Long Term Care Attorney Arkansas

Protecting Savings While Securing Long Term Care

When a parent or spouse suddenly needs long term care, it can feel like everything is at risk at once. Monthly nursing home or assisted living bills may be higher than a family’s income, and it is common to worry that savings and even the home could be lost. As a long term care attorney Arkansas families work with, we help you face these decisions with a clear plan instead of panic.

At AAPG Law, we focus on Medicaid planning, long term care coordination, and related estate matters for families across the state. Since 2013, our team has guided thousands of Arkansans through questions about nursing home costs, Medicaid eligibility, and how to protect what they have built. Whether you come to us early in the process or after a facility has already asked for payment, we work to bring order and options to your situation.

Many families are skeptical that asset protection is even possible and worry that Medicaid rules are too confusing to navigate. We welcome that skepticism. Our role is to explain what is realistic for your specific situation, walk you through the options, and handle the legal and administrative work so you are not trying to manage this alone.

Why Arkansas Families Turn To Us

When long term care decisions appear on the horizon, you may have already talked with friends, a financial advisor, or a facility social worker. Often, the guidance is incomplete or conflicts with what you have read online. Families turn to us because our practice centers on elder law, Medicaid applications, and estate planning tools that are built around long term care needs. Our daily work is focused on the same types of questions you are asking right now.

Since 2013, we have helped thousands of Arkansans understand how to qualify for Medicaid while aiming to preserve as much as possible for a spouse or family. Our legal team shares more than 30 years of combined legal experience, and attorney Steven Underwood brings over 20 years in practice. Our CEO, Ben Jones, has more than 20 years as a licensed insurance producer and a background in wealth management, so our planning looks at how legal, financial, and insurance decisions fit together.

Trust is about more than years in business. Our commitment to high ethical standards and personalized service has been recognized with an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau, which we have maintained since 2014. Families often tell us we “handled everything” during a difficult time. We do more than prepare documents, and we manage complex applications and communication with agencies so you can focus on your loved one, not paperwork.

Convenience also matters. We meet clients in offices in Cabot, Rogers, Little Rock, Fort Smith, and Fayetteville, and we offer a fully remote process for those who prefer to handle everything from home. This flexibility is particularly helpful when an older adult has mobility challenges or when children live in different parts of the country and need to join meetings by video.

What Long Term Care Planning Covers

Long term care planning is about more than choosing a nursing home. It means looking at how future care needs, income, savings, property, and family wishes all interact. For many families, the biggest questions are how to pay for care without exhausting assets and how to qualify for Arkansas Medicaid without making mistakes that create penalties. We help you understand what the rules actually say and how timing and structure affect the outcome.

We often work with married couples where one spouse needs nursing home care and the other remains at home. In these situations, it is natural to worry that the healthy spouse will be left with too little to live on. Long term care planning can look at tools to support the spouse at home while still working toward Medicaid eligibility for the spouse who needs care. Even in single person cases, there may be ways to preserve certain assets or income streams within the limits of the law.

Legal planning usually involves putting the right documents in place and confirming that they match your current goals. Depending on your situation, this can include wills, revocable or irrevocable trusts, financial and medical powers of attorney, deeds, contracts, and annuities. These are not one size fits all tools. We review how each piece affects Medicaid rules, taxes, and what happens to property later.

Long term care planning also connects to what happens after death. If a home or other property may pass through probate or succession, we consider how those future transfers interact with Medicaid rules and potential estate recovery. Our goal is to create a coordinated plan so that decisions you make today about long term care do not create avoidable problems for your family later.

Our Five Step Planning Process

When everything feels urgent, the thought of starting a legal process can be intimidating. We use a clear, five step approach so you know exactly what will happen and when. Whether you are meeting with us in Little Rock or working with us fully remotely, the same structure applies.

