Losing Money By Saving It
Years ago, my first exposure as a young associate to law in Philadelphia included litigation defending architects who had been sued for serious personal injury or property damage. In every case it seemed our architect defendants had acted properly pointing out the risks and designing safe and effective structures. Almost always the tragic and costly results could have been anticipated and prevented. The disconnect came when contractors or sub-contractors or the architectural firm’s own clients decided they wanted an easier, cheaper way.
In one case, a small shopping mall that had been designed around a rustic theme and involved considerable wood in the construction, burnt to the ground. A woman employee in one of the shops crawled to the exit door through the smoke but did not make it and died. When the investigation was complete, it was determined that a contractor eliminated the fire walls and stuffed flammable material in openings. It was cheaper.
In another case, where marble tiles were scheduled to be secured to the side of a high rise apartment building, a contractor ignored directions to slot the tiles and instead bolted them to the side where, with variations in temperature and moisture, the tiles gradually buckled from the side of the building, broke loose, and fell like rain on cars parked in the lot below. The contractor had expected to save time and money.
A government engineer hoping to complete a courthouse construction under budget and ahead of schedule, ordered that the caissons not be placed at the necessary depth. The courthouse began sinking almost as soon as it was completed and then needed enormously expensive correction.
A school district voted to save the expense of an overhead walkway connecting a new middle school and a high school across an extremely busy highway. After the schools were constructed, a drunken driver plowed into a group of teenagers who were crossing the road killing and injuring several. After the tragedy and an expensive lawsuit with Southern Cali area DUI charges, the walkway was finally constructed.
It may seem that these cases have little to do with the work that I do today and have done for many years, assisting seniors and their families with finances, health, benefits, and legal and care solutions, but there are similarities. American society’s love affair with the speedy, easy and inexpensive extends into every aspect of our lives, families not excluded. This attitude does not help because it does not consider what my brother refers to as “the big picture.” Free and inexpensive advice, if it leads to wrong decisions, can be very expensive.
It is not unusual to seriously underestimate both the amount of work involved and the complexity of handling a parent’s care, assets and benefits applications before a crisis strikes.
When facing crisis, families tend to see only today. Today there may be a hospitalization or hospital discharge and need to contact a facility for rehabilitation. Today a bank account must be accessed to pay bills or there is need to know more about Medicare, Medicaid, or Veterans’ benefits. If these are the only questions, this short term view might be useful as a start to recognize that there is a problem, but reaching to pull one more answer off the shelf each time to solve each new problem regarding chronic illness is inefficient and, in the long run, costly both financially and emotionally. There has to be a comprehensive approach.
Think of it this way. If you need transportation on a regular basis, you could each time help is needed call friends to get a ride and hope that they will assist or you could make an initial investment and buy a car.
Chronic illnesses such as Alzheimers disease, dementia, advanced Parkinson’s, COPD, chronic heart disease, cancer and even diabetes require ongoing solutions and management, not one quick fix or a few. Few experiences are more frustrating than seeing a family once and being requested to answer questions in isolation from everything else that is happening and then several months or a few years later answer other questions out of context especially when there is a better way..
It may be that people do not realize there is any other way. This is what life care planning is about combining legal advocacy, care management, benefits review, tax planning, estate and financial review to handle chronic illness. To get an idea of what life care planning law firms do, you can check the national web site of the Life Care Planning Law Firms Association at www.lcplfa.org.
About the Author Janet Colliton
Esquire, Colliton Law Associates, P.C. Janet Colliton has practiced law for over 38 years, 37 of them in Chester County, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Her practice, Colliton Law Associates, PC, is limited to elder law, Medicaid, including advice, applications and appeals, and other benefits planning including Veterans benefits, life care and special needs planning, guardianships, retirement, and estate planning and administration.