Serving as a caregiver may require you to oversee your loved one’s legal affairs. A recent article on AARP’s website addressed this issue and included a legal checklist for Caregivers. Here are the highlights.

Obtain Essential Legal Documents

Your loved one should have the following key legal documents: a Will, a Power of Attorney, Health Care Proxy, HIPAA, and Living Will.  It is important to note that these documents should be created, signed, and witnessed while your loved one is still capable of making legal decisions on his or her own.  Sadly, we’ve seen many times when someone waits too long, and because of this, they no longer have capacity to get these crucial documents in place.  When a person waits too long, it can leave a mess for those taking care of things and often times results in court proceedings and extra costs that could have been avoided if planning was done earlier when the person was capable of doing it.

Get the Whole Family Involved

It is important to have everyone in the family participate in caregiving decisions whenever possible. If you can’t have everyone participate, make sure you include those you can.  You may even want to put into writing “who is responsible for what.” While this is not a legal document, it can help avoid disagreements in the future.  Also, getting the family involved while the ‘waters are calm’ not only helps you, but also helps the rest of the family so that they are not scrambling to figure out what’s needed, what’s involved, and what they need to do.

Organize Your Loved One’s Important Papers

In addition to the essential legal documents mentioned above, you’ll want to find and organize a number of other documents, including:

• Birth and Marriage Certificates

• Divorce Decree

• Citizenship Papers

• Death Certificate of a Spouse or Parent

• Deeds to Cemetery Plots

• Military Discharge Papers

• Insurance Policies

• Pension Benefits

Investigate Opportunities for Financial Assistance

There are a number of programs and services available to elders and/or individuals with disabilities. These include Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), veterans benefits, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicare, and Medicaid. You can use online tools like the AARP Foundation’s Local Assistance Directory and the National Council on Aging’s Benefits Checkup to determine local, state, and federal programs for which your loved one might be eligible.

You should also examine your loved one’s retirement and insurance plans to see if any of them cover in-home care, skilled nursing care, mental health services, physical therapy, and other forms of short-term assistance. Your loved one’s life insurance policy might even provide accelerated death payments to help pay for long-term care.

Also, if you must take a leave of absence from your job to care for a loved one, you may be eligible for up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act. In addition, some employers offer paid family leave, and five states (New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Washington, and California) plus the District of Columbia have laws mandating paid leave for caregiving. Several other states are set to implement such laws by 2023.

Explore Tax Breaks and Life Insurance Deals

Your loved one may be able to receive federal tax deductions for health care expenses such as a wheelchair or hospital bed, remodeling the home to make it more accessible, and hiring a short-term or part-time home health aide to provide respite for the primary caregiver. Be sure to save receipts for all medical expenses.

Get Help

Professionals are there for a reason.  Reach out and get the advice and help of professionals, whether they be tax professionals (e.g. CPAs), financial advisors, or estate planning and elder law attorneys.

You can find the full AARP article at:  https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/financial-legal/info-2020/caregivers-legal-checklist.html . You can find your local estate planning and elder law attorney contact information in the ad on this page.