Long-term care planning is the process of preparing financially and legally for the possibility that you will need extended care — whether at home, in an assisted living facility, or in a nursing home — later in life. For Georgia families, it is one of the most important and most neglected areas of financial planning.
Why Long-Term Care Planning Matters
About 70 percent of people who reach age 65 will need some form of long-term care services during their lifetime. In Georgia, that care is expensive:
- Nursing home care: $8,000–$10,500 per month
- Assisted living: $3,500–$5,500 per month
- Home health aide (full-time): $4,000–$6,000 per month
Medicare covers very little of this. A typical nursing home stay lasts two to three years — a cost of $200,000 to $300,000 or more. Without a plan, that cost falls on your savings, your assets, and your family.
What Long-Term Care Planning Involves
Long-term care planning has both a financial component and a legal component.
Financial Planning
- Assessing the cost of care in your area and what your current assets could cover
- Evaluating long-term care insurance options
- Understanding how Medicaid works and what eligibility requires
- Building a savings strategy that accounts for healthcare costs in retirement
Legal Planning
- Creating a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust to protect assets from spend-down
- Establishing a durable financial power of attorney so someone can manage your finances if you become incapacitated
- Creating an advance healthcare directive documenting your wishes for medical care
- Setting up a revocable living trust to avoid probate and streamline the transfer of assets
The Difference Between Proactive and Crisis Planning
Long-term care planning done before you need care is completely different from planning done in a crisis.
Proactive planning — done five or more years before you expect to need care — gives you access to the full range of legal tools, including Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts. You have time to structure things correctly, run the lookback period, and protect the assets that matter most.
Crisis planning — done after a diagnosis, a fall, or a nursing home admission — is still better than nothing, but your options are much narrower. Most Medicaid planning tools require years to work. Waiting until a crisis means spending more of your savings before any protection kicks in.
Who Should Be Doing Long-Term Care Planning?
If you are between 55 and 75 and have not had this conversation, the window is open. Specifically, you should act if:
- You have assets you want to protect — a home, retirement accounts, savings
- You have a family history of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, or other conditions requiring extended care
- You are married and want to protect your spouse’s financial security if you need nursing home care
- Your parents needed long-term care and you watched what it cost them
How The Hive Law Helps
The Hive Law works with Georgia families on the legal component of long-term care planning — including Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts, powers of attorney, and healthcare directives. Melissa Breyer personally reviews every family’s situation and builds a plan based on their specific assets, health situation, and family structure.
If you want to understand your exposure and what planning now would look like, start with a Family Protection Audit — a 60-minute strategy session that gives you a clear picture of where you stand and what needs to happen.
