The Closest Alligator

There always seem to be a million tasks to do, in all phases of life. Put away your toys! Finish your homework! Apply for those jobs! Make another report! Change the diapers! Do the laundry! Clean the house! Cut the lawn! Put out the decorations! Even after retirement life seems to change into the same. Watch the grandkids! Go to another doctor! Change YOUR diaper!

It is a wonder we find time for anything at all, in between the hectic days of getting ourselves out the door. This is the problem known as the closest alligator. You have to deal with the thing that is about to bite! The deadline is coming, no matter how you feel about that. Life rarely grants extensions.

I try to use this as a way to stay organized. Identify the thing that is most needed, and do it. Even if it isn’t the easiest chore. Do the thing that you have to do immediately, and just keep working through those alligators one at a time. Every once in a while you manage to beat them all back! Then you just have distant alligators, waiting their turn.

Your estate plan is waiting its turn. It is always better to deal with alligators before they bite. I recently met with a family in need of assistance. One spouse had passed, and the other now needs some care. They want to protect the house from being lost paying for that care. The unfortunate part was they had known there was an alligator to deal with. They had attended a talk in past years about what planning could do for them. But they never got around to it. They had not planned ahead for the five year lookback. Worse, they had not simply come in to sign the special Last Wills that would have protected the house the moment the first spouse passed away. No five year wait would have been needed. The house would have instantly been protected. But they ignored the alligator until it got too close. It has bitten them. Luckily they did come in, and we helped them fight off that alligator. We can save some of the assets for them. But not all of the assets, as we would have if they just faced the alligator sooner.

Everyone hopes that they will never need estate planning. It is not easy to talk about money, or getting sick, or even passing away. There is a cost to elder law services as well. But being proactive means you can choose your path safely through, instead of reacting to what sneaks up. It is much better to be prepared than to wait and see what that alligator wants to do to you.

Attorney Halley C. Allaire is principal in the law firm of Allaire Elder Law, a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Inc., with an office at 271 Farmington Avenue, Bristol, (860) 259-1500, or on the web at www.allaireelderlaw.com. If you have a question, send a note to Attorney Halley C. Allaire and your question may be discussed in a future column.