My parents are 75 and 71. Both are just getting over the Wu Flu. My dad was hospitalized, and after a week in the hospital will be moving to a nursing home to work on strengthening in order to come back home. It’s time to have them work on protecting their assets. I need names of attorneys/Advisors who can help with this. Can anyone help?

I use D. Jay Curtis and Bryan Bassett at Ray, Quinney & Nebeker. They're in downtown Salt Lake. They're a huge firm. Jay and Bryan both work in their estate planning, wills and trusts department.

It will cost a bit of money, because good advice is not cheap. I think we spent $5,000 or so when we initially set up our estate planning, advance directives, etc. Now we just check in every few years with them to update. A few hundred dollars now and then.

Much better to do this now, than when their health is worse, especially if memory or dementia becomes an issue.

Thanks! I appreciate the names!

Good luck. My advice is to get going on this and get everything set up as soon as their strength and stamina is sufficient. They may want to put it off or, "we'll take care of that later" or "you kids know what we would want and can divide our estate yourself."

Do not do this. Get it done, nailed down, signed and notarized. My Grandfather was probably in the early to moderate stages of dementia when my Mom helped him and Grandma get this taken care of. It only gets harder as they get older.

I know! I think this bout with the king flu was a wake-up call. I know what they would want as far as CPR and stuff, but they both need to discuss how to allocate assets/protect assets for potential Nursing Home/medical care in the future. You can never start too soon to get the ducks lined up.

You need some written documentation, like an advanced directive and a POLST form (look it up) regarding CPR, defibrillation, etc. If your parents don't want those medical treatments, you REALLY need those documents easily available at home, with a copy at their doctor and their lawyer. And if you have siblings, they all need to have a conversation and some agreement about what to do (or not do) in the case of a sudden emergency.

Because the default position of EMS and ER doctors (like me) is to do a full court press. CPR, shocks, intubation, meds, everything, unless we have clear directives otherwise. And the worst experience is to have several family members saying, "No, Dad would never want this. Let him go!" and there's one family member screaming at the medical team and family that, "we have to do everything. You're killing Dad by not doing everything!"

Yeah, this happens. It's a bit of a hard conversation with the folks and the siblings. But it's much better than having the conversation right at the moment of crisis.

A little late to this conversation, but my wife and her sister used Medicaid Planning Services when getting some things arranged for their mom (early onset dementia) and setting up assisted living for her.

Everything went really smoothly and they were great at keeping up with communication. They were able to set up with a trust, handle all the medicare/Medicaid paperwork and set up pre-paid final expenses.

https://medicaidplanningservices.com/