Although we are living longer, our brains tend to be less sharp with aging and understanding of finances tends to lessen with age. If you start to notice that it takes longer to perform financial tasks or you are missing things in your paperwork, it’s time to seek help before it’s too late. You need to seek help from your loved ones and even employ a professional when necessary to help you understand elder law. Make sure you have a designated power of attorney that you can trust. All of these steps will protect your hard earned money.

Read more: The Impact Of Aging On Financial Decision Making – Nasdaq

Estate administration of protection of assets from nursing home costs is the latest challenge for seniors where government is demanding an uncapped spend down of their asset if one of them falls victim to a nursing home. Canada and some other countries offer this benefit as part of their rights, since they contributed to their Medicaid system during their working years. The United States apparently, is going the route of demanding that seniors cover their own expenses, even if they carry private plans. What hurts the most is that there’s no cap on what has to be the spent down under the new provisions mandating that all states adopt the new federal guidelines on nursing home eligibility or lose their federal funding.

Read more: Protecting assets in the event of nursing home admission – Port Huron Times Herald

There’s a gambling saying that goes something like, “If you want to be a winner, you have to walk away from the table a winner.” One time-honored method of reaching this result is to systematically take your chips off the table as you win them, so that your potential for losses stays small. Asset protection estate planning is all about taking chips off the table in good times, so that you still can walk away from the table a winner no matter what happens in bad times. Those who worry the most about asset protection are those who are the most likely to get sued; think obstetricians and, more recently, real estate investors here. But average folks often get caught up in difficult situations, and thus if you have something to protect then the topic of asset protection should at least cross your mind.

Read more: Financial planner talks asset protection estate planning – fox2now.com

Helping your elderly parents with estate administration and finances can be a tricky thing to do. It can be frustrating for both parties. In addition, it can cause hurt or embarrassment for your parents. If you go about it with discretion and respect, though, you can streamline your parents’ finances and remove a lot of stress from your and their lives. Ultimately, by communicating properly, budgeting, simplifying their affairs, and working out legal issues, you’ll be able to help your elderly parents with their finances.

Read more: Don’t put off financial talk with parents – Florida Today

Republicans in the Senate released an updated version of the Better Care Reconciliation Act, their plan to overhaul the US healthcare system, on Thursday. While the new bill makes a number of changes, including an infusion of $45 billion to combat the opioid crisis, one major aspect of the bill remains unchanged: massive proposed cuts to Medicaid. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released its analysis for the original Senate bill in late June, and estimated that provisions in it would result in $772 billion in cuts to Medicaid spending by 2026. A later analysis by the CBO found that the cuts get even deeper by 2036.

Read more: Senate’s proposed Medicaid cuts could make long-term-care unaffordable – CNBC

Many people have heard the term “fiduciary” but might not know what it means. A fiduciary is simply an individual who is in charge of managing another person’s assets. However this is not just a friend, they are required to manage within ethical and legal guidelines. A financial advisor is not necessarily a fiduciary for this reason. There are a variety of fiduciaries including those in charge of your finances, those with power of attorney, and those with executorship over an estate. Having a last will and testament is very important because it can be made legally binding for a fiduciary to follow when dealing with your estate and assets.

Read more: The necessity of a fiduciary: What having a fiduciary means