1 mile west of the Chicago Premium Outlet Mall (800) 810 3100
Alzheimer's and Dementia, Elder Law, estate planning, Financial Planning, General Interest

By Rick Law, elder law and estate planning attorney in Aurora, IL.  Rick and his attorney daughter Diana Law are partners at the Estate, Asset, and Retirement Tax law firm of Law Elder Law. 

Although each state has its own rules regarding transfers and discharges, if the facility accepts Medicaid and/or Medicare, it is bound by the federal rules. A nursing home may only transfer or discharge a patient under federal law if it is

  • necessary for the resident’s welfare and the resident’s needs cannot be met in the facility;

  • appropriate because the resident’s health has improved sufficiently so the resident no longer needs the services provided by the facility;

  • the safety of individuals in the facility is endangered;

  • the health of individuals in the facility would otherwise be endangered;

  • the resident has failed, after reasonable and appropriate notice, to pay for (or to have paid under Medicare or Medicaid) a stay at the facility (or a resident who becomes eligible for Medicaid after admission to a facility, the facility may charge a resident only allowable charges under Medicaid); or

  • the facility ceases to operate.


Facilities must give notice to the resident and resident’s representative and the notice must provide the following:

  • the reasons for the transfer and discharge

  • the effective date of the transfer or discharge

  • where the resident will be transferred or discharged to

  • a statement informing the resident the he/she has the right to appeal the action to the state

  • the name, address, and telephone number for the state’s long-term care ombudsman

The facility is required to provide 30 days’ notice from the effective date of the transfer or discharge except for emergency situations. Too many families needlessly lose everything they have.  Don’t let that be you.  If you need help paying the overwhelming cost of long term care, give our office a call at 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now, because when you’re out of money, you’re out of options! Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees.

Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney at the Estate, Asset, and Retirement Tax law firm of Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!

