Elder Law Insights from Attorney Miles Hurley

Planning for your golden years without considering elder law is like building a house without a roof – leaving you exposed when storms hit. Attorney Miles Hurley, one of only twelve certified elder law attorneys in Georgia, reveals the crucial differences between basic estate planning and comprehensive elder law on this eye-opening episode of Retirement Roadmap.

Drawing from both professional expertise and personal experience with family members' end-of-life journeys, Miles shares how his grandfather's nursing home experience sparked his dedication to helping seniors maintain dignity while aging. He clarifies that while estate planning focuses on what happens after death, elder law addresses the more complex challenge of managing declining functional capacity during life – specifically finding, getting, and paying for quality long-term care.

The financial reality is sobering. Private nursing home rooms can exceed $90,000 annually, with costs multiplying when additional care providers are needed. Miles debunks dangerous misconceptions, particularly the belief that families can manage without proper legal documents. Without a power of attorney, loved ones face expensive court proceedings to gain decision-making authority when capacity is lost. Equally harmful is the misconception that qualifying for Medicaid requires complete impoverishment – Miles explains how proper planning can protect a healthy spouse from financial devastation.

The most valuable takeaway? Don't wait for crisis. Only about 10% of Miles' clients plan proactively, while the vast majority scramble for solutions after a stroke, fall, or dementia diagnosis severely limits their options. Review your elder law and estate planning documents at least every three years, or whenever significant life events occur – because comprehensive retirement planning should include provisions for maintaining both financial security and personal dignity throughout your later years.

Visit masterplanretire.com to access our retirement checklists, podcasts, and schedule a complimentary consultation. Call 770-980-9262 to speak with someone directly about your retirement planning needs.

To learn more about Hurley Elder Care Law, visit https://hurleyeclaw.com/

Have a topic or question you'd like Mark and Evan to address in a future episode? Email us at info@masterplanretire.com or call 770-980-9262.

Visit masterplanretire.com to access our retirement checklists, podcasts, and schedule a complimentary consultation.
Call 770-980-9262 to speak directly with someone about your retirement planning needs.

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Advisory services offered through MasterPlan Retirement Consultants, Inc., a Registered Investment Advisor in the state of Georgia. Insurance, tax and commodities services offered through Fricks and Associates, Inc. dba MasterPlan Retirement Consultants. The aforementioned are affiliated companies.

Transcript

Introduction to Elder Law Attorney Miles Hurley

Speaker 1 0:06

Hey folks, welcome back and thank you for joining us. Welcome to Retirement Roadmap with Master Plan Retirement Consultants. My name is Evan, with me, as always, mark Fricks, and we are coming to you today from the battery at the Atlanta Brave Stadium in studio at Dickey Broadcasting with a very special guest, elder law attorney, miles Hurley, to discuss some of the ins and outs of elder law and estate planning and why it is crucial to have that as a part of your entire retirement plan. Miles Hurley is a dedicated elder law attorney in private practice in Atlanta, serving the legal needs of the senior community. His work focuses on issues related to aging, including maintaining independence, ensuring quality of life and protecting financial security. As one of only 12 certified elder law attorneys in Georgia, a distinction awarded by the National Elder Law Foundation, miles demonstrates a proven mastery of elder law. He's achieved an AV preeminent rating from his peers, signifying the highest professional ethics and legal ability. He is recognized as a Georgia Super Attorney. Recognize that from your website, miles. I snatched it right off your bio.

Speaker 2 1:18

I'm the last one who actually looks at the website, that's a big intro.

Speaker 3 1:22

I think this is going to cost us something. That's right.

Speaker 1 1:23

That's right I did have to look up what a Georgia Super. So that's a big intro. I think this is going to cost us something. That's right. That's right. That's right. I did have to look up what a super, a Georgia super lawyer was, and it's quite a distinction.

Speaker 2 1:31

So yes, actually just this year, all four of our attorneys are either super lawyers or rising stars. Wow, Very good. T-shirts with a big S on them.

Speaker 1 1:42

Yeah, I think that we're going to have to do that for the next event we have Super attorney sounds like you might need a cape.

Speaker 2 1:47

That's right, yep, we'll get the big S and the cape.

