In some sense, many of us feel mentally or culturally responsible for taking care of our aging moms and dads in both a physical and financial sense however, did you know that you may be lawfully responsible for their care also? If you did not know that then you are not alone– a lot of people are not conscious that they may have a legal obligation to provide monetary care to a moms and dad. This legal commitment comes from state filial obligation laws.

Filial responsibility laws presently exist in over half of all American states.The staying states might think about enacting a filial responsibility law in the years to come considering the monetary burden that senior care is placing on state resources.A filial responsibility law is a law that imposes a legal responsibility on an adult child to take care of an indigent parent.In practice, what does this mean?It implies that a nursing home,long-term care facility, house healthcare service provider, or even the state itself might come after you for a bill at some point.That’s what happened in a current Pennsylvania case where the court ultimately chose that an adult boy was responsible for a $93,000 retirement home costs left behind by his mother when she died.
Most filial duty laws have actually been around for a long time however were little secondhand. Given the stress that care of the senior is putting on state economies, courts are dragging up those laws and utilizing them with more frequency.Some laws even enable a court to send someone to prison for violation of the law; however, a most likely result is to discover yourself all of a sudden accountable for a hefty assisted living home or long-term care bill.

The great news in all of this is that there are methods to prevent finding yourself in court facing a filial responsibility lawsuit. With cautious estate planning, you may be able to protect your estate possessions and supply quality take care of your parents.Using irrevocable trusts, possession protection trusts and cautious Medicaid planning can significantly decrease the opportunity of finding yourself all of a sudden responsible for a substantial bill after a parent dies.Take the time now to speak with your estate planning attorney before it is far too late to plan appropriately.