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estate planning, General Interest, Inspiring People
From the desk of Estate Planning attorney Rick L. Law of the Estate, Asset, and Retirement Tax law firm of Law Elder Law.  Dale Chatfield was a man of simple and powerful virtues.  His initiative, integrity, and personality drew people to him, and in turn, he enriched their lives.  When Dale passed in 2014, he and his wife doris had been married for just over 75 years. Born October 10, 1911 in the central Nebraska plains.  He told us, “I grew up on the farm, and when I was a young man it seemed like I knew all the girls in Nebraska—but none of them were right for me!  It was The Great Depression, but I headed off to find my fortune in Denver.”  In Denver he lived frugally, studied accounting, and eventually got a job as an accountant for the Denver/Rio Grande Railway. But Dale was never meant to just sit at a desk.  He was a competitor… driven to always do more than what is expected.  Doris beamed and proudly told us, “Dale spent his whole life going the extra mile.  We had a dry cleaning business for 32 years.  The business, called D&D Cleaners (for Dale and Doris), grew because my husband always gave extraordinary personal attention to each customer.  Even after people moved away from our neighborhood, they would drive back to have Dale do their cleaning. People value that special personal attention.” Even after retirement, Dale has kept on making life more fun for others.  From 1990 to their 2005 move to Chicago, he almost single-handedly did the Christmas decorations and lights around their four-story senior residential center in Denver.  Doris told us, “He was the only one in the neighborhood who decorated all four sides of their building!  Everybody else just did the front.  You know, he climbed up and down those tall ladders even when he got to be 92.” A treasured memoir of my encounter with Dale, he gifted me a handwritten note with some of his keys to a long and successful life.
  1. God, parents, wife, and kids
  2. Creator, genes, diet, exercise
  3. Husband and wife 50/50; don’t let the sun set on your anger.
  4. Honesty (don’t even take tax deductions if they are iffy)
  5. Eat well but nothing fancy (oatmeal with raisins every day and good farm food)
If you’re ready to start getting your estate in order and secure your assets for the “worst-case” scenario, please give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney at the Estate, Asset, and Retirement Tax law firm of Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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BY LEL’s Rick Law.  Diana Law, and Rick Law are partners at the multi-generational law firm of Law Elder Law in Aurora, IL.  The Estate, Asset and Retirement Tax law firm at Law Elder Law serve pre-retirees, retirees, seniors and their families. LEL’s own Attorney Diana Law has once again been selected as a Leading Lawyer and was featured in the Network’s magazine. In 2009, Diana was first selected as a leading lawyer, and both her and her father – elder and estate planning attorney Rick Law – have received this honor several years in a row. Diana plays an integral role within the Law Elder Law, focusing on the elder law niche, including litigation due to financial abuse of an elder, guardianship, and estate administration. She is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, and has won a number of awards, including the Kane County Bar Association’s Outstanding New Lawyer Award in 2007.  In 2011, She became the youngest ever president of the Kane county Bar Association, and has also served as second vice-president of the KCBA’s Executive Board of Managers, in addition to being involved in several bar committees. Diana and the rest of the Law Elder Law team make it their goal to meet not only the legal needs of clients, but to address their worries, pain, and conflict caused by the burden of long-term care needs. Law Elder Law touches clients where they are hurting and provides wise and experienced counsel. Clients need guidance through difficult family situations and to understand complicated public benefits. The legal team communicates with clients in a hands-on and understandable way. The goal is to provide clarity and direction in getting through the byzantine and often adversarial Medicaid, VA benefits, and long-term health care systems, advocating to make sure that clients are aware of the many community resources that are available. At Law Elder Law, a key goal is to help clients age-in-place with dignity, safety, and peace of mind. Our clients’ goal is to never be out of money and quality health care options — and the firm works to help them achieve that goal. Too many families needlessly lose everything they have.  Don’t let that be you.  If you need help building a fortress around your estate to protect it from creditors, predators, and the cost of chronic disease, give our office a call at 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now, because when you’re out of money, you’re out of options! Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By elderlaw and estate planning attorney Rick Law.  Rick is founder and managing partner at the multi-generation Estate, Asset, and Retirement Tax Law firm of Law Elder Law in Aurora, Illinois. One of my friends is suffering from long term nerve pain, which is one of the most common complications caused by Shingles. Although Shingles can occur at any age, seniors and baby boomers are the primary groups seriously affected by it. Once upbeat and positive, my friend’s voice was filled with anguish and despair as she said, “I just had another nerve block treatment to try to stop this never-ending, excruciating pain—and I’m still in torment.  In the blink of an eye, this disease totally changed my life.  I feel like life as I knew it is over.  I just want the old me back!” Most of us are only vaguely aware of this disease, nevertheless, I’m convinced everyone over the age 60 should rush to get a Shingles vaccine. Often underestimated, it is not a “pretty” disease and you definitely want to avoid it, and almost every adult is a “shingles carrier.”   If you had Chicken Pox, then you are carrying the Shingles-producing virus. It’s probably dormant right now, lurking near your nerve cells. Over 90% of the North American population has had Chickenpox, so you stand a fair chance of developing Shingles at some time during your aging process, or any time your immune system is compromised by sickness, stress, or medications. You don’t catch Shingles; rather, the long-dormant virus wakes up angry and attacks you without warning. Painful, ugly skin rashes erupt on the face and/or other parts of the body.  