Founding Attorney
How you age, where you age, and who you age with are decisions that you must eventually make. Many people choose to spend their final years in solitude, or at least without a partner.
Solo aging in New York can be enjoyable, but it also presents some significant medical and financial challenges. Those challenges can be made much less significant if you plan for them in advance. Here are some things you should consider if you are solo aging in New York.
Inheritance of Your Assets
Eventually, you will die. That is a simple truth for everyone. Unless you spend every dime before you go, though, you will have some assets after you leave this world. By creating a will, you can ensure that the people you care about get access to your assets after you are gone.
Your Health
The best time to plan for long-term care is while you are still healthy. This makes it easier for you to make decisions about your future and ensure that they are respected.
You have several options when planning for the type of long-term care you want. You can:
- Give another party durable power of attorney over your healthcare decisions
- Create an advanced directive
- File a HIPAA compliance form
Before doing any of these things, you should consult with an elder law attorney. They understand the challenges of solo aging in New York and can help personalize your long-term healthcare plans.
Government Benefits
Between Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, you are entitled to enjoy many benefits once you reach your twilight years. However, just because you have the right to these benefits doesn’t mean accessing them is always easy.
For Social Security, you will have to decide when you start getting benefits. That decision can affect the value of those benefits in the short and long term. You shouldn’t make this decision lightly. Discuss your options with an experienced estate planning lawyer and make sure you fully understand the consequences of your decision.
Similarly, you have to make decisions to take advantage of Medicare. There are different types of Medicare that you may be eligible to receive, each offering different benefits at different costs. You should plan for what type of Medicare you intend to purchase and how you will pay for it.
Your Retirement Income and Assets
When you are young or middle-aged, you typically get income from working. As long as the amount of money you make each year is more than the amount you spend, you are safely in the black.
However, once you stop working, you no longer have an active income, and making sure you have enough money to live on can become more challenging. You may still have a passive income, though. Many retirement accounts include some form of investments or interest that provide a passive income.
Even if that isn’t enough to get by, you can combine that with careful reductions of a retirement account to keep you going for decades. To ensure your assets last for the rest of your life, you should create a retirement plan and potentially set up a trust.
Contact Merlino & Gonzalez in New York Today
Are you considering growing old alone in New York? That can be a frightening experience if you don’t have the right plan for how you will handle the challenges of aging. Contact our law firm today to schedule an appointment with an estate planning lawyer as soon as possible.