Speaker 1 1:51

That's right. Well starting out, miles. First of all, thank you so much for your time. Thank you for joining us today discussing a topic that is important for everyone our clients and our listeners, of course, but everyone needs to hear this conversation.

Miles' Personal Journey to Elder Law

Speaker 2 2:11

To start out, could you please give us some insight into your personal background and what led you to Elder Law to begin with? Sure, so I've been practicing law for a long time now so 33 plus years and went to law school at Georgia State and was in the 10th graduating class from there. When I finished law school, I actually went back up to my hometown in Knoxville, tennessee, and was living with my mother's parents briefly, and while I was doing that, I was out in a remote courthouse one day and my grandfather fell down the stairs into the basement and, of course, no cell phone. No, nothing Got back. The daytime caregiver had called the EMTs, they'd taken him to the hospital and he was in the CCU unit for about the next three weeks While he was in there. He was just in a fetal position most of that time, but finally he got enough strength to get up and get out of there and they moved him to a nursing home about four blocks down the street.

Speaker 2 3:21

Now this is a man who had been a colonel in the chemical warfare services in World War II.

Speaker 2 3:27

He was an ag professor at the University of Tennessee and so very proud man, but he never again really knew who I was, and so I would go down there to see him.

Speaker 2 3:41

And here he is, you know, kind of sitting around in a wife beater t-shirt and a pair of Depends and a place that reeks. Now, thankfully, when I saw him, he at least thought I was part of his unit and we were in the Philippines fighting against the Japanese. Sadly, he thought a lot of the other residents were the Japanese and so he was quite feisty in those situations. But just that whole experience made me think there has to be a better way to go about trying to deal with somebody and trying to maintain their dignity as they age and they lose functional capacity, and so that's really kind of what sent me down this path ultimately. So I've been through the decline and death process now with 10 either family members or in-laws, so I've got a whole lot of personal experience with this as well as the professional side of it. But that was really probably the seminal moment as to what led me to take this path.

What Is Elder Law vs. Estate Planning

Speaker 1 4:54

That sounds so familiar to so many stories I've heard, even for our own family. Estate and legacy planning is something that has to be considered in a holistic retirement plan and unfortunately it seems like most of the time it takes an inciting incident before people get their affairs in order, and we've seen that in our family. We've gone through it. We know the importance of having all that in place. 10,000-foot view for our listeners. What is elder law?

Speaker 2 5:24

So, in a few words, what I would say is estate planning is figuring out really what happens after somebody dies. In the big scheme of things, you only have so many choices. Elder law, on the other hand, is not what happens after somebody dies. Yes, that's part of it, but it's what happens as this person is aging, losing functional capacity, either cognitive or physical, and they can't take care of themselves anymore. So, ultimately, it is how are we going to figure out how to find, get and pay for good long-term care? And there are not a whole lot of options that are out there, and it's always a moving target as somebody continues to lose that capacity. Yeah, and so that's really what I would tell you. The difference is between just baseline estate planning and elder law.

Speaker 3 6:30

That's good I know, when we run reports for clients, that the biggest effect of anything happening any event in your life is a long-term care need that will drain in a state quicker than anything else. And you're right. The tools are shrinking. Some of the tools that are still out there don't work very well or they're very expensive, and it's funny, the people that we're talking to that get it are the ones that have had an experience in their life. Other people are like, oh, we'll just take care of dad at home or I'll just take care of my husband, and I look and I'm like you don't see it, you don't get it. And so it is important that and I think more and more people are experiencing it because of our families and because we're living longer, so more and more people are waking up to the realization that we do have an issue here.

Speaker 1 7:17

Yeah, when you show them the actual numbers too, and you probably know the the exact numbers, but I think it's something like um 90k a year for a private occupancy room, is that?

Speaker 2 7:28

it depends upon what you're. You know where you're getting your care, so assisted living is probably a little bit less than that. Nursing home, if you're paying for it out of pocket, is more than that, and if you're paying for 24-7 care at home, it's definitely more than that.

Speaker 1 7:43

Well, we're seeing people who have a loved one in assisted living and then have to get someone for the after-hour care as well. On top of that, it just snowballs. So question for you what brings a client to your door?

Speaker 2 7:56

to begin, with Good marketing.

