“Who should I meet with to develop a long-term care plan — CPA, lawyer, financial advisor, or insurance agent?”


“Who should I meet with to develop a long-term care plan — CPA, lawyer, financial advisor, or insurance agent?”

"Who should I meet with to develop a long-term care plan -- CPA, lawyer, financial advisor, or insurance agent?"The simple answer is, yes, you should.

You should probably meet with all of them when developing a long term care plan.

Keep in mind that you shouldn’t take advice from people who give you advice outside their area of expertise.

I may have the greatest doctor in the world but just because he sends an e-mail with this hot stock tip, you’ve got to say, “Well this guy’s a genius when it comes to the cardiovascular system, but I don’t know that he’s a genius in investing.”

The CPA is brilliant on the taxes.

However, they are not going to be able to give you legal advice on what to do to qualify for Medicaid or what will get you into trouble with Medicaid.

That’s not their area.

Can a financial advisor tell you what the law is?

A lot of them do.

They should not do that, but a lot of them will do it.

What about a lawyer?

It’s great to meet with a lawyer.

You need to meet with the right kind of lawyer.

In this context, we’re talking about an elder law attorney.

If you’re meeting with an elder law attorney that’s saying, “Here’s what you need to do. You need to do 25% of your assets into precious metals and 15% into tech stocks,” you might get a little nervous about.

That might be the most brilliant elder law attorney in the world, but “why is he or she giving me advice on where I should have my money allocated?”

Let’s just start somewhere.

To me, the logical place would be to start with the elder law attorney to be able to see your options for long-term care.

Then if it looks like, legally, you have the option to, for example, transfer assets, then you can sit down with your CPA.

“What are the tax consequences to that?”

Sit down with your financial advisor and plan it.

“I need to move $100,000. What’s the best $100,000 to move?”

Your long-term care insurance agent can tell you what type of insurance you qualify for.

But understand that this should be a team approach where you’re sitting down with a lawyer and then you’re meeting with your CPA, or your lawyer is meeting with the CPA and your financial advisor to map out the details of long-term care.

But definitely have each person stick in the area of their expertise.

If you have any questions

Feel free to get in touch with us if you haven’t hired an elder law attorney.

We represent people all over the state of Alabama.

You can reach us by phone at 1-205-879-2447.

Or, if you prefer, you can fill out a contact form and we will get in touch with you.

Thanks for reading, and have a great day!

-John G. Watts

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