A Financial Power of Attorney is needed for Medicaid planning

Medicaid planning will help to protect your life savings from nursing homes.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Robert, we know that we do Medicaid planning for people up there and get qualified for Medicaid and have the government pay for their nursing home. We know that when Mary calls us, we know number one question we're going to ask her and that is, does she have a power of attorney?

Attorney Robert Hidock: Power of attorney becomes the most critical document that a parent can have, especially for their children. We can help anybody with any situation if they have the power to do so. The power of attorney is what grants them, their children, the power to do it. It's so heartbreaking when we can see what their parents are going through and we know how we can preserve their assets and have Medicaid pay for the nursing home, but if they don't have the power from the power of attorney we can't help them.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Sometimes when one of the children come to see us about Mom or Dad going into a nursing home, yes, they bring this beautiful power of attorney that, hey, maybe we even did for them because we know that when we do a power of attorney at the Olsen Law group, we're going to have all the magic language in there that would allow them to do nursing home and Medicaid planning for Mom and Dad. Sometimes they come to see us and there's no power of attorney, but Mom or Dad are still competent enough to sign that power of attorney even at the last minute.

Attorney Robert Hidock: Then we can do that. I've made plenty of trips to an assisted living facility, to a rehab center to actually have to have Mom or Dad fill out the power of attorney form right then and there.

Attorney Tom Olsen: All right. If you're a parent and you're concerned about protecting your life savings from nursing homes and passing on as much of your wealth as you can to your children, or if you're a child of a parent that they're concerned about protecting their wealth, step number one is make sure that they have a good financial power of attorney that includes these powers that are needed to do this nursing home and Medicaid planning.