Often times we are contacted by potential clients who have encountered a crisis and now seek quick assistance in protecting their remaining assets and ensuring that they are able to leave their estate to their loved ones.  In these crisis situations, there are generally strategies that can be used to assist in protecting a portion of an individual’s estate.  However, these crisis strategies are often costly, and it is sometimes too late to effectuate a binding solution under the law.  Frankly, in most of these situations proactive planning would have protected the individual and their assets.

What is proactive planning?  In terms of protecting your estate, proactive planning is taking action well before a crisis situation or before long-term care is needed so as to preserve the assets that you worked all your life to collect and ensure that your loved ones inherit in a manner that you desire.  Proactive planning combines a number of tools, such as trusts and personal care agreements to legally protect your estate.  One strategy for proactive planning is to allow an individual to qualify for Medicaid, while preserving the bulk of an individual’s estate.  Since Medicare has a five year look back period when determining eligibility and penalties for transfers, this means that an individual must be forward thinking when managing their assets.  No one ever knows when a crisis situation may occur, but being proactive in your estate planning can protect the bulk of your estate and is more cost effective than starting to plan in the middle of the crisis.