At The Arbor Company, we salute the veterans who serve our country on Veteran's Day, and everyday. We are honored to have many of these heroes among our Arbor family, as residents in our Arbor communities around the country. In honor of Veteran's Day, our next Senior Living LIVE! webinar will focus on how veterans and their families can use their special benefits to help pay for senior living. While we will celebrate Veteran's Day this year with a full-length webinar covering this very topic, our Senior Living LIVE! host, Melissa Lee, was able to record a brief chat with our featured guest to give a preview of what is to come. Emily Schwarz, president of Veterans Financial, Inc., will teach us more about how to understand the benefits available to veterans and how these can assist them in paying for senior living options. In this brief preview, Emily discusses the different types of benefits available, how these can be used for senior living, and some common misconceptions about veteran benefits. Click the recording to learn more, and make sure to register for the full webinar for all the details on how to enjoy these benefits!
Video Transcript
- Hello everyone and welcome into "Senior Living Live". My name is Melissa and I am joined today by a very special guest, Emily Schwarz who is the president of Veterans Financial Inc. Emily, how are you doing today?
- I'm doing great, thanks for having me.
- Yeah, thank you for joining us. As you know, in our country, every single November we take a day to salute our service men and women. And that is why Arbor is taking advantage of that Veterans Day in this month of November and we're taking that theme and running with it. And that will be a part of our next webinar November 11th, 4:00 PM, Eastern time to provide resources and answer questions regarding VA benefits. And of course, Emily, we will be leaning heavily on your knowledge of all of that information. Now, our seniors and our veterans specifically, have quite a few benefit options on that end. Disability compensation, pension, healthcare, home loans, insurance. Can you narrow down these benefits as it relates to paying for senior living?
- Sure, my pleasure. So, I specialize in a benefit called the VA Aid and Attendance Pension Benefit. And this pension helps veterans and their surviving spouses with the cost of senior care. And of course, that's why we're on this call today. This helps pay a significant portion of senior living.
- What is the biggest misconception about this particular part of VA benefits?
- Sure, so there's two big misconceptions about this pension. First, some people think that they're not eligible because their income is too high. And in fact, when you move into a senior living community the cost of your care offsets your income. So, many people are eligible for the full benefit once they move in for care. Now, some other people might have a misconception about their assets. There is a net worth limit with this benefit. And if you are over the net worth limit, families often think they're never going to be eligible for this pension. In fact, they can become eligible with VA planning and they too can partake in this benefit. We never want families to just give up and never apply.
- Yeah, and just understanding these benefits can be very difficult for some people, especially surviving spouses or widows of veterans. They may be eligible to receive some of these benefits. Are these full benefits or how does that work exactly?
- So surviving spouses have a different pension levels. Surviving spouses can get $1,244 a month to pay for their care. Veterans certainly get more but surviving spouses are still eligible for about $15,000 a year tax-free and they may have never had any contact with the VA, yet, they still can get this money because of their husband's service record.
- Wow, okay, so that's a lot of money
- Yeah.
- That could potentially be out there to help somebody. So, then the next question and of course is really where do you sign up? I mean, if you were married to somebody and they were a part of our services, our armed services or forces where can they go to find out more about this information?
- So we recommend surviving spouses and veterans contact Veterans Financial. They can either give us a call at 835-1541, or they can visit our website to learn more about this benefit, aidandattendance.com. It's the name of the benefit, it's also the name of the website. So it's aidandattendance.com, or you should join the webinar and learn all about the criteria of the benefit.
- Yes, and that webinar, November 11th, 4:00 PM Eastern time. Emily, you will have your presentation explaining these benefits specifically, the eligibility criteria, ways to apply. But more importantly, I think for everyone is that you will be there to answer questions, right?
- Absolutely, so we're gonna go through about 30 minutes of information. It's a PowerPoint slide deck, and then I'm gonna stay on for another 30 minutes with any questions you might have. So if you have anything that comes to mind either now, or from my presentation, I'd be more than happy to answer that for you.
- And if someone just cannot wait, they see this video and they wanna contact your company directly. How can they do that?
- So give us a call at 835-1541 or visit aid and attendance.com. That's spelled out and aid A-N-D attendance.com and you can get answers immediately.
- That sounds wonderful. Emily Schwarz, I thank you for all that you do for our seniors. And I also thank you for joining us today. Again, your webinar four o'clock Eastern time, November 11th, thank you for joining us.
- My pleasure, looking forward to seeing everyone.
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