Unfortunately, these itchy, burning, blistering rashes hang around for about a month on the average. If you do develop such symptoms, run—don’t walk—to get treatment right away. Why risk scarring, skin infection, loss of vision or hearing, facial paralysis, and long term nerve pain? The vaccine has been proven effective in preventing horrible nerve damage for 2 out of every 3 older adults who receive it. I just spoke with my friend again recently. She is still suffering. She asked me to beg, not urge, you to call today to get the Shingles vaccine. Too many families needlessly lose everything they have. Don’t let that be you. If you need help paying the overwhelming cost of long term care, give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free. We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family. Call now, because when you’re out of money, you’re out of options! Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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  By Rick Law, elder law and estate planning attorney at the Estate, Asset and Retirement Tax Law Firm of Law Elder Law in Aurora, IL.   Finding a dependable, trustworthy, long-term caregiver is something that families often grapple with…  retaining a great caregiver is the other half of the struggle that families encounter when faced with disabilities and/or long-term diseases. The majority of the folks we encounter are impacted by Alzheimer’s Disease and the resulting progressive dementia. Alzheimer’s often causes people to lose their inhibitions and judgement, or what my mother calls our “thin veneer of civilization.” Mike Rohan is the president of All-Trust Home Care, a firm that helps place professional caregivers in the home environment, as well as assisted living and nursing home situations.  He once shared with me that his company used to have a constant problem in staffing for Alzheimer’s clients; caregivers would often quit or demand reassignment after only a week or two.  He said, “People with AD can present challenging behaviors, such as screaming, repetitive questions, paranoia, non-cooperation, and even violent aggression.  Very few caregivers have been trained in how to deal positively with these challenges.” In an effort to serve both his employees and the All-Trust clients, Mike decided to seek out a solution. He signed up for a program offered through the Alzheimer’s Association called the “Best Friends Approach to Dementia”, and attended the “Train the Trainer” classes for the best friends approach.  After completing the program, Mike began to teach his firm’s caregivers how to implement the Alzheimer’s care ideas included in the best friends approach.  The results have been nothing short of revolutionary. It has worked out so well, that All-Trust has been offering training classes every Tuesday at their Hinsdale office, and every Thursday at their Deerfield office with some Saturday classes.  The classes are not only for their employees, client family members, but for members of the community as well. You can find out more about Mike and All-Trust Home Care at www.alltrusthomecare.com Caregivers now have the tools that need to communicate effectively with their clients, despite the barriers of the clients’ dementia-related behaviors.  The quality of life for both the caregivers and care receivers has been remarkably improved.  In fact, Mike smiled broadly when he stated, “Before we implemented the best friends approach training, it was difficult to retain staff.  But now I cannot think of anyone who has quit.” Similarly, at Law Elder Law, we’ve added new seminars several times a month to serve the community at large. We address the issues important to you and your family, from estate, retirement and asset protection topics to navigating the ever changing and often uncertain landscape of aging, planning, and preparing. RSVP today for one of our complimentary upcoming seminars at lawelderlaw.com/events. If your loved one has memory problems and you’re afraid of the consequences that may bring, give our office a call today at 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now.   Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. Rick was named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine. He has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By Rick Law, founder and managing partner of Law Elder Law in Aurora, Illinois.  At LEL, we know that the world has changed. Thankfully, we can help; We make the complex easy to understand. The Federal Nursing Home Reform Act lays out the rights of the residents. Under the federal act, a nursing home facility is required to protect and promote the rights of each resident, including, but not limited to the following rights:
  1. The resident has the right to exercise rights as a resident of the facility and as a citizen or resident of the United States. This means the resident is free to make financial and medical decisions.
  2. The resident has the right to be free of interference, coercion, discrimination, and reprisal from the facility in exercising those rights.
  3. In the case of a resident adjudged incompetent under the laws of a state by a court of competent jurisdiction, the rights of the resident are exercised by the person appointed under state law to act on the resident’s behalf.
  4. In the case of a resident who has not been adjudged incompetent by the state court, any legal-surrogate designated in accordance with state law may exercise the resident’s rights to the extent provided by state law.
The act also states the following:
  1. The facility must inform the resident both orally and in writing in a language that the resident understands of the resident’s rights and all rules and regulations governing resident conduct and responsibilities during the stay in the facility.
  2. The resident or legal representative has the right upon an oral or written request to access all records pertaining to the resident, including current clinical records within 24 hours (excluding weekends and holidays); and after receipt of records for inspection, to purchase at a cost not to exceed the community standard photocopies of the records or any portions of them upon request and two working days advance notice to the facility.
  3. The resident has the right to be fully informed in language that the resident can understand of total health status, including but not limited to, medical condition.
  4. The resident has the right to refuse treatment, to refuse to participate in experimental research, and to formulate an advance directive.
  5. The facility also must inform residents that are entitled to Medicaid benefits, in writing, at the time of admission to the nursing facility or when the resident becomes eligible for Medicaid of the items and services that are included in nursing facility services under the state plan and for which the resident may not be charged; those other items and services that the facility offers and for which the resident may be charged, and the amount of charges for those services; and inform each resident when changes are made to the items and services specified above.
