Life Care Planning

Houston Long Term Care Planning and Elder Law Attorney

Sooner or later, most families will face the difficult considerations relating to the long term care of an aging parent or loved one. In some cases, the need to find a nursing home or assisted living placement can catch adult children completely unprepared. A stroke or fall can give rise to immediate and expensive needs that you might not be able to meet. The absence of financial or medical powers of attorney, or other basic estate planning instruments can further complicate your efforts to arrange suitable care for an elderly parent who can no longer live independently.

In many cases, a family's options for effective elder planning diminishes as time goes on without an effective estate plan or life care planning advice. Contact the Houston law firm of McCulloch & Associates for information about our approach to identifying, accessing and paying for long term care.

Texas estate planning lawyer Thomas W. McCulloch has thirty years of experience with wills, trusts, and tax planning, with a focus for the last ten years on the needs of elderly persons who require particular attention to the problem of finding and financing appropriate levels of health care, home care assistance, or other needs along the elder care continuum.

At McCulloch & Associates, we use the term "life care planning" to describe the range of legal, health care advocacy, and financial protection services that we integrate and coordinate for families who want to give careful consideration to the quality of life, physical comfort, and independence of an aging parent or loved one. Effective life care planning may avoid the need for hasty nursing home placement, inappropriate Medicaid planning, or just bad choices in the aging process.

Our lawyers work with you and our staff of elder care coordinators to identify your family's needs and the resources necessary to address them in your specific case. Our objective is to plan for the highest level of care possible for your parent or loved one, consistent with his or her functionality and your family's circumstances. Preparation of a life care plan can normally include:

• Assessing your parent's medical, cognitive, and emotional condition and needs
• Identifying the various service options available for addressing those needs
• Budgeting the expense of comprehensive life care services and identifying the means of meeting those costs
• Identifying the particular services your parent will need or prefer under different health, mobility, or cognitive function scenarios
• Incorporating long term care strategies into standard estate planning instruments such as a will, power of attorney, or trust, as appropriate.

To learn how comprehensive elder planning strategies can help your family make better choices relating to long term care and paying for such care, contact a knowledgeable elder law attorney at McCulloch & Associates in Houston.