Enhance Your Practice with our Business Strategies
Use VA Caregiver Contracts for Finding New Clients or Customers
In some states caregiver contracts or personal service contracts are becoming a popular strategy for Medicaid planning. These contracts can also be used to provide evidence of family care arrangements for obtaining the veterans aid and attendance Pension. If they are set up appropriately for Medicaid as well, you can provide additional billable services.
Use the Tax Requirements for
Paid Family Caregivers to Cement Your Relationship
Anyone paying a family member or any nonprofessional individual to provide care in the home becomes an employer and under IRS rules must have an employer identification number, must pay Social Security, unemployment and Medicare taxes and must provide a W-2. Under certain circumstances, federal and state income tax must also be withheld. This is a requirement that many people choose to ignore to their detriment. You can use this requirement to provide necessary verification to VA for making a claim and by helping people use appropriate tax service companies, you can submit your relationship and charge for your services in providing help.
Using Compliance in Representation to Stay Ahead of Your Competition
VA is moving the application process to three regional offices -- St. Paul, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. Undoubtedly, this will allow the agency to better monitor non-accredited individuals and attorneys who are submitting claims. We suspect as well, that VA will require anyone providing information on the claims process to register under some yet to be determined category. If you are complying with the regulations in the representation of claims you should have no problem. Your competitors who are not complying may get shut down. This gives you an advantage in staying ahead of those practitioners who are less informed and expanding your practice as theirs diminish.
Organize a Long Term Care
Planning Practice to Expand Services & Avoid Legal Restrictions
We believe that many individuals who are charging a fee for veterans benefits planning could run afoul of VA because this fee may be construed to apply to the application process is well. By organizing a long term care planning practice and covering a broader range of care planning issues, you can relegate the veterans consulting to a portion of a larger practice. The fees you charge can now relate to broader services and as long as your services are not exclusively for veterans benefits you should have an easier time in making a case for charging fees.
Providing 15 Different Financial Strategies for Long Term Care Planning
We discuss the use of 15 financial strategies that can be applied by seniors to preserve assets, to accumulate wealth and to minimize taxes.
Obtaining the Pension Benefit for Personal Care Arrangements
About 70% of all long term care in this country is provided in the home usually by family members who are not paid for their services. The Pension benefit can be used to reimburse family members. This strategy can also be used to hire friends or private persons to provide care in the home at a cheaper cost and hiring professional care providers. This allows more care to be provided than would otherwise be available. In Chapter 6 of the Operations Manual we discuss in greater detail how to put together a personal care arrangement with the caregiver agreement, billing documents and tax services. The family will need your expertise in this area because it is unlikely they can put together these arrangements themselves and satisfy the documentation requirements for VA to approve payment.
Understand and Use Search Engine Optimization Strategies for Your Website
Regarding the creation of websites, many people believe that "if you build it they will come." Those who believe this come up against the stark reality that websites are oftentimes a waste of money if you don't understand how to use them to create leads. We provide you a number of strategies that we have learned over the years to optimize a website for search engines such that you create traffic to the site. This in turn should provide leads from that website. See a Veterans Benefits Consultant web site in Texas.
The Package Become a Veterans Benefits Consultant
Caregiver Agreements for Aid and Attendance Pension
Most people who have heard about Pension know that it will cover the costs of assisted living and, in some cases, cover nursing home costs as well. But the majority of those receiving long term care in this country are in their homes. Estimates are that approximately 70% to 80% of all long term care is being provided in the home. All of the information available about Pension overlooks the fact that Pension should be used to pay for home care. Maybe if more people knew this fact, more people would be applying for the benefit.
It also comes as a surprise to most people that VA will allow veterans’ households to deduct the annual cost of paying any person such as family members, friends or hired help for care when calculating the Pension benefit. This annual cost is then used to calculate the benefit based on a new "countable income" and allows families earning more than the pension benefit to receive a disability income from VA.
We are not aware of any practitioners who, on a regular basis, are helping families with this special home care provision. It seems many practitioners who are helping veterans with the aid and attendance benefit don't understand that an "aid and attendance rating" is even available for home care. They assume that is what the "housebound rating" is used for.
Perhaps this confusion has led many practitioners to ignore the potential of helping clients receive Pension money to pay their children for care. This is a brand new area of practice and offers you a great opportunity to attract new clients and to provide additional income to your practice.
VA requires proof of payments for in-home attendants. In addition there must be a caregiver agreement in place. In our "Veterans Consultant Operations Manual" that comes with our veterans consultant's package, we discuss the design of these caregiver agreements and the type of proof that VA requires for receiving a successful award.
About the Package See the contents of the Veterans Benefits Consultants Package
Using Caregiver Agreements for Medicaid Qualification
Setting up caregiver agreements for Medicaid asset transfers and to create additional income for veterans households is an exciting new tool for attorneys, financial planners, care managers and home care providers.
We are aware of only a limited number of attorneys who are using this strategy for Medicaid planning. And our suspicion is that practically no one is using this strategy to obtain the veterans aid and attendance benefit. The use of personal care agreements to get the government to approve the payment of family caregivers offers a huge marketing potential for veterans benefits consultants, Medicaid planners or long term care providers.
In the "Veterans Consultant Operations Manual" that comes with our veterans consultant's package we discuss the difference between the two types of contracts and the similarities of both. We also discuss strategies for creating VA caregiver agreements that allow for lump-sum conversions in order to accelerate qualification for Medicaid coverage in a nursing home.
What is a Veterans Benefits Consultant & when should a family use a veterans benefits consultant.
Who is eligible for the Veterans Aid & Attendance pension benefit?
Using aid & attendance to pay any person for care at home, for professional home care, for assisted living, or to pay for a nursing home.
The application process for aid and attendance Pension.
Why are less than 5% of all veterans & their surviving spouses receiving a benefit?
The National Care Planning Council, we promote and support planning for long term care.
An individual acting as a consultant must be careful not to violate any federal statutes and VA regulations pertaining to representation of veteran claimants. At the NCPC, we recognize our responsibility to assist you regarding these matters & have ensured that this package offers extensive guidance on what we believe constitutes a compliant veterans benefits consulting practice. Intergity & honesty are at the heart of our business. We expect those who purchase this package to maintain high ethical standards in all areas of their consulting practices. Furthermore, we would like to express our gratitude and support for those who display stewardship, compassion, care, & integrity while working with seniors & thier families.