Here is how our long term care planning process typically works:

• Step 1, Free initial consultation. We start with a no cost meeting to learn about your family, your health situation, and the care options you are considering. We talk through basic Medicaid rules in Arkansas and answer your first questions so you can decide whether our approach feels like the right fit.
• Step 2, One on one asset assessment. If you decide to move forward, we review your income, savings, retirement accounts, real estate, and other resources. This helps us see where you have flexibility and what needs special protection, such as a home or a spouse’s income.
• Step 3, Strategy and legal design. Based on that assessment, we outline a strategy for working toward Medicaid eligibility and protecting assets within the law. This may include recommendations for specific documents, transfers, or contract changes, tailored to your situation and risk tolerance.
• Step 4, Document preparation and Medicaid application handling. Our team prepares and oversees the signing of the recommended legal documents. We also prepare, file, and manage the Medicaid application, and we communicate directly with the Arkansas Department of Human Services about requests for information or clarification.
• Step 5, Coordination and ongoing support. Once eligibility is determined, we help coordinate benefits with the long term care provider and address any post eligibility financial requirements. We remain available to adjust the plan if health or financial circumstances change in the future.

Throughout these steps, we explain what we are doing and why, in plain language. You see the strategy and the paperwork, but you do not have to learn every DHS form or regulation. Our goal is to simplify a complex process while staying transparent and giving you space to make informed choices.

Planning For Your Situation

No two families follow the exact same path into long term care. Some come to us years before they expect to need a nursing home or assisted living, hoping to plan ahead. Others call after a sudden stroke or fall, when a hospital or rehabilitation facility has recommended placement and the admissions office is asking how care will be paid for. Wherever you are on that timeline, we work from where you stand today.

If you are planning several years in advance, we usually have more options to consider. Proactive planning can sometimes involve changes to how assets are owned or restructured, and it gives time for Medicaid look back rules to be considered carefully. Even then, we move at a pace that matches your comfort level and family dynamics, recognizing that not everyone is ready for large changes all at once.

In crisis situations, there may already be a bed offer at a nursing home and staff may be urging you to private pay or submit a Medicaid application quickly. We frequently meet with families while a loved one is in a hospital, skilled nursing facility, or long term care community in Arkansas. In these cases, we focus on identifying what can still be protected, how to avoid common mistakes like last minute gifting, and how to move the application process forward correctly.

Before we meet, it can help to gather:

• Recent bank, retirement, and investment account statements for the person who needs care and any spouse
• Information about the home and any other real estate, including deeds if you have them
• Existing wills, trusts, and powers of attorney, even if they are older
• Any paperwork from a hospital, nursing home, or assisted living facility about payment or Medicaid

If it is difficult for your loved one to travel, we can often conduct the entire process remotely through phone, video, and mail. Many Arkansas families with adult children living in other states find this helpful, because everyone can be involved in meetings without needing to be in the same room. Whether we meet in person in Cabot or by video while your parent is in a facility, the goal is the same, to give you a plan that matches your reality.

Call to schedule a free consultation and get started today.

Frequently Asked Questions

When is the right time to start long term care planning?

The best time is usually as soon as long term care becomes a real possibility. Earlier planning can create more options, but we also help families who are already facing an urgent placement. In our free consultation, we look at your timing and explain what may be realistic now.

Can you help protect our home if one spouse needs a nursing home?

We can review how your home is owned and how Arkansas Medicaid treats it when one spouse needs care. There are often legal ways to support the spouse at home while pursuing eligibility. The exact options depend on your assets, income, and health situation.

Is it too late to plan if my loved one is already in a facility?

It is often not too late to plan, even after admission. We regularly meet families when a facility is already providing care and asking about payment. We look at current assets, recent transfers, and Medicaid rules, then outline what may still be possible and help manage the application.

How does your fully remote long term care planning process work?

Our fully remote process allows you to complete each step from home using phone, video meetings, mail, and secure electronic tools where appropriate. We review documents together, answer questions, and handle Medicaid filings with DHS. This approach is especially useful when travel is hard or family members live in different places.

What happens during the free initial consultation?

During the free consultation, we listen to your story, gather basic financial and health details, and explain how Arkansas Medicaid and long term care planning work in plain language. We outline potential strategies and our five step process so you can decide whether to work with us.