A good power of attorney is needed for nursing home and Medicaid planning

A good power of attorney is needed for nursing home and Medicaid planning.

Attorney Tom Olsen: If you, or someone you know, or your parents, have to go into a nursing home someday, $8,000 to $10,000 a month, a lot of people just think, "Huh," throw their hands up and go, "Okay, mom, dad." They got two, three, four hundred thousand dollars, I guess we got to spend it, $10,000 a month. No, that's not the case. Here in the state of Florida, they are Medicaid-compliant tools where we can protect that money, people just need to know that. Now, in a perfect world, we would talk about those tools now, but realistically if somebody came to you tomorrow and said, "Robert, mom's going to go into a nursing home next week," is it too late?

Attorney Robert Hidock: Absolutely not. Obviously, we prefer preplanning, but the majority of the people come to us crisis management. They realize that their loved one isn't going to come home, they're in a rehab center, and then the rehab is actually starting to hit their parents up for the financial information, and at that point, we can help them.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Now, we want to qualify that by saying this, that to help them requires that mom and dad have a good financial power of attorney. Without having a good financial power of attorney, they're sunk, they're out of the game.

Attorney Robert Hidock: Yes. It's extremely frustrating when you know you can help them but they don't have the right tools to use.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Realistically, if mom's going to go into a nursing home next week, there's a chance that she may still be competent enough to sign a power of attorney. If we can make that happen, we're going to make that happen, but if mom is already gone completely mentally and she doesn't have the ability to sign a power of attorney, well then we just can't help them.

Attorney Robert Hidock: Absolutely. If she's already in the memory unit, chances are that's not happening.