s the only asset. Reverse mortgages may be an option.

Contingency reserve. A wealthy family with assets may simply earmark some assets for long-term care, setting aside a certain amount of money in an investment that can be liquidated without penalty.

Spending down to Medicaid. People with little or no retirement savings could end up depending on Medicaid. There are ways to protect assets for spouses, but it requires working with an elder law estate planning attorney in advance.

Reference: The Detroit News (June 10, 2019) “What to know about aging and long-term care costs”

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Even a Late Start toward Retirement is Better than None at All – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

There are also people who wait until they become senior citizens to begin planning for retirement. That’s a little on the late side, but the important thing, says the article “Retirement Planning: Start now to help Social Security, Medicare” from Martinsville Bulletin, is to get started. That’s better than doing nothing.

It’s easier if you start earlier. Let’s consider the high school student who diligently puts away 10% of a $7.25 per hour gross minimum wage earning for a year on an average 20-hour work week. That’s $750 into a retirement plan after one year. If that student never went to college, never learned a trade, got a raise or a promotion, they would still have $34,600 in personal savings in 46 years. It’s not a lot, as retirement savings go, but it’s better than nothing.

If the same high school student put those savings into an Individual Retirement Account (IRA), more would have been saved. The more time your money has to grow through compounding, the more money you’ll have.

Saving a little money every month could make a big difference later on. This year, the average monthly Social Security benefit rounds out at about $1,460 per person, calculated by combining a worker’s highest paid years in the workplace. That’s not enough for retirement. The answer? Start saving early.

It is not as easy to build a nest egg in a few years, but it’s possible.

Many people don’t wake up to the reality of retirement, until they reach age 62. There’s still time to plan. They can put money into IRA accounts, and at age 62 they can save as much as $7,000. Those IRA contributions count as tax deductions.

Roth IRAs are a little more flexible, but there are no tax deductions with contributions. On the plus side, when money is withdrawn, you’re not paying taxes on the withdrawals.

Another important planning point for seniors: if you’ve had health issues, it’s a good idea to keep working to maintain your employee health insurance. The healthier you are, the lower your health insurance costs will be during retirement. However, health costs do tend to increase with age, so that has to be factored into your retirement planning.

For people who take a lot of medication to control chronic conditions, they’ll need to look into health insurance outside of the workplace. That usually means Medicare. Most seniors are eligible for free Medicare hospital insurance, which is Part A of a four-part option, if they have worked and paid Medicare taxes.

Part A helps pay for inpatient care in a hospital or skilled nursing facility after a hospital stay, some home health care and hospice care. Part B helps to pay for doctors and a variety of other services. Part C allows HMO, PPO and other health care organizations to offer health insurance plans for Medicare beneficiaries. Part D provides prescription drug benefits through private insurance companies.

The Social Security Administration advises people to apply for Medicare three months before they celebrate their 65th birthday, regardless of whether they plan to start receiving retirement benefits right away.

Whether you’re 26 or 56, you need to plan for retirement. You also need to have an estate plan, and that means making the time to meet with an experienced estate planning professional to discuss your life and your retirement plans. You’ll need their guidance to create a will and other documents.

Advance planning will always be better than waiting until the last minute, for retirement and estate planning.

Reference: Martinsville Bulletin (May 17, 2019) “Retirement Planning: Start now to help Social Security, Medicare”

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Worried about a Spouse Needing Nursing Home Care? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

The six-figure cost of nursing home care is worrisome for those who are married, when a spouse has to go to a nursing home. In the example above, Tom has had some major health issues in the past year and Louise is no longer able to care for him at home.

In this case, the couple live in Pennsylvania, where nursing home care statewide is $126,420 a year ($342.58 per day). The state has a Medical Assistance program that is a joint state-federal program that will pay for nursing facility care, if a person meets both the medical and financial criteria.

Tom has met one of the major Medical Assistance threshold requirements, because he is “nursing home facility clinically eligible,” which means that a doctor has certified that due to illness, injury or disability, Tom requires the level of care and services that can only be provided in a nursing home.

What will happen to their assets?

In 1988, Congress passed the Medicare Catastrophic Coverage Act, which created a process of allocating income and resources between a spouse who needs to live in an institutional setting and the spouse who can continue to remain in a community setting.

Tom and Louise’s resources are divided into two buckets: one that is exempt and the second that is non-exempt.

The family home, care, and cost of a pre-paid funeral, if that has been done, are exempt or non-countable assets.

Everything else, whether they own it together or individually, is considered non-exempt. In Pennsylvania, Louise’s IRA is the exception. However, that is not the same in every state.

Louise is entitled to keep one half of what they own, with a maximum of $126,420, as of January 1, 2019. This is her “community spouse resource allowance.”

Anything else they own, is used to pay for Tom’s nursing facility care or purchase a very select group of “exempt” assets, like a replacement car or the cost of a prepaid burial.

They would have needed to give away their resources at least five years preceding an application for Medical Assistance. If they have given money away in an attempt to preserve some of their assets, that would have changed the timeline for Tom’s being eligible for care.

