Jeff Fouts: “Estate planning attorney Jeff Fouts here.
Let’s imagine you have an estate plan. I am glad you do, very glad, because having some estate plan is better than having no estate plan, most of the time.
Let’s assume you have an estate plan. You’ve got it. It’s in your little portfolio. You’ve told your wife, ‘Honey, we’ve got it taken care of. It’s in the cabinet in the basement.’ It kind of gives you and your spouse a sense of security, but it may be a false sense of security.
Why? Because most of the estate plans that people have won’t accomplish the things that you need. Let me just talk about one issue, elder law. People are now living 30 years longer than they did 100 years ago. Thirty years longer!
It used to be that we lived, and then we died. Nowadays, that’s not the case. Nowadays, we live, then there is this in between time when we’re not physically or mentally healthy, and then we die. Everybody wants to die in their sleep, but that’s not likely to happen.
What are we going to do about that? Nowadays, there’s something called “Elder Law”. Elder law is an area of law that must be used together with estate planning law. Elder law deals with incapacity. The elder law portion of an estate plan is for you. The Estate planning portion, yes, it’s for you, but it’s mostly for them, the kids. You must have both components.
You must have both of them together if you want to have a high-quality estate plan that will actually work in all circumstances. Unfortunately, most times, the elder law portion is not dealt with sufficiently.
Anyway, if we could ever help you, give us a call. Have a good day.”