Speaker 1 7:58

There you go, hence the broadcasting studio.

Common Misconceptions in Elder Law Planning

Speaker 2 8:04

No, generally, like you all were saying, most people don't proactively go out and do stuff. I would say 10% of our clients are proactive, so it's mostly reactive. So generally we're looking at some kind of a triggering event has happened, so somebody has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's or some other type of dementia, somebody has had a stroke. Somebody was just meeting with someone this morning actually, who their father had taken three falls within a week, you know, cracked his skull, was in Keniston for a week or two and is in subacute rehab now and he cannot walk anymore. So he's going to have to stay in a nursing home from here on out.

Speaker 2 9:00

So it's generally things like that that end up having people you know give us a call and the one thing that I will say is that if people will plan earlier, they will have more options, as opposed to waiting until the crisis occurs.

Speaker 1 9:20

Is it fair to say you usually see most people once they're already pulling their hair out.

Speaker 2 9:24

Yes, and most people have very little hair left when they get to see us.

Speaker 3 9:29

It's the same way with our business. Most people don't think about retirement planning until they're like, oh, I'm getting laid off or it's retirement time or something has to trigger it. Or maybe like COVID, a lot of people flock to us during COVID because they were getting laid off. They were scared, frightened. So it does take a triggering event many times, just like guys going to the doctor right, we don't go until many times it's an event that happens and we have a pain somewhere and then we take off instead of taking care of it beforehand. Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 10:04

I do want to take a moment right now to point you folks out to our website, MasterPlanRetirecom. There you can schedule your complimentary consultation, an opportunity to run a series of reports for you. Talk about your own retirement hopes, dreams, worries, fears. Again, that's MasterPlanRetirecom, or 770-980-9262. And Miles, you guys have a great website with a lot of resources in estate and legacy planning and elder care. I've perused a lot of the documents and checklists you guys have. It's a really helpful website if you want to share that with the audience.

Speaker 2 10:34

Sure. So our website is Hurley and that's H-U-R-L-E-Y-E-C lawcom. So Hurley and then E-C for eldercare lawcom.

Speaker 1 10:46

Perfect. Could you share some of the common elder law planning misconceptions?

Speaker 2 10:56

There's so many of them you really can't even see straight. So it's everything from well. I don't need a power of attorney to, I don't need a will to, my family will take care of me. It's just, everything is out there.

Speaker 2 11:14

So one of the biggest ones I see is that people come in and they've never even put a power of attorney into place, and so then some event has happened and nobody has the authority to do anything from a financial perspective. And you know they could have come in to see us and, let's you know, spend a couple of hundred dollars to get a power of attorney in place, or even if they had somehow done one on their own, something is better than nothing. But there's nothing in place, and so now we're ending up having to run off to the court and have somebody deemed incompetent and get a conservatorship in place, and now A that costs way more money as well as time, and then the court then has its thumb on all of the financial world. That's going on at that point. So that's probably the biggest misconception is I don't need that. Somebody else is going to be able to do it for me. Short answer no, they can't.

Speaker 1 12:18

We've seen that the time that it takes, especially if you don't have a TOD on something, something as simple as a brokerage account that doesn't have a beneficiary on it, or a bank account or whatever that process that's already at a stressful time in your life, is not only adding more stress, but time, which equals exponential stress and money, especially in the courts.

Speaker 2 12:40

No question about it. So that's probably the biggest thing that I would say is out there as a misconception. The other one is is really, when it comes to public benefits and we talk about that being either VA benefits or Medicaid to pay for long-term care, and that is that you have to be flat broke in order to qualify for Medicaid, and that just is not the case. And it's especially not the case if we're looking at a married couple, and so lots of times we'll have, let's say, husband's had a stroke.

Speaker 2 13:20

Wife is like what am I going to do now? He's had this stroke and now I'm going to have to spend all of our money. I'm not going to have anything to live on. What can I do? There are all kinds of planning techniques out here to keep that well spouse from having to think that she's going to live under a bridge somewhere, and that's really one of the things that I really enjoy the most about the work I do is being able to tell her no, you're going to be OK and you don't have to go live with one of your kids and you're like well, thank you, you know Jesus.

Speaker 2 13:55

Yeah, I don't have to do that.

