“Instructions” in your financial power of attorney are key to how those assets can be protected for you and for your loved ones

You have worked hard your entire life. You have saved up a nice little nest
egg for yourself, so you can use it if you need it. You've even had your own
estate plan set up, including a will, financial and health care powers of
attorney and maybe even a trust. You think you have done everything necessary
to protect your assets for yourself during your lifetime and for your loved
ones after your gone. But have you?

What you may not realize is that the instructions you have in your financial
power of attorney are key to how those assets can be protected for you and for
your loved ones in the event of a nursing home admission. If you are like most
people with whom I have discussed it, if you go into a nursing home, you'd
rather have your hard-earned assets go to your loved ones rather than to the
nursing home.

It is often the case that by the time you are admitted to the nursing home,
you no longer are capable making your own decisions. Your loved ones are making
them for you with the instructions that you have left in your financial and
healthcare powers of attorney.

However, if you do not have the proper instructions in your financial power
of attorney, your loved ones may be unable to protect your assets in the event
of your admission to a nursing home. Instead of going to your loved ones as you
intended, those assets are being spent down by some $9,000, or more, per month
for private pay nursing home care.