Multiple Sclerosis Support Groups

EFFECTIVE LIFE PLANNING involves taking steps now to protect yourself and your family in the future. Although relatively few people who have multiple sclerosis (MS) become incapacitated enough to require long-term care, there is no way to predict with any certainty who will become severely disabled and who will not. Therefore, the optimal strategy is to implement plans now that will ensure your family's financial security regardless of the ultimate severity of the disease. It goes without saying that disability is a circumstance that no one would opt for. When it does occur, the key to a rich, fulfilling life, regardless of disability level, lies in planning.
 

Multiple Sclerosis Support Groups

The subject of life planning is one that most people find distressing. No one particularly enjoys thinking about potential problems or losses. However, engaging in the process of long-range planning and problem-solving will enable you to feel secure about your family's well-being, regardless of what the future brings.

This post highlights the principal components in the planning process. Because each family's situation is unique, and the complex laws pertaining to these issues vary considerably from state to state, the information provided here should in no way be considered comprehensive. You are well advised to consult an elder law attorney who specializes in disability-related law and/or a certified financial planner to discuss your family's particular needs. Your chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society can recommend an appropriate professional in your area.
 
Selecting Planning Professionals to Assist You 

A STRONG WORD of caution must be offered here about selecting planning professionals to assist you. Only a few certified financial planners have the experience and expertise necessary to construct a rational and workable financial plan in the face of potentially career-shortening disability or illness. That is because most financial planners are, in fact, wealth planners, whose expertise is not designed for middle-class clients. Thus, most financial planners are not experts in assisting average or middle-class people to make sound financial decisions and deploying their resources most effectively.
 
This is particularly important to keep in mind when an individual needs to construct a sound financial plan in the face of potentially devastating illness or disability. Most typical planning strategies are inadequate in this situation; individuals who mistakenly rely on "traditional wisdom" are likely to face serious-but otherwise avoidable - financial disasters. As a consequence, it is critical that you exercise great caution when selecting financial experts or advice and screen for specific expertise in the area of disability planning.

Some key points include:

• A well-versed financial advisor assisting an individual with a potentially career-shortening disability will place a great deal of emphasis on the "risk" or insurance plan, and will pay particular attention to continuity of coverage problems that may arise with employer-sponsored coverage that disappears with the termination of employment.
• If the advice offered is simplistic, or relies solely on "traditional" insurance or savings strategies, that advice may well be inadequate to assist people with potentially career shortening illnesses to reach specific financial objectives.

What is Life Planning?
 
IN ITS MOST basic form, life planning is a process that encourages you to think about what you want in life (to set life goals), and to formulate a workable plan for ensuring that you are able to achieve those goals. The most important aspect of the plan is that it should be well executed and comprehensive. A well developed plan addresses all contingencies so that the possibility of its not being implemented approaches zero. In other words, a comprehensive plan should leave virtually nothing to chance. It should include many different aspects of formal individual planning, including financial, estate, and vocational plans. The planning process requires a consideration of everything that is important to the individual for whom the plan is being developed.
 
The life-planning process takes on special significance for persons with severe disabilities because their social and financial futures are so tenuous. Contrary to popular myth, it is not only the wealthy who must plan. The fewer resources you have, the more important it is that you plan wisely in order to deploy your scarce resources in the most efficient and effective manner possible.

Similarly, the greater the potential medical or vocational liabilities you may have, the more you need to ensure that you are adequately prepared for the expenses of illness, disability, or unemployment. To find out more, you can check out Multiple Sclerosis Support Groups.