Disaster-Proof Your Retirement with Dorian Mintzer and Harry Margolis

Episode Guest: Harry Margolis, estate planning and elder law attorney and author who is a passionate advocate for seniors and individuals with special needs and their families.

Episode Description:
Too often, retirement plans fail due to a lack of coordination between financial and estate planning and failure to involve care managers. While we're healthy and cognitively intact, we can continue to work, travel, care for grandchildren (if we're so lucky), and go up and down stairs. Almost no financial and estate planning is necessary as long as we stay healthy. But when a spouse or we become disabled, most plans (or lack of plans) fall apart.

Age 75 is a good time to ask and answer the following questions:

• Where do you want to live when you need help from others? Being close to children (assuming you have a good relationship) will make life a lot easier for all concerned. Make sure you can live on one floor.
• Who will step in to take over your finances when you can no longer handle them yourself? A revocable trust is an ideal mechanism for managing financial matters.
• Who will make health care and life decisions for you when you can't make them yourself? You need a health care proxy, but you must also talk with your agent about your wishes.
• Do you care if all your resources are spent down on your care? At age 75, it's probably too late to buy long-term care insurance, but it can be a good time for Medicaid planning.

About Harry Margolis:

Harry S. Margolis has been representing seniors, individuals with special needs, and their families since he started ElderLawServices, the predecessor of Margolis & Bloom, in June 1987. Since then, he and the firm as a whole have helped thousands of clients pay for long-term care, grapple with the incapacity of a family member, and plan for safe and productive futures for their children and grandchildren.

For three decades, Harry served as editor of The ElderLaw Report, an attorney's monthly newsletter. His peers have recognized his leadership in the field in his selection as a Fellow of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and the American College of Trust & Estate Counsel. He has been named a "Super Lawyer" since 2005 and, in different years, recognized as one of the top 100 attorneys in New England. In 2015, Best Lawyers named him Best Lawyer in America in the practice of Elder Law and Trust and Estates. He is the only elder law attorney to receive these honors.

He firmly believes that the best legal solutions are achieved through the partnership of well-informed clients and attorneys who combine great technical expertise, experience, and an ability to listen. Most recently, he began answering consumer questions online at AskHarry.info. He is also the author of Get Your Ducks in a Row: The Baby Boomers Guide to Estate Planning.

When not working, Harry resides in Brookline with his wife, college-age twins (when they're home), and a dog of uncertain breed. He loves biking and traveling, both in the U.S. and abroad.

Get in touch with Harry Margolis:
Harry's website: https://margolisbloom.com/
Ask Harry a question: https://askharry.info/ 
Buy Harry's book: https://revolutionizeretirement.com/margolis

What to do next:

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