I recently read a statistic that indicated one in three seniors are veterans. As estate, elder law and asset protection attorneys, we are often challenged when we encounter seniors in need of care, who are veterans seeking to protect their assets and qualify for Medicaid. The challenge is doing so while ensuring they can also be eligible for the Veterans 'Administration (VA) Aid and Attendance (A&A) benefit without messing up their other planning. Typically, there are three major challenges when doing estate planning, Medicaid planning and VA A&A benefit planning for the same client. First is determining if the veteran is eligible for Aid and Attendance benefits and its impact on the asset protection and Medicaid plan. Second is properly filing the application to ensure benefits are received timely. And third is keeping up the many changes regularly occurring in the VA’s benefits regulations and rules.
To keep up with these critical components of having an Aid and Attendance practice, a practitioner can have the VAAS™ difference to achieve it. VAAS™ is the Lawyers with Purpose Veterans' Administration Application Software. The power of VAAS™ is it takes you through a series of questions that will quickly identify not only if the veteran is eligible for benefits, but also identify the excess assets in planning strategies to make them eligible. It calculates and provides a VA calculation worksheet for you to track your thinking process and the law to support it. Secondly, and critical to the process, is VAAS™ is the only software in the legal industry that completes and prints the Veterans' Aid and Attendance application forms ready for filing.
The interview asks the relevant information on the client and based upon your answers, will properly identify the forms necessary and ask you all the relevant questions to complete them for filing of a benefits claim. And finally, subscribers of VAAS™ software get access to the nation's leading veteran’s benefits attorney, Victoria Collier, who hosts calls three times a month keeping you apprised of the changes in the Veterans' Administration policies affecting Aid and Attendance benefits as they occur as well as provides regular helpful tips and techniques to simplify your A&A practice.
Many of us practicing in the veterans' benefits area understand how complicated it can be when considering the Medicaid and estate planning issues in conjunction with VA benefits planning. That's why it is important to ensure you have the proper internal systems, knowledge and access to industry experts to ensure your VA A&A practice remains cutting edge and gets the results your client wants. For a demo of how the VAAS difference can impact your VA practice click here.
If you want to know more about Lawyers With Purpose, and what it's like to be a member, and part of our community of elder and estate planning attorney's nationally, join us for our Practice With Purpose Program this February 3rd – 5th in Charlotte, NC. But hurry and register today – the hotel cut off is TOMORROW – Monday, January 12th! And we only have 6 spots left!
David J. Zumpano, Esq, CPA, Co-founder Lawyers With Purpose, Founder and Senior Partner of Estate Planning Law Center
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