In my blog post for this week, I continue a discussion of AI and its impact on estate and long term care planning. This week I focus on the guidance that we provide to clients.
Can AI replace the day to day or month to month guidance needed as clients navigate the long term care system? I don’t believe it can.
As I often explain to people who call our office asking for a will or a trust or a power of attorney, these documents are merely the tools used to solve a problem. In the case of our elderly clients, the problem is how to navigate through and pay for the cost of long term care. This counseling is not something that AI can currently provide and I am not convinced that it will ever be able to replace human interaction.
To understand why, let me run through a typical scenario that we see in our office. Mom has been diagnosed with dementia. Initially she does not need care but as the illness progresses she starts to need assistance with her ADLs such as bathing, dressing, ambulating, toileting and feeding herself. As she needs more care the cost starts to climb. Mom might be resistant to getting care. In some cases she may exhibit aggressive behavior in ways that make her a danger to herself or others around her like Dad.
Private paying for care is expensive. It can approach or exceed $15,000 per month – $180,000 per year. Decisions need to be made about keeping Mom at home or getting care for her in a facility type setting, such as assisted living or nursing. Families have questions about how to pay for the care, how to turn on a long term care insurance policy, how to qualify for Medicaid.
As I often explain to families, decisions you make now can impact the options you have available to you later on down the road. For example, understanding how long you must commit to pay a facility before applying for Medicaid or whether it is even possible to get Medicaid coverage in a particular facility are not questions easily answered. When Mom’s health is not stable and seems to change from day to day, making the right decision is even more difficult.
In my 30+ years of experience, what our clients have found to be most valuable is the guidance we provide as they navigate these issues. If Mom is in the hospital, for example, families reach out to us for advice and to discuss the pros and cons of the options available to them. It is that human interaction, the back and forth questions and answers, that families seek to help them through what is a stressful time. It’s that connection that AI does not provide, which is why I don’t see people being comfortable being led through a crisis such as needing long term care by AI software.