Elder law and retirement planning are crucial in Western North Carolina, particularly for navigating public benefits like Medicaid, Social Security, and Medicare. Holistic planning that considers legal and social work aspects is essential. 

The defining characteristic of elder law is that attorneys understand public benefits programs including how those programs can provide financing for long-term care. Their primary concern is usually maximizing access to benefits, according to Caroline Knox, Principal at The Law Office of Caroline Knox PLLC, and consists of a large portion of social work.

Elder law attorneys help aging retirees navigate through benefits programs when needs change and develop as they age. With area nursing homes costing around $10,000 per month or more, many people feel challenged to absorb that cost into their budgets. There are often gaps in financial assistance at certain income levels, so careful planning and expertise from an attorney can help aging couples or individuals ensure financial longevity.

“Some people are selling long-term care insurance products, and those can be helpful for assisted living, but they can also be a problem,” Knox said. “They sometimes hurt access to other benefits because they can give a little too much income to qualify for assistance, but not enough income to actually pay for it. This is why a lot of our work is around evaluating insurance premiums and helping people understand their options.”

In addition to helping retirees navigate insurance and benefits, elder law attorneys also do a lot of work with estate planning, including power of attorney designations, creating wills and designating beneficiaries, and avoiding probate. Identifying who will manage things should an individual become incapacitated and ensuring that the designee is informed about choices, medical history, and preferences are other primary topics handled at elder law offices.

Keeping things simple throughout these processes is possible, though some attorneys encourage the creation of trusts and other complicated documents that may not always be necessary. Restructuring outdated arrangements in an effort to simplify processes is some of the work done for older adults.

“Some past tax or probate systems don’t exist anymore, and procedures set up in this old, complicated way may become more harmful as opposed to being helpful,” Knox said. “We do a lot of work in simplifying plans that may have been overly complicated.”

It is important that retirees living alone or living in an area without other family members nearby have thoughtful plans in place as well. Elder law attorneys can fill a void in serving as healthcare power of attorney or trustee, and Knox is seeing the need for these types of services increase exponentially.

“Every week there are at least a couple of people in that situation reaching out,” Knox said. “This is not something I’ve marketed, they just don’t have a support system or the systems in place are not adequate. It seems like a really big problem in a steady stream of retirees.”

Knox sees a need for meaningful education for members of the community to volunteer and assist with being public guardians for elders who live alone. An idea of a community organization that could provide training for public guardians could be helpful for the growing retiree population. Additional attorneys helping in this space could also be beneficial for the community.

“There’s a huge need, but it’s not simple,” Knox said. “There are more people with the need than there are people being helped. Organizations like Hope for the Future are working in this space too, but the need will continue to grow as retirees continue to be attracted to our area.”

As WNC counties continue to attract more retirees and the number of aging baby boomers continues to increase, Knox predicts the number of retirees needing services in the region may be a growing concern.

“Everything about our community catering to these retirees is service-related, and we are having trouble finding staff to provide these services,” Knox said. “It’s all tied into affordable housing and our ability to provide a living wage to the people who would take these kinds of jobs. We also need transportation for our seniors. There’s also a growing need for ethical, conscientious professionals to work in the space of supporting these people we work so hard to attract to our area and our communities.”