There’s a very real possibility that you’re going to need long-term care at some point in your life. That care can be costly, too, threatening to eat away at your hard-earned wealth, your savings, and everything else that you’ve tucked away to give to your loved ones.
Although that can be incredibly stressful to think about, there are steps that you can take to engage in effective long-term care planning. As you embark on that journey, though, you should also be aware of some of the commonly made mistakes in the process so that you can avoid them.
Long-term care planning mistakes to avoid
If you want to protect your health and your wealth, then you need to engage in effective long-term care planning that avoids costly mistakes. Therefore, as you move forward with the process, be on the lookout for the following:
- Failing to recognize your need potential need for long-term care.
- Thinking that you can rely on your basic estate plan to ensure that you’ll have what you need if long-term care becomes necessary.
- Thinking that it’s too early or too late to start planning.
- Trying to navigate the intricacies of long-term care planning on your own.
- Neglecting to revisit your estate plan from time-to-time to ensure that it still meets your needs.
- Misunderstanding the Medicaid eligibility requirements and the lookback period.
- Relying solely on Medicaid or Medicare to cover your long-term care costs.
Develop the effective long-term care plan you need
Effectively planning for long-term care is going to take legal knowledge and foresight. Although you might think you can put this on the backburner, we encourage you to refrain from doing so, as you never know when the need for long-term care will arise. That’s why now is the best time to educate yourself on what it takes to build the strong estate plan that you need to protect your interests and your future.