Speaker 3 13:57

Yeah, you mentioned something that I'd like to ask you about. So we work with a lot of federal workers, some military backgrounds, some not, but they mention hey, I'm okay, I have VA benefits, I have options there. Are there options there? Are they limited? Oh, is that a very long question?

Speaker 2 14:19

You opened a big can of worms there. Episode two.

Speaker 2 14:23

Yeah, the VA has more programs than you can shake a stick at and they cover All kinds of things and it really just depends.

Speaker 2 14:33

So the benefit that we generally help people with the most is what's called a non-service-connected pension for wartime veterans or their surviving spouses, and so of course that means that somebody had to have served during wartime has a whole lot more of what they would refer to as service-connected benefits, meaning something happened to this individual while they were in the service.

VA Benefits and TRICARE Options

Speaker 2 15:01

And when people get the service-connected benefits, you know that will help them over the long haul be able to pay for care at home or in nursing homes, generally not in assisted living but it can also help them have a place to where they can go and get their actual ongoing medical care at no or very low cost, depending upon. You know what their service time was, all of those kinds of things, and I will tell people who are active duty military if they can manage to stay in for that 20-year time frame and get their military pension but also get what really is the Cadillac when it comes to Medicare supplements, meaning TRICARE for life. And when I see somebody come in that has that, I know that they're going to be, like, really treated well, um with everything that they do so kind of in a nutshell, there are benefits there, but each individual is going to be a little bit different possibly absolutely, and there's just so many different programs.

Speaker 2 16:10

Even I have no clue as to what all of them are yeah, I don't feel so dumb then with all the ones I've heard about I still haven't heard of all of them, so speaking of

Speaker 1 16:21

benefits, the one big beautiful bill act that was recently passed. Um, could you speak a little bit to its effects on elder care? Because we are seeing, at least from a taxation and retirement standpoint. Yes, we are getting some deductions and there are certain things that are implemented. However, we're kind of kicking the can down the road. But on the benefit side of things for folks, we're also seeing the writing on the wall a little bit. Our social safety nets seem to be at risk. Seeing the writing on the wall a little bit, our social safety nets seem to be at risk.

How the SECURE Act Affects Elder Care

Speaker 2 16:56

Are you seeing an effect on elder care? Well, we haven't yet, because a lot of the things that are going to affect programs such as Medicaid aren't scheduled to kick in for another roughly two years right now. So we haven't seen the changes and I think that a lot of those changes are going to be for your everyday medical Medicaid, meaning that that's the primary way that people are paying for their day-to-day care for people who are very low-income or have some kind of a disability going on, low-income or have some kind of a disability going on. Once somebody is on the program, it is going to be more difficult to maintain the eligibility because they're looking at changing it from an annual review to a biannual review and so, you know, twice a year and there are a lot of people who are on the programs that are not very technologically savvy, making it even more difficult for them.

Speaker 2 18:01

Where we also have real concerns are in some of the Medicaid waiver programs, and those are things like CCSP and Source, as well as ICWP and now Comp waivers and even Katie Beckett waivers.

Speaker 2 18:21

Since those are never guaranteed getting on them and generally they're oversubscribed and underfunded, that is more than likely where the first cuts will be, as far as that goes. What I also think and this is just opinion, of course that they will try to keep these programs going, but more than likely what will happen is that the federal funding on them will go down, meaning the state funding will have to go up, and so it's a question of you know which pocket is the money coming out of? Ultimately, though, this is one place where georgia may end up being happy that we did not expand medicaid, since we didn't get that extra hit for these last set of years since the Affordable Care Act went into effect. So I think it all remains to be seen how it all shakes out, and then also what happens in the next Congress and when there's a different president with a different agenda, and all of that, but you know, know in the short term, it doesn't look so good.

Speaker 3 19:36

I don't think, yeah yeah, nothing's permanent in washington, that's. That's the one thing that's funny, the bill they were. It says this this area is permanent. This area is, I'm like, yeah, permanent for until the next four years you know, five years, six years, whatever it may be. So it's, it's an ever-moving target and we'll see what comes next. Yeah.

Speaker 2 19:57

I mean, that's like the estate tax exemption, running it up to $15 million and that's supposedly permanent. Well, that doesn't mean that the next Congress can't change it. That's right. So you know. You just never know, right.