Louise needs income to live on so that she is not impoverished. She is entitled to a monthly minimum maintenance needs allowance of $2,058 and a maximum needs allowance of $3,150.50. These numbers are federally adjusted and based on inflation.

The numbers that must be examined for Louise’s income are her Social Security benefits, Tom’s Social Security benefits, any pension either of the two may have and any other income sources. She can keep her income, as long as she does not go over a certain level.

Sounds scary? It is. This is why it is so important to do advance planning and have an ongoing working relationship with an attorney with experience in estate planning and elder law. There are changes over time to address the changing circumstances that life and aging presents.

Reference: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (April 29, 2019) “Married and concerned about one of you going to a nursing home?”

Sims & Campbell, LLC – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning Attorneys

What Do I Need to Know About ABLE Accounts? – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Millions of Americans with disabilities and their families depend on public benefits to help provide income, health care, food and housing assistance. Eligibility for assistance through Supplemental Security Income, SNAP and Medicaid is based upon a resource test, so disabled individuals seeking benefits are typically limited to no more than $2,000 in savings or assets. This can present a difficult problem.

The Achieving a Better Life Experience Act (ABLE) was created as a way to create a tax-advantaged savings tool for individuals with disabilities and their families.

nj.com’s article, “ABLE accounts–A tax advantaged tool for special needs planning,” advises that when used correctly, this overlooked savings account may allow families to build a small nest egg, without affecting eligibility for public program benefits.

An ABLE 529 account is designed to be a savings or investment account to supplement public benefits. It can be a powerful strategy for individuals, who previously were unable to build supplemental funds outside of a trust for their needs. An ABLE account is funded with after-tax contributions that can grow tax-free, when used for a qualified disability expense. The account owner is also the beneficiary and contributions can be made from any person including the account beneficiary, friends, and family.

The ABLE account is available to individuals with significant disabilities, whose age of onset of disability was before they turned 26. A person could be over the age of 26 but must have had an age of onset before their 26th birthday.

Contributions are restricted to $15,000 per year. Because the ABLE account is connected to the 529 plan for education, the total contribution limit is based upon the individual state’s limit for 529 plans. Individuals can have up to $100,000 in an ABLE account, without impacting SSI eligibility. The first $100,000 also does not count toward the $2,000 resource restriction.

A frequently asked question is whether to use an ABLE account or a Special Needs Trust for planning purposes. ABLE are subject to certain limitations that make it impossible, or at least ill advised, to use them instead of a Special Needs Trust. Remember that ABLE accounts can only receive $15,000 in deposits each year, but, in most cases, Special Needs Trusts can receive much larger contributions in a year, once they are funded. This is an important difference for parents who want to leave more substantial assets to their child when they die but don’t want to jeopardize the child’s eligibility for critical services. In that situation, a Special Needs Trust may be more desirable.

When the beneficiary of the ABLE account passes away, any leftover funds in the account are typically reimbursed to the state to defray the costs of providing services during the beneficiary’s life. However, that’s different than a properly drafted Special Needs Trust.

In 2019, ABLE account owners who work but don’t have an employer-sponsored retirement account, can now save up to $12,140 in additional savings from their earnings.

Ask your estate planning attorney about possibly coordinating an ABLE account with a Special Needs Trust.

Reference: nj.com (April 20, 2019) “ABLE accounts – A tax advantaged tool for special needs planning”

Sims & Campbell, LLC – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning Attorneys

Big Mistakes Add Up Big Time for Retirement – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Retirement is a theoretical event happening way off in the future — until you celebrate your 55th birthday, when it starts to become all too real. When that lightening bolt strikes, says The Street, some mistakes may become obvious, as described in the article “Avoid These Big Mistakes in Your Retirement Planning.”

The biggest, most obvious and perhaps least followed lesson: do as much of the planning in advance as possible. Don’t wait until you wake up on your first day of retirement to figure it out.

Here are the top four mistakes people make:

Overlooking the impact of healthcare costs. Inflation in healthcare is more than three times the Consumer Price Index’s annual increase. Medical inflation hit an average of 6.8% in 2018, and it’s not likely going down any time soon. Medicare covers hospitalization (Part A) and doctor visits (Part B) but it does not cover many other critical costs. You’ll need to pay for long-term care, vision, dental, co-pays and deductibles.

As we age, our healthcare costs go up. When you are in the early stages of retirement, active, busy and healthy, it rises around 5%. But as you age, if you are lucky enough to do so, your health insurance costs could leap by 15% annually.

Planning for Medicare is very important.  It is where many retirees make big mistakes. You’ll need Medigap insurance to cover areas that Medicare does not. You’ll also want Part D to cover prescriptions.

The bigger Medicare mistake is failing to enroll at age 65. If you miss it, you’ll have to pay a penalty just to get enrolled in the program. It’s not easy to figure it out, and the instruction book is 130 pages long. The website is also confusing. However, you have to do it and do it right.

