Boomer Watch: Elder Care Laws, Why Does it Concerns Baby Boomers

We usually hear about "elder laws" which is highly significant to seniors and baby boomers, but do we have enough information about its significance and importance? Why does it concerns the baby boomers?

According to wfplaw.com, "Elder law ensures the matriarchy and patriarch of your family is taken care of in various areas of their life", and this includes three major categories namely:

• Estate Planning
• Long Term Care
• Guardianship

When doing retirement, estate and even long-term care planning, it is recommended to work with an elder law attorney, they are in the best position to provide you with advice and assistance in making crucial decisions and make sure that these plans are properly documented. 

It is best that you know something about the legal matters and elder care laws concerning the end of life situations that comes with aging. By the time you are already old and you cannot function alone anymore, it will be very hard for you to do these things then, so it is best that while you are still capable of doing things on your own, you must prepare and signed all the necessary documents, and your care giver must know where they can find these documents. These documents are;

1. Advance Health Care Directive- this is a legal document that takes care of what decision to make when in terms of their health, what kind of long term care or medical intervention to take when the time comes. This will be your voice when you are unable to communicate due to old age or sickness. This document will provide detailed instructions on what to do when you are already incapable of making decisions on your own, this will tell if you are going to use life support, breathing apparatus and other medical equipment, you can also appoint someone to make your decisions for you.

2. Will – this document will take care of your wealth and assets after you passed away. This contains a detailed instructions on what will happened to all of your assets. Will is not only applicable to wealthy people, all must have this will to let other people know what to do after you passed away.

3. Guardians/Conservators- you will have to appoint someone to make decisions for you in case you do not have the capacity to do so, a guardian is someone that will make decisions concerning your health, and the conservators will be the one to make decisions about your properties. You appointees must be knowledgeable about elder care laws so that they can be an effective guardian/conservator.

Here is a list of all the important documents that needs to be kept in a safe place:

- Important certificates like birth, marriage and divorce certificates if you have one.

- Records of your social security.

- Information all about your health insurance.

- Information all about your life insurance.

- Statements and important account numbers must also be kept in case your lawyer or your conservator needs them.

- Documents about your Medicare.

- Documents concerning your prearranged funeral and its payment information.

- Documents of your mortgages and other documents concerning your assets, like real estates.

- Detailed information about your medical records, every medication that was prescribed for you, and every health care provider that you went to.

- Information about your credit cards.

- Information on your taxes and tax return.

- Military records.

Photo credit: www.longtermcareprimer.com

So in conclusion, being knowledgeable about elder care laws and being prepared with all of these documents can help you and your family or anyone close to you in making critical decisions when the time comes and you cannot make decisions on your own.