Speaker 3 20:11

All you can do is plan for what the world looks like now and our political pendulum, without getting into politics swings so severely now it's not like, hey, we're going to decide in this realm, now we're going to decide this way, oh, next one, we'll take this route. And so it's just so severe, and I don't see that getting any better. So that's again, again, a reason to be working with folks that understand what's going on, that stay up to date attorneys, you know, financial planners, things of that nature to make sure you stay, uh, in touch with what's happening, because it it'll change it will.

Speaker 2 20:45

And you know, that was, you know, as soon as I could get my hands on the sections of that act and and read, I was all over it. You know, getting some things out in our little you know kind of blog posts and all of that to try to, you know, tell people. This is the story.

Speaker 3 21:02

Yeah, we did a radio show not long after. It passed on most of the retirement parts. Right, and try to bring those to the forefront as well.

When to Review Your Estate Plan

Speaker 1 21:09

Yeah, absolutely so. We're closing out with just a couple minutes left, so I want to leave with kind of a more open farewell question. So as retirement planners, we know the importance of creating a comprehensive plan. Everything has to work together because if you make a change in one area, inevitably it's going to affect some other areas. Plans also have to be flexible, okay for life's changes. So how often one should someone reevaluate their estate and elder care plan? And two, when does someone know they need to start looking into elder care?

Speaker 2 21:44

You've opened another can.

Speaker 3 21:47

You said we were running out of time. I said a couple minutes, episode two.

Speaker 2 21:52

So elder care in its way is a misnomer, so it really has more to do with functional capacity. So, you know, while I hope that you know, most of my clients are going to be at least in their 80s, unfortunately we have, you know, people who end up with traumatic brain injuries and those kinds of things, and they need planning up with traumatic brain injuries and those kinds of things and they need planning. So, to answer the question, people should review their plan at a minimum of every three years or when some kind of a life event occurs, and so that's birth, death, marriage, divorce, diagnosis of Alzheimer's or some other dementia, any of those kinds of things. Good.

Speaker 1 22:37

Well, we are just about out of time, folks. I do want to thank you again for listening. Miles, thank you so much for joining us today. This has been really great. I want to point to your website one more time, if you could let the audience know.

Speaker 2 22:50

Sure site one more time, if you could let the audience know Sure Again, it's hurleyclawcom. H-u-r-l-e-y. E as in elder, C as in care lawcom.

Speaker 1 23:01

Excellent, and, mark, you want to share a little bit of insight on our website.

Speaker 3 23:05

And you know just what Miles is talking about just works so much in what we talk to clients about as well. I'm glad that he supported a lot of the stuff we talk about, of what we talk to clients about as well. I'm glad that he's supported a lot of the stuff we talk about. It is such an important part. I can't tell you how often somebody new comes in and will say, okay, do you have a will? Yes, when was it written? 1984.

Speaker 1 23:23

That's when they had kids, right, my kids? I have grandkids and my kids were babies when it was written.

Speaker 3 23:29

Yeah, we know we need to get that update. It's hard to sometimes face that, but all of this, that's kind of what we do, just like Miles is. We kind of act as not only guides into all of this, but also as somebody kind of looking over the shoulder, making sure it stays in process and it's checked again a few years later as well. So I'm really glad you were able to join us. Hopefully we'll do it again, but in the meantime I think we are just about out of time. So I will just say hope to see you soon, masterplanretirecom, and until we see each other again, plan well and prosper. Take care everybody.

Speaker 5 24:05

This was Retirement Roadmap Radio with Mark Fricks of Masterplan Retirement Consultants. To schedule a complimentary consultation, go to masterplanretirecom or call 770-980-9262. Thanks for listening and remember plan well and prosper.

Speaker 4 24:27

All matters discussed during this show are for informational purposes only. Each individual situation may vary and the opinions expressed here may not apply to everyone. Materials presented are believed to be from reliable sources and no representations can be made as to its accuracy. All ideas and information should be discussed in detail with one of our qualified representatives prior to implementation. Advisory services offered by Master Plan Retirement Consultants. A registered investment advisor in the state of Georgia, mark Fricks, and Master Plan Retirement Consultants are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Social Security Administration or any other government agency.