  If you’re ready to start getting your estate in order and secure your assets for the “worst-case” scenario, please give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate Planner for Retirees. 8 times named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine, Ric has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate Planning, Guardianship, and Nursing Home Solutions. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By Rick Law of Law Elder Law.  LEL is Aurora, Illinois’ Estate, Asset, and Retirement Tax law firm.  The multi-generational law firm at Law Elder Law serves seniors and their families in Chicagoland and the suburbs in Illinois. The nonprofit Honor Flight Network, has the privilege of giving our veterans a special tribute for their service to our country. Honor Flight transports veterans, especially senior veterans or those with failing health, to Washington, D.C. to visit their memorials. The inaugural Honor Flight Tour took place in May of 2005. Six small planes flew out of Springfield, Ohio taking twelve World War II veterans on a visit to the memorial in Washington, DC. In August of 2005, an ever-expanding waiting list of veterans led to a transition to commercial airline carriers with the goal of accommodating as many veterans as possible. The Honor Flight Network program was conceived by Earl Morse, a physician assistant and Retired Air Force Captain. Earl wanted to honor the veterans he had taken care of for the past 27 years. After retiring from the Air Force in 1998, Earl was hired by the Department of Veterans Affairs to work in a small clinic in Springfield, Ohio. In May of 2004, the World War II Memorial was finally completed and dedicated in Washington, D.C. and quickly became the topic of discussion among his World War II veteran patients. Earl repeatedly asked these veterans if they would ever travel out to visit THEIR memorial. Most felt that eventually, somehow, they would make it to D.C., perhaps with a family member or friend. As summer turned to fall and then winter, these same veterans returned to the clinic for their follow-up visits. Earl asked if they accomplished their dream of visiting the World War II Memorial. By now, for most of the veterans he asked, reality had settled in; it was clear to most that it simply wasn’t financially or physically possible for them to make the journey. Most of these senior heroes were in their 80’s and lacked the physical and mental wherewithal to complete a trip on their own. Families and friends also lacked the resources and time to complete the three- to four-day trip to the nation’s capital. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, an estimated 640 WWII veterans die each day. Honor Flight Network will continue do whatever it takes to fulfill the dreams of our veterans and help our heroes travel absolutely free. Honor flights for Illinois veterans are flown multiple times a year.  There is an application process for both the veteran and the guardian.  You can contact them at through their website at www.honorflight.org or call 937-521-2400 to make arrangements for this very special event. If the aging veteran you love could use some extra money to help pay for the cost of in-home, nursing home, or assisted living care, give our office a call at 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Attorney, Estate, Asset, and Retirement Taxes 8 times named #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine, Rick has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, Estate, Asset, and Retirement Tax Attorneys, a multi-generation law firm. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!  
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By Rick Law of the Estate, Asset, and Retirement Tax Law Firm at Law Elder Law.  Along with his daughter – Attorney Diana Law – Rick is a partner at the multi-generation law firm at Law Elder Law in Western suburban Chicagoland, Illinois.   We can choose how we respond to life’s circumstances… This was the invaluable life lesson I learned when at 17 years old, my mentor Don L. Dise gave me the book Psycho-Cybernetics by Dr. Maxwell Maltz.  How we think about things will then determine our actions and our reactions.  Our actions and reactions will change our circumstances for the better or for the worse. The bottom line is that we have the power to change our lives by choosing to improve our thinking and responding.  We have a personal responsibility to choose our thoughts and our actions. I was reminded of these tenants several years ago when I attended the “Peak Performance 101 Workshop” at the Van Tharp Institute in North Carolina.  The focus of the class was on personal responsibility and improving one’s responses to circumstances.  “Respond-ability” is Dr. Tharp’s phrase for better living through better thinking and response.  These are his “Rules for Being Human.”
  • You will receive a body.  You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period.
  • You will learn lessons.  You are enrolled in full-time informational school called life.  Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons.  You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.
  • There are no mistakes, only lessons.  Growth is a process of trial and error, of experimentation.  The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the life process as the experiment that ultimately “works.”
  • A lesson is repeated until learned.  A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it.  When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.
  • Learning lessons does not end.  There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons.  If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
  • “There” is no better than “here.”  When your “there” has become “here,” you will simply obtain another “there” that will again, look better than “here.”
  • Other people are merely mirrors of you.  You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
  • What you make of your life is up to you.  You have all the tools and resources you need.  What you do with them is up to you.  The choice is yours.
