Answer: There are two or three different types of advisers you can look to for advice when trying to help assess, revise, or update your elderly parents’ estate and trust planning.
The first type of adviser you can seek is an estate planning attorney with elder or senior law experience. The estate planning attorney will be able to suggest documents which they feel would best protect your elderly parents in their current financial situation and/or to achieve their own estate planning goals. An estate planning attorney should be well-versed in the state laws.
The second type of consultant that you can seek advice from is a financial planner. In some situations, it may be a good idea to have both an estate planning attorney and financial planner working together as a team.
A financial planner and estate planning attorney will be able to work together to create a plan that is best suited for your parents’ current affairs and to achieve their short term and long term goals (such as asset protection for the family). The financial planner will be able to assess your parents’ current financial status and then suggest long-term plan that would allow them to have money for the remainder of their life. The financial planner should be certified in the state in which your parents currently reside.
For clients who have exclusive life or long term disability needs it might be beneficial to involve an insurance adviser in this process.
Finally, involving your parents' CPA or tax adviser can be important.
Please contact David M. Frees, III at [email protected] or call us at 888-573-7407 regarding your elder law questions.
