Let Our Firm Show You How to Afford Long Term Care for Your Loved One Without Going Broke

How Our Elder Law Attorneys Can Help

Learn the legal, time-tested, but little-known tactics to avoid going broke while paying for nursing home, assisted living, in-home care or long-term care for your loved one.

Get our free consumer guide or attend our free seminar to learn how to keep long term care costs from impoverishing your family.

Don’t wait until you’re out of money and out of options—our firm can help educate you on the smart, proven strategies to protect your assets from the on average $8,000 per month in nursing home bills. Learn why traditional estate plans won’t help and the type of plan that will.

Also we can teach you the biggest mistake most families make when signing documents to enter a loved one into a nursing home. And show you how to protect the family home from being taken to pay for nursing home care.

We’ll also show you how to find the right nursing home and how to ensure your loved one receives quality care once there.

Our elder law division was founded to provide solutions for families struggling to pay for and find solutions for long term care challenges.

Smith Strong Law Firm’s Award-Winning Estate Planning System:

Estate Planning Workshop: truly understand your options;

Vision Meeting: select the right estate planning solution;

Signing Meeting: review and sign your estate plan;

Funding Meeting: understand with ease the path forward;

Client Care Program: unlimited calls, emails, changes, and review-meetings with our firm, as needed, to make sure your plan remains solid as life changes—we’re there as a trusted family attorney and counselor.

We look forward to meeting with you—and welcome your questions and ideas as we proceed.

AN OVERVIEW OF OUR TRUST-BASED ESTATE PLANNING OPTION

At Smith Strong, we believe, after the will-based plan, clients should consider adding the Living Trust. But what, exactly does that look like?

Our trusts are designed to work in real life for real people—you still file taxes the same way, use your money the same way, and you still have total access and control.

Our law firm's Living Trust planning includes:

Revocable Living Trust, with Beneficiary Trusts to Protect Your Children’s Inheritance: Our plans are designed so the right people will inherit your assets—in the right amounts, at the right times, and on the right terms. By adding a Living Trust to your estate plan your family avoids court conservatorship, guardianship, and probate proceedings, and helps reduce or eliminate federal estate taxes for a married couple. Our cutting-edge Children/Heirs Trusts that spring to life upon your death, protecting your beneficiaries' inheritance from spouses, divorces, lawsuits, creditors, loss of government needs-based benefits and additional estate taxes when they pass their inheritance to the next generation.

Trust flowchart: Our Smith Strong vision-clarifier provides the visual summary of the key provisions of your trust, so you know exactly how your trust works.

Pour-over will: A backup to the trust; any assets outside of the trust upon death simply pour into your trust upon death—so you avoid probate, even on the assets you forgot to put in your trust before you passed away. This will also name guardians of your minor children, if any.

Durable power of attorney: Authorizes your agent to manage any property outside the trust and enter contracts with care providers, if you become incapacitated and to take certain critical, last minute estate planning actions.

Property agreement: For married couples, this can avoid needless capital gains taxes and can help fully utilize each spouse's estate tax exemption.

Advance health care directive: Authorizes your agent to make health care decisions for you if you become incapacitated. Also includes a living will, “to pull the plug (or not),” withdrawing life support if in a permanent vegetative state with no hope of resuscitation.

HIPAA authorization: Permits access to your health information when the need arises, without having to go to court, particularly helpful for your medical agent.

Emergency Access: We maintain digital records of all estate planning documents, so we can ensure your family has access no matter where you are in the world. Attorney Van Smith recently faxed and emailed documents to family of an incapacitated client while they were travelling in South Africa.

PLUS: THE "SMITH STRONG ESTATE PLANNING BINDER"

The Living Trust "estate planning binder" includes electronic and paper copies of your estate planning documents, tabbed and organized with your financial documents (as described above) as well as the following items:

Title transfer instructions: Most firms have you sign your plan, tuck it under your arm, and off you go—but not at Smith Strong. We have you come back for a funding meeting to ensure the plan works when you need it to. We provide guidelines and instruction letters for transferring your assets into your Living Trust. At your funding meeting, we also sign all deeds transferring your Virginia real estate to your trust.

Trust certification: Helpful summary of your Living Trust in case a financial institution requests it when transferring assets to your trust.

Personal Effects Section: An ongoing list you may add to of whom, specifically, you wish to receive certain property items (no more post-it notes on your stuff!).

Financial Documents: If something happened to you would your child or financial agent know where to look to gather all of your assets? At Smith Strong, in addition to your estate plan itself, we confidentially organize your financial data, so that we can assist your next of kin in knowing exactly where to look when the need arises.

PLUS: OUR CLIENT CARE PROGRAM

Our services can go far beyond just setting up the Living Trust, if you wish. Our lawyers and firm's resources are also available to you through:

Free phone calls: To help you and to answer your questions.

Free plan-review meeting: Typically, every three years, to make sure your estate plan is up-to-date with any law changes and newer planning strategies; and continues to accurately reflect your planning wishes.

Free workshops: We welcome your family back as you age to ensure your family understands your plan and knows what to do when the time comes. We also update our clients on new services and strategies, law changes, advanced estate planning, and various financial and tax planning subjects.

Free newsletter: Published monthly, you receive our founder Van Smith’s legendary monthly newsletter, printed and mailed to your home.

Free annual calendar magnet: Founding attorney Van Smith’s Smith Strong calendar magnet mailer is sure to impress visitors of your home—even if it only makes it to the garage fridge.

Specially discounted "upgrade" packages: If laws change, you will receive a free consult and discounts for any revisions.

Free consultation with your successor trustee upon your disability or death: To help assure your trust will be properly implemented when the time comes. We also offer discounted fees for estate administration.

Free consult and 25% off our rates for any family member: Whether they need help in family law, criminal defense, business planning, litigation, or estate planning of their own—at Smith Strong, we want to serve as your family’s long-term legal advisor.

All of our estate plans are prepared for a fixed fee, quoted in advance at the private vision meeting, following our workshop, and agreed to by you in writing before any work is done. No surprise fees or charges, ever. Payment plans are available. And we welcome the opportunity to serve our community, including teachers, military service members, and first responders.

Attend a Free Estate Planning Workshop

Experienced Estate Planning Attorneys Serving Central Virginia

Make informed decisions about your future and your loved ones’ futures based on experienced advice. Learn how a properly prepared and maintained estate plan can protect you and your loved ones, by attending our free workshop!

Are you concerned about your hard-earned assets passing to the right people at the right time and not losing them to courts, the IRS, or in-laws? You’ve worked hard and sacrificed to have an estate worth protecting and passing to your children even protected from your children’s potential divorce down the road. If you’re feeling confused or frustrated, let us help you create an estate plan that is tax-efficient, asset protected for your elder years, and protects heirs from their own potential divorce or litigation.

“We were impressed with Van's knowledge, experience, and, especially, his gift of exceptional communication skills.”

- Bob and Bonnie J.