Retirees
Planning Doesn’t End with Retirement
Retirement isn’t the end of your planning race. When you stop working, it’s time to start giving more thought to how you might navigate long-term care matters. It’s also time to revisit how you can protect what you’ve worked a lifetime to build and reduce the risks that come with probate and taxes.
Schedule a free meeting with one of our experts to learn more.
Keep Your Nest Egg Safe
A will alone is not the way. Especially if you haven’t updated it recently. Not only does it not shield you from taxes and long-term care costs, it doesn’t secure your family’s future. AlerStallings wants to help you put together a plan that preserves your assets and ensures your loved ones are cared for.
Ask Yourself If Your Plan Still Works?
You’ve spent years and years working. Now that those days are over, let’s make sure you’re ready for what’s next.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself about your current, post-retirement plan:
Do you have more than a will?
When did you last update your will?
Have you made plans to protect your spouse?
What will you do if long-term care is needed?
Is your estate going to go through probate?
Do you know what's going to happen to your estate?
A Plan for
What’s Ahead
A good post-retirement plan should start with asking you what you need and want. When those questions are answered, you can develop long-term plans that will work.
Here are some possible upgrades to the plan you may already have in place:
Give your spouse or other trusted person the ability to make decisions for you and your children if you can’t.
There’s more to think about than investments and distributions. Create a plan that protects your IRA from taxes and long-term care costs.
Build a strategy that keeps long-term care costs from compromising your spouse’s retirement or bankrupting your family.
Keep Your Retirement Plans
on Track
Post-retirement estate plans can derail if you’re not properly prepared. And the wrong plan can have serious implications—on you and your family.
The right plan can help you:
Protect assets
Give your family the assurance that comes with knowing creditors won’t seize your estate after you’re gone
Avoid probate
Ensure that your family doesn’t have to spend time or money making sure your estate ends up where you want it.
Limit Taxes
Employ a tax strategy that makes certain your family isn’t left wondering what and who needs to be paid.
Want to Know More?
It’s expected to have questions about these topics. Here are some of the questions we get asked most often.
Long term care planning combines the goals of estate planning along with the concerns of protecting and preserving assets from the very substantial costs of long-term care and/or expediting long-term care coverage through Medicaid planning. Essentially long-term care planning addresses “what will my care look like as I age and how will I pay for that care?”
Medicare only covers long-term care expenses in very limited situations and only for a very short period. Medicare is not long-term care insurance plan, and does not cover assisted living.
Elder law is an area of practice that focuses on issues affecting the aging population. An elder law attorney helps clients prepare for a more secure future by proactive planning focusing on protecting their autonomy and quality of life. Often times, an elder law attorney helps clients navigate complex Medicaid, VA and long-term care insurance laws.
Estate planning is generally the term used to describe the process of organizing and planning for when you become incapacitated and for the transfer of your wealth upon your death. Essentially estate planning is two-prong: 1. Naming powerholders who can make decisions about your financial and medical state during your lifetime when you cannot or chose not to manage your affairs yourself and 2. Addressing what happens to your assets when you die. Specifically, making sure that what you have goes to whom you want, in the amount and manner you desire, such as by outright bequests or the placing of assets in a trust for the benefit of the spouse, children or grandchildren.
Ohio intestacy laws dictate where your assets go. Not you, not your spouse and not your heirs. Don’t leave it up to Ohio, make sure you have a plan.