When you are in the process of figuring out the medical decisions that best suit your needs, the option of a nursing home or assisted living facility inevitably comes up. They are licensed and equipped to take care of your particular medical needs.
However, leaving the home that you own and going to a nursing home can seem like a challenge that leaves you with many questions. What happens to the home? Does it get sold? Can my children acquire it? If it does get sold, who gets the proceeds from the sale? How does this affect taxes and insurance? Will this affect my Medicaid?
Contact an Elder Law Attorney
With all of these questions, it is best to consult an elder law attorney that can properly guide you through the process. Contacting a TuckerAllen attorney is a necessary step in planning your estate and medical futures, as you navigate the aging process.
After creating a long-term care plan with a TuckerAllen attorney, you can go through the steps necessary to put your medical needs first, and that includes senior housing of some sort.
Chances are, you have been financially planning your retirement for year, if your employer offered you a 401K. This will help supplement some of your income, but you may need more, in order to acquire the necessary funds to pay for long-term care.
Beneficial asset
Having your home as an asset is beneficial in this instance. In an episode of Elder Talk, Bill Nass, vice president of Gershman Mortgage and a reverse mortgage specialist spoke to attorney-CPA Joseph E. Cordell and co-host Susan Arthur about the utilization of reverse mortgages and how they can be beneficial in funding retirement and long-term care.
“They [seniors] are outliving their savings,” Mr. Nass said. “They’re outliving what they’ve got set aside, or what they feel they had set aside, in order to live a comfortable life in retirement. They’re outliving this, so they’ve got to turn somewhere.”
The financial constraints that prevent many from living out their retirement comfortably also can cause problems when sorting through the house. Not all homes that seniors live in are fully paid off, making it impossible for people facing financial problems to qualify for reverse mortgages.
Selling the home
Many seniors who still own their homes while living in some sort of assisted living facility consider selling their homes. If they do not have a lot of family in the area, it can be a logical conclusion to the problems that they face.
However, many of them do not consider the challenges they may face in a possible sale. In order to sell a home, you have to make it look presentable, and if you are elderly, living elsewhere, the state of the house may not be at its best.
There also are the challenges of the real estate market. You need to make others aware that the house is for sale, and if you cannot sell by owner fast enough, it may require the aid of a real estate agent, whose costs will dip into the percentage of sales; a fee that someone looking to supplement their working income during their retirement years may not be able to afford.
Sorting through your possessions can be especially challenging. You may have developed mobility issues and may no longer be able to get around your home the way you used to. You also may not have that big of a space at your new senior living home for all of your things, and if you do not have a big family or your family lives far away, you may need to sell some possessions or invest in a storage unit.
Emotional attachment
There also is the emotional aspect that you need to work through. This may have been the house that you raised your children in and spent holidays and birthdays in. Given the number of memories you may have in the place, it may be difficult for you to consider selling it.
However, the financial turmoil over how to pay for long-term housing and care may outweigh the emotional attachment you may have for your house. As much as you may love that house, you would not want to put yourself or your family in any sort of financial bind by holding onto a property that you are not even living in anymore.
Facing all of these issues will require time and patience, as well as a partner you can trust to help guide you through the challenges that you face. Contact TuckerAllen, and schedule your estate plan analysis.
