Westchester seniors lack adequate long-term planning, elder law attorney says

While estate tax issues often generate headlines, long-term care and planning are the biggest issues facing Westchester seniors, according to the chairman”“elect of the Elder Law Section of the New York State Bar Association.

White Plains attorney Anthony J. Enea, a partner in the firm Enea, Scanlan and Sirignano L.L.P., said there is a lack of awareness about this among older people in the county.

As a former president of the Westchester County Bar Association and charter member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys”™ New York chapter, Enea has worked for much of his career in elder law and entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

With changes to the two programs seemingly inevitable, Enea said the elder law field is becoming increasingly important, and particularly in Westchester.

“There”™s no doubt that there will be entitlement reform ”“ and it”™s needed to a great degree,” he said. “As the population ages, the ability to have attorneys that are experienced and knowledgeable in elder law is critical.”

Enea said there are numerous misconceptions among seniors about what is and isn”™t covered under Medicare, leading to problems down the road when it comes to the cost of extended care ”“ which can be as much as $10,000 to $14,000 a month, he said.

“The real big issue facing seniors today is not estate taxes. I think the biggest problem seniors are going to be facing in the future is, how do they pay for long-term care and what are they entitled to,” Enea said.

While a small percentage of Americans will ever need to be concerned with estate taxes, studies show that as people live longer, more and more will require long-term in-home or nursing home care.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that the number of men and women over the age of 65 who will need long-term care will increase by one-third over the next eight years, from nine million to 12 million people.

On the contrary, “If you do the research, I think you”™ll see in the last 10 years that significantly less than 1 percent of people have had to file an estate tax return,” Enea said.

Generally, Medicare will not pay for the cost of care when that care involves help with daily activities, Enea said, which can cause people to quickly burn through their life savings.

“One of the big sources of confusion is seniors wrongly believe that Medicare pays for the cost of home care or nursing care. People think they have insurance coverage through Medicare, but they really don”™t,” Enea said, adding that coverage for such services is based on meeting certain requirements and not based on age.

In order to offset the costs of long-term care, Enea said it”™s important for people to consider investing in long-term care insurance while they are still young and healthy to ensure lower premiums.

He also advised looking into a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust, which is a means of protecting one”™s assets and exempting them from consideration for Medicaid purposes after a set period of time, usually five years.