The life care planner identifies and prices future care needs item by item; the economist applies growth and discount rates to that plan to reach present value.
The expert who reduces a life care plan's year-by-year costs to present value, applies growth rates by care category, and reconciles the valuation to the plan item by item.
The clinician who identifies the future medical and support needs that flow from an injury and prices each item with its frequency and duration, producing the life care plan that the economist values.
| Dimension | Forensic