Pennsylvania - South Central

How did Lancaster rank number one in the country for the top place to retire in 2022-2023 according to U.S News and World Report?  If you live here already, you understand.  We have many senior communities that range from resort-like to budget friendly.  We have affordable housing. We have several high-quality hospital and healthcare systems within Lancaster County, and many medical specialists.  We have a blend of unique cultures and easy access to major metropolitan areas - yet we're not a suburb of any larger area.  We have our own identity.  We have excellent food, from farm stands to farmers markets to local grocery stores to major grocery chains.  Lancaster's great food includes many amazing restaurants.  There are theaters, a symphony, a Roots and Blues fest, a baseball team and the list goes on.  There is no shortage of things to do in Lancaster, and if you want even more to do, hop on a train to Philly or New York. During this time of inflation, Lancaster has a lower cost of living than many areas of the country, including the metropolitan areas we are near. Lancaster isn't the only city in Pennsylvania to make the list.  We're in good company with Harrisburg coming in second.  In fact, there are 8 PA cities in the top 20.  "Top criteria include the happiness of local residents, housing affordability, tax rates and health care quality."  Read the report here and contact the Lisa Naples Team if you want to see if moving to Lancaster is the right move for you.

As our parents age, the primary questions adult children face are (1) who is going to provide needed care, and (2) in what setting will mom or dad receive the needed care. Coming to such decisions does not always mean smooth sailing moving forward. Family members often view care issues very differently and conflicts can be further complicated when one of the siblings is the primary caregiver. Our team members find such conflicts to be quite common in their work with our clients and families. The situations are stressful and charged with emotion, worry, and exhaustionthe perfect storm for conflict and family duress.As I reflect on the meetings and consultations I have had with some of these families recently, I suspect that part of the problem is the fact that the aging parents failed to verbalizeearly and oftentheir wishes and desires related to the what if scenarios. Because their folks did not talk openly about their wishes and expectations, the adult children are often forced to guess what Mom and Dad would have wantedanother perfect storm for differences of opinion and sibling conflicts.If you have not already done so, commit to conversing with your adult children about the what ifs. Let them know your wishes and preferences. Consider the effort to be your conflict prevention plan, so that down the road, you and yours wont have to engage in conflict resolution. And be sure to have a formal caregiver agreement drafted if a family member becomes the paid caregiver. It is an important tool for many reasons, including clarifying the financial parameters of the care being provided. Doing so will prevent misunderstandings between those you love most. Open, honest communication is always the key, and we recommend it early and often in these situations.

Todays seniors can match the community to the lifestyle and care that fits their needs instead of just whatevers available. The model for retirement has shifted from housing to socialization and lifestyle. So, whats the difference between an innovative senior living residence and just a nice apartment building? One thing that all retirement communities Independent Living, Personal Care and Memory Care have in common is the objective to free the resident from the burdens and limitations of the traditional single-family home. Meals and grounds maintenance are two obvious items. A communal dining room with an Executive Chef handling all meal prep, operates much like a restaurant with the addition of a licensed nutritionist not merely for convenience, but to bring residents out of the apartment and into contact with others. Designed walking paths, gardens and landscaping are made to be used. Beautiful, yes, but just as important to a holistic approach to wellness. So, theres more than meets the eye in thoughtful residence planning. Community designs diverge to accommodate care. Legend Senior Living, a provider headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, developed their concept of purposeful design to address specific lifestyle needs. The main objectives are independence, dignity and purposeful living. For this reason, most of the companys properties are built from the ground up, using the proprietary Assistive Architecture to ensure that the amenities support the company mission and philosophy. Life Enrichment Coordinators use spaces to their advantage in creating social events. Every element encourages socialization and friendship as a part of care, right down to the post office. In Personal Care and Memory Care residences, youll notice the expansiveness, both in wider halls for wheelchair traffic, in the natural lighting, open commons areas and modern, comfortable furniture arranged for conversation. Even wall color and floor coverings are carefully chosen. Such environmental details are particularly important, even critical, in Memory Care residences where independence and circulation are encouraged, balanced with the well-being of the resident. For example, a circular building design promotes walking but avoids hard corners and keeps the resident from becoming disoriented.  At Legend at Silver Creek, these are just the basic elements of purposeful design, which is just one foundational dimension of the function of the residence. Levels of care, programs and therapy are another. Life Enrichment programs for vibrancy and activity are yet another. And, on top of that, the residence must function as a self-sustaining neighborhood, for recreation, grooming, entertainment, pet ownership, intellectual growth, personal services and transportation. To the resident and visitor, the ideal purposeful design will be transparent. But seeking out the right residence should be to look for and appreciate for the quality of its design. Call 717-550-1200 to learn more about Legend at Silver Creek and schedule a visit. 

If I had a quarter for every time, I was asked this question I would have a lot of quarters for sure. Many LTC (long term care) companies made significant errors in their original underwriting of LTC policies. As a result, many companies are no longer in business. The ones that are in business have greatly changed their practices. However, the biggest issue that has come out of the miscalculation of LTC is that people who still have policies are losing their benefits and their premiums are going through the roof. The question now is what do we do?This is a question that I receive on a regular basis in my estate planning and elder law practice. By way of full disclosure, I am not a licensed insurance agent, and I am not licensed to be able to sell long-term care insurance or any other insurance product. I am an attorney with approximately 20 years of experience in estate planning and elder law and I happen to be a Certified Elder Law Attorney under authorization of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. While I am not the person who will sell the products, I am certainly an individual who has been advising numerous clients over the years and believe in the benefits of a long-term care policy and what they can provide. We have done numerous other blogs about long-term care insurance and the benefits of said policies.When long-term care insurance first gained popularity, many companies completely missed out on the actuarial tables and in predicting what people were going to need. Because of this drastic miscalculation, most of the companies who originally were in the markets for long-term care insurance are no longer there. The few standing companies that are left are trying to figure out ways to make up for the mistakes of the past. Because of that, they are often forced to increase premiums and decrease benefits. Although these companies do have to get permission from the insurance board, it is not a very difficult proposition and, in most cases, they will almost always be able to receive permission. The most difficult part is that individuals have been paying into a plan for a number of years and now are learning that theyre going to have to decrease their benefits and even then, they may have to increase the premiums that they are paying. It is heart wrenching to have to provide guidance in these situations and ultimately, I always encourage them to bring in their financial professionals to try to make the decisions. It is as much about the numbers and the common sense as it is about the emotion involved. It is very easy for us to get disgusted and upset about what is occurring, but it is a cold, harsh reality of the miscalculations that were made in the past. In some instances, increasing premiums and decreasing benefits is the only way some of these companies will survive.My best advice to any and all people who are faced with this dilemma is to write out the pros and cons and to try to make the evaluation and determination about numbers and as little as possible about emotion of the situation. It is too easy to get hung up on the principle of the manner, but the truth is principals are expensive and cause wars. Make the best decision for you and your family based upon the information that you have in front of you. Long-term care is not going away and dropping the policy out of spite is not going to help anyone.If you are looking for advice in regards to estate planning, please call our office at 717-844-9639 or click the link here and we will contact you.