Does Your Vision Of Happiness Include A Luxurious Assisted-Living Facility?

Aging happens to everyone, no matter how much or how little money they have.  Forming an estate plan and a plan for living out your retirement years should begin with a realistic look at your financial resources.  If you live beyond your means when you are young, there is still time to rein in your spendthrift ways when you get older, but if you burn through your savings as an elderly person, the best-case scenario is that the financial burden will fall on the younger generation, causing resentment in all parties involved.  The worst-case scenario is that you will live out your last years lonely and in poverty.  Some people choose aging in place, with or without sharing a household with younger family members, as a matter of financial necessity, and some choose affordable assisted living facilities.  If you are in a position to choose living in financial comfort in your forever home or living in financial comfort in proximity to other seniors while receiving the care that you need, you are better off than most.  If you truly have more money than you could ever spend or than your family could ever want to inherit, then you also have the option of some very posh assisted living communities, although they would never admit that this is what they are.  An Orlando estate planning lawyer can help you daydream about how to spend your retirement and then make realistic decisions about it.

The Best That Long-Term Care Insurance Can Buy

The median cost for assisted living homes in the United States is about $4,000 per month, which is quite affordable if you have been financially secure during the years leading up to your retirement.  They are especially affordable if you have long-term care insurance, which pays much of the cost of rent in the facility.  Assisted living homes are meant to be comfortable, friendly places where you can enjoy independence and privacy while still getting the help you need with tasks like transportation and laundry and being near a community of your peers.

Meanwhile, a recent article in the New York Times showcases the post “senior living communities” that cater to the “silver tsunami” of recently retired wealthy Baby Boomers.  They aim for an atmosphere akin to a wellness resort, with fine dining, life coaches, and memoir-writing master classes by accomplished writers.  Steven Kurutz, the author of the article, makes it sound like no one in these places ever mentions that people are there because of their old age or vulnerable health.  It’s a pretend vacation where the distractions from one’s mortality never end, rather like Thomas Mann’s Magic Mountain, except that you get to hear live concerts by Yo-Yo Ma instead of spending hundreds of pages trying to guess Mme. Chauchat’s first name.  A month in such a venue will cost you upwards of $8,000 for a studio apartment, but your long-term care insurance will probably pay for it.  Even if such opulence is not your style, it still pays to carry long-term care insurance.

Contact Us Today for Help

An Orlando estate planning lawyer can help you plan for a future that includes long-term care insurance, even if you will not need long-term care in the foreseeable future.  Contact Gierach and Gierach, P.A. for a consultation.

Source:

nytimes.com/2021/11/27/style/growing-old-in-high-style.html