The Importance of Life Care Planning

Many people have taken the time to create an estate plan, which is excellent. How many of those same people, however, have taken the time to create a life care plan? Have you? Do you even know what a life care plan includes? If not, perhaps the following will convince you of the importance of life care planning.

What is life care planning?

Life care planning is, more or less, exactly what it sounds like: the creation of a plan to take care of you or a loved one should you suffer some catastrophic illness or injury that requires lifelong care, as well as the preservation and distribution of your assets after your death. For example, when Christopher Reeve, the actor who played Superman in the 1970s movies, was thrown from his horse during an equestrian event, breaking his neck, he had the kind of catastrophic injury that life care planning is geared toward.

What should your life care plan attempt to accomplish?

Ideally, you want your life care plan to revolve around three core ideas. The first is the provision of appropriate care to the person who has suffered the catastrophic injury, regardless of whether that care occurs in a facility, such as a nursing home or in your own home. The second is how to obtain funds from both private and public sources that will help you pay for long-term care, while also seeking to eliminate the asset protection problem created by the high costs of care. Third, you want a plan that provides you and your family with peace of mind.