I can’t help but feel that these “rules” are invaluable for our day-to-day dealings with each other.  Especially in a family situation where you’re dealing with a health or wealth crisis, the strains on your relationships can be immense.  Your respond-ability is your ability to adapt and react to the situation at hand. Too many families needlessly lose everything they have.  Don’t let that be you.  If you need help paying the overwhelming cost of long term care, give our office a call at 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now, because when you’re out of money, you’re out of options! Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Estate, Asset and Retirement Tax Attorney 8 times named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine, Rick has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate, Asset, and Retirement Taxes. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By Rick L. Law of the Estate, Asset and Retirement Tax Attorneys at Law Elder Law in west suburban Aurora, Illinois. Older adults have often lamented of doctors and/or hospital staff who ignored the wishes of a loved one, and proceeded with pursuing life-prolonging care.  Even when they had insisted that their loved one did not want life-prolonging treatment, a doctor nevertheless ordered feeding tubes, ventilators, and other life-prolonging measures.  It is through my encounters with these individuals that I have discovered that these situations can and do happen.  Part of of my philosophy of end-of life planning is to help my clients to ensure that their wishes will be adhered to.  I once taught a two-hour continuing education course about advance directives for an audience of hospital administrators, nurses, and social workers.  “Advance directives” are documents such as the Living Will, the Do Not Resuscitate Order (DNR), and the Health Care Power of Attorney.  A primary goal for people who sign these forms is to avoid unwanted resuscitation and other “heroic measures” when there is no hope of recovery and returning to an enjoyable life. Unfortunately, studies show a “lack of regard” for a patient’s preferences in life-sustaining treatment decisions by doctors and hospital staff.  This trend is quite frightening.  “Despite patients’ wishes, the indiscriminate use of technology and the lack of communication between patients and health care providers have been shown to result in unnecessary pain and suffering for patients.” (ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) In addition, the study notes that the medical costs of prolonging a dying patient’s life via artificial ventilation and intensive care often range between $11,000 and $36,000.     It has been demonstrated that 46% of dying patients received mechanical ventilation in the last three days of their lives.  Many of those individuals never wanted to be on a ventilator—yet they live on in a state of hopeless suffering because of their physician’s decisions. What can you do to prevent this scenario from happening to you or someone that you love?
  • Create a written advance directive such as a Health Care Power of Attorney, Living Will, and/or a Do Not Resuscitate Order (DNR) in appropriate circumstances;
  • Insist that your advance directives are placed in all of your medical records and that your physician is well aware of the existence of such documents;
  • Have “the talk” with your family and doctor to make sure that everyone is very aware of your feelings regarding life-sustaining treatment in the event there is no hope of recovery. This will allow you to get all of your family members “on the same page”; and
  • Choose an “advocate” as your Health Care Power of Attorney and/or surrogate decision maker.  That advocate is someone who can look a medical professional in the eye and insist that your wishes be carried out.  I recommend that you look through your family and friends and choose someone who can insist that your desire regarding life-prolonging treatment be respected by the medical profession.
If your loved one has memory problems and you’re afraid of the consequences that may bring, give our office a call today at 800-310-3100.  Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Estate, Asset and Retirement Tax Attorney 8 times named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine, Rick has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate, Asset, and Retirement Taxes. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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By Law Elder Law’s Rick Law. The LEL team is comprised of Estate, Asset & Retirement Tax Planning attorneys in the Western Chicago suburb of Aurora in Illinois. Planning ahead to protect your surviving spouse is one of the best things you can do to protect your loved ones.  The problem is, some people wait until it’s too late.  I’ve said it before, when you’re out of money, you’re out of options. So what are some of the things you need to plan and protect against?
  • Loss of a Social Security Check
  • Possible loss of pension
  • Survivor’s taxes may be higher because
    • Single person tax brackets are compressed
    • The big 4 tax deductions are gone
      • Mortgage Interest
      • Dependent children
      • Charities
      • 401k & IRA deductions
  • Inflation
There could be a myriad of reasons why these items would affect you, but now is the time to protect your spouse’s future income with tax planning to increase the net spendable dollars. In the end, it’s all about your family – your surviving spouse and your children.  At Law Elder Law, we can help create trusts tailored specifically to each beneficiary. This level of targeted planning can help protect your adult child’s inheritance from:
  • Divorce
  • Bankruptcy
  • Creditors
  • Predators
  • Inability to handle money
  • Poor decisions
  • Taxes
  • Eccentricities
But what about you?  An estate and asset protection plan also needs to protect you!  Are your assets at risk? Will you lose your house if long-term care is required?  Depending where you are on the elder care journey, our firm may be able to help you better navigate the twists and turns, and the pitfalls and roadblocks of planning to live.  That’s right, because we all know we’re going to die… but what if you live? What if a protracted illness sees you stuck in a care facility for an extended period of time? Will you have the resources to survive without leaving your spouse destitute? Will your children have an inheritance when you’re gone? That’s where the experienced professionals at Law Elder Law come in.  Our team is ready to help you plan and protect your future, for better or worse. If you’re ready to start getting your estate in order and secure your assets for the “worst-case” scenario, please give our office a call at 800-310-3100. Your first consultation is absolutely free.  We’ll let you know what steps you need to take, right now, to protect yourself and your family.  Call now. Sincerely, Rick L. Law, Estate, Asset, and Retirement Tax Attorney 8 times named the #1 Illinois elder law estate planning attorney by Leading Lawyer Magazine, Rick has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, AARP Magazine, TheStreet.com, and numerous newspapers and articles. Rick is the lead attorney for Law Elder Law, LLP, focusing in Estate, Asset and Retirement Taxes. His goal is to give retirees an informed edge when it comes to dealing with an uncertain future.  Get flexible retirement strategies that work during good times and bad, plus information on how you can save your home and assets from being used to pay for long term care.  Call 800-310-3100 for your free consultation now!
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