Family Legacy Planning
Planning for the parts of the future that are harder to talk about: extended care, a dependent who will always need support, and what reaches the next generation intact.
What extended care actually involves
- About 70%
- of people turning 65 will need some form of long-term care in their remaining years
- $0
- is what Medicare pays toward long-term care, whether at home, in assisted living or in a nursing home
- $6,200
- a month is the 2025 national median for assisted living
- $10,800
- a month is the 2025 national median for a private nursing-home room
Sources: U.S. Administration for Community Living, How Much Care Will You Need?; Medicare.gov, Long-term care; CareScout Cost of Care Survey, 2025, national medians (private room $355 a day). Florida costs vary by county; ask us for current local figures.
Planning past your own lifetime
Legacy planning is less about wealth than about sparing the people you love a difficult decision at a difficult moment. Most of the families who sit down with us do it after watching a relative go through something they would rather their own children never repeat.
What this covers
- Long-term care strategies: how extended care gets paid for, and what happens to the rest of the plan if it is needed
- Special needs planning: providing for a dependent without disrupting the benefits they rely on
- Inheritance protection: how assets pass, in what order, and what can slow that down
A digital trust, not a binder on a shelf
A traditional trust is drafted once, printed, and then lives in a book that is slow and expensive to change. This is a digital trust through Integrated Trust Services: one flat fee to set it up, then a small annual fee to keep it hosted and current, with licensed attorneys available for the life of the trust to review your changes. When your life changes, a new home, a grandchild, a sale, the trust is updated to match instead of being redone from scratch.
Where it connects
Legacy planning overlaps with both retirement income and estate planning and trusts. Most families end up working across all three, and it is usually easier to see the whole picture at once than to solve for one piece at a time.
Michelle Rocchio is a licensed insurance and annuity professional. The information on this page is educational and is not legal, tax, or investment advice.
Plain answers
Questions about family legacy planning
Short, honest answers with no product talk. If yours is not here, just ask.
Does Medicare pay for long-term care?
Generally no. Medicare covers short rehabilitation stays, not extended custodial care in an assisted living facility or nursing home. That gap is why planning for care costs is part of a legacy plan, not an afterthought.
How do I provide for a dependent who will always need support?
Usually through a trust written so that what you leave supports them without disqualifying them from benefits they rely on. The documents are drafted by licensed attorneys; we help you work out what the plan needs to do and coordinate the process.
What does family legacy planning cover?
Extended care, a dependent who will always need support, and what reaches the next generation intact. It sits alongside retirement income and estate planning, and the first conversation covers all three.
When should we start planning for care?
Earlier than feels necessary. Options narrow once health changes, and Florida looks back five years at anything transferred before Medicaid qualifies someone. The planning conversation is easiest while it is still a planning conversation.
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