Indianapolis Elder Law attorneys have been keeping a close eye on long-term care costs and the news is not good.

Every year the MetLife Mature Market Institute provides detailed information about the current state of long-term care costs.  Since we are now in 2012, they have the 2011 figures and they have made them available to the public via their annual survey.

Industry experts have predicted that long-term care costs will continually rise into the foreseeable future, and these 2011 numbers compiled by MetLife would confirm their suspicions.

In 2010, the national average cost for a single day in a private room in a nursing home in the United States was $229. In 2011 that number went up by 4.4% to $239.  If you multiply that figure by the 365 days that are in a year, you find that the national average cost for a yearlong residence in a private room in a nursing home in the United States in 2011 was $87,235.

In Indiana the average daily cost for a private room in a nursing home was very close to the national average at $234.

A month in an assisted living community in the United States in 2011 came with a $3,477 average price tag, which is a 5.6% increase over the 2010 figure of $3,293.

It is important to note that most senior citizens will require long-term care eventually and the average length of stay is between two and four years.

Clearly, long-term care expenses are something to budget for when you are planning for the future, and the sooner you get started sticking to an intelligently conceived long-term financial plan the better.

Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Planning for the active retirement years that you have been looking forward to throughout your working career is important, but since everything is connected you would do well to act in anticipation of the twilight years that will follow.

While it is true that senior citizens are the fastest growing age group, if you drill down even further you find that the segment of the population that is 85 and up is the most rapidly expanding group of seniors.  One out of every four Americans who reach this age are residing in a nursing home at any given time, and according to the United States Department of Health and Human Services 70% of senior citizens will someday need long-term care.

When should you begin looking for a long-term care facility?  Should you do it once you need the care?  Clearly, this is not the best idea because you may feel an urgency to act, and in fact you may not be in a position to make the decision for yourself.  Though you may or may not need long-term care eventually, it is a good idea to do some research, visit facilities that seem appealing to you, and identify an assisted living facility or nursing home that you would feel comfortable residing in.  There are many good resources online, including a very useful tool at Medicare.gov.  Word of mouth references are also of great assistance.

It is better to be safe than sorry, and if you already know where you would like to reside if you need long-term care, you greatly simplify the process should such a move becomes necessary.  It should be noted that there are some significant costs associated with long-term care, and Medicare does not cover them.  If you have not addressed the matter of budgeting for these expenses, you may want to devise a strategy with the assistance of an experienced elder law attorney.

Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.

Planning for your retirement can be a lot of fun as you anticipate an extended period of time that will be yours and yours alone. Most of us have many things on our “to do” list and it is exciting to have the opportunity to do some traveling and otherwise do things that we never had the time to do while we were engaged in our careers.  However, when you’re making plans for the future, it is important to remember the time that will follow your active retirement years.

Many people are not aware of the fact that it is actually likely that you will someday need some form of long-term care.  Statistics that are provided by the United States Department of Health and Human Services indicate that seven out of every 10 people who reach the age of 65 will eventually need long-term care.  The costs associated with long-term care are considerable, with the national average charge for a year in a private room in a nursing home exceeding $80,000. If you were to spend two or three years in a nursing home at the end of your life it could certainly have an impact on your estate.

One possible solution that works for some people who are planning for long-term care expenses would be to take out a federally insured reverse mortgage called a home equity conversion mortgage (HECM).  With these loans you are receiving payments in return for equity in your home, and the only requirements are that you must be at least 62 years of age and have significant equity in the house or own it outright.  When you die or move, the loan becomes due.

You could use the funds that you received from the reverse mortgage to pay for long-term care insurance. Should you be forced to move from the home because you needed such care, the costs would be paid by your insurance coverage.  You could then sell the home and use the proceeds from the sale to pay off the HECM.  Of course you keep the remainder that’s left over after paying off the debt.

Frank & Kraft, Attorneys at Law is a member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys.