An elderly client of mine died recently. When she first came in to see me, she was in her early 80’s. She was quite frail physically, but very with it mentally. She brought her three children with her. Fortunately, she still had good mental capacity, so we were able to amend her revocable living trust and durable power of attorney to add good asset preservation and elder law language. At the first meeting, we discussed what steps we could take now, to preserve assets, in case she were to go into a nursing home and she wanted to apply for Medi-Cal. One of the children said that they should wait. My client then looked at me and said, “Mr. Young, I don’t think I am getting any better. Also, I know I am not getting any younger. So, I think we should start now.” I will never forget that moment. I think she was signaling to her children to pay attention to the fact that action should be taken now. We should take action with our estate plans and elder care planning, preferably when we are younger and better. Take a look at one of my Elder Law Today Newsletters where we discuss this issue at: https://walnutcreekelderlaw.com/Newsletters/EarlyDiagnosisOfDementia.html Also, you can find additional information on this and other subjects in my website at https://walnutcreekelderlaw.com/ . Thank you,
Michael J. Young, Elder Law Attorney.