Neglecting to save. Really save. It’s next to impossible if you are twenty-something, have enormous student loans and have not gotten your career on track, to even think about retirement. It’s not easy and it’s not the first thing younger people are thinking about. However, the sooner you start putting money away for retirement, the more time you have for the money to grow. If your company offers a retirement plan, start putting something away, even if it’s a small amount. Over time, that company retirement account will grow, your income will grow and you will be better positioned for retirement. Automatic deductions will make this more likely to happen. If your parents are nagging you about retirement, make them happy: sign up for the plan at work and go for the auto deductions. It’s one less thing for them — and you — to worry about.

Poor investments. People who take a do-it-yourself approach to their investment portfolio vary in levels of success. Some devote a lot of time to it, including educating themselves about industry sectors and market performance, and others follow the ‘brother-in-law’ school, which usually tanks. That’s when your brother-in-law boasts about how much money he made in a particular stock. However, he neglects to tell you about how many losses he’s taken along the way. A team approach of an educated investor with a professional financial advisor is a better way to go.

Thinking you know it all. Overconfidence has sunk many retirements. People who are highly successful in life think that career success will automatically translate into retirement and financial planning. It’s also very hard for these types of people to accept that there’s something they do not know and cannot control. It is even harder for them to ask for help.

Failing to plan includes the failure to work with an experienced estate planning attorney in creating an estate plan that addresses tax planning, incapacity, transferring wealth to the next generation and asset distribution. Just like early savings make a big difference, having an estate plan created early in your life and updating as you go through life will help protect you and your loved ones.

Reference: The Street (April 11, 2019) “Avoid These Big Mistakes in Your Retirement Planning.”

Sims & Campbell, LLC – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning Attorneys

Why You Need a Plan for Long-Term Care – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning

Boomers are more willing to plan their own funerals than to prepare for an extended stay in a nursing home. Both are inevitable events for most of us.

With more than 10,000 people celebrating their 65th birthday every day in America and the startling statistic that 70% of us will need long-term care at some point during our lifetimes, it would make sense that more of us would be planning for long-term care. And yet, boomers seem to be more comfortable making plans for a memorial service than they do for a nursing home visit. The cost of long-term care is big and it’s not covered by Medicare. Surprised? So are families when the bill comes.

The Motley Fool’s recent article, “Baby Boomers Are More Prepared for Death Than Life,” says most baby boomers are either unprepared or haven’t planned for a long-term care expense, according to a Bankers Life survey of 1,500 middle-income Americans aged 54 to 72. The results show that baby boomers were more likely to plan for their own death than to have a long-term care plan. About 81% made some kind of funeral arrangements for when they pass away, but just 32% have a plan for how they’ll get care in retirement. The lack of long-term care planning is a significant issue when you compound this with the harm that such a huge unexpected expense has on a person’s retirement savings, especially in cases where a nest egg is small to begin with.

The Department of Health and Human Services believes that the average total cost of care for a retiree is $138,000. However, 79% of the respondents said they have set no money aside for their retirement care needs. For those who do have long-term care savings, the median amount saved is a mere $40,000. Nonetheless, 67% of those surveyed said they know someone who required care in retirement and 36% said they can’t rely as much on friends or family for around-the-clock care. Given all these negative numbers, why aren’t more boomers better prepared? The article gives us three surprising reasons that contribute to this lack of awareness and lack in savings for long-term care:

  1. Overconfidence. Boomers may overestimate their ability to manage future long-term care costs. Three-fourths of those surveyed by Bankers Life said they were confident in their ability to handle future healthcare costs. A misplaced confidence could be why boomers used more effort and money to plan for their deaths. About half of the respondents had fewer than $5,000 saved in an emergency fund and 33% had fewer than $1,000 set aside for emergencies. With the high cost of long-term care and the collective weakness in emergency funds, boomers’ confidence in being able to manage long-term care costs appears unrealistic. These people may be relying on Social Security benefits and Medicare too much.
  2. Lack of basic Medicare understanding. Medicare covers only some long-term care expenses like skilled nursing care after a hospital stay, but there are limits. It also doesn’t pay for custodial or home healthcare. Most of those surveyed believe that Medicare will pay for a future healthcare event and 56% mistakenly identified Medicare as a source to pay for future long-term care.
  3. Not knowing where to get advice. The greatest obstacle to planning for care in retirement is a lack of trust. About a third of boomers surveyed said they need and want advice but don’t know whom to trust. Most seek the help of a family member (36%) and just only 7% ask a health professional. A lack of trust or willingness to seek professional help may lead boomers to either put off a decision or perhaps not fully understanding their planning options.

If you don’t have a long-term care insurance policy in place, the time to get started is now. If your retirement savings accounts can handle it, figure about $138,000 for a nursing home stay. Add in a long-term care insurance policy with premiums that you can manage as another layer of protection. It is better to have a small policy than none at all.

Reference: The Motley Fool (March 27, 2019) “Baby Boomers Are More Prepared for Death Than Life”

Sims & Campbell, LLC – Annapolis and Towson Estate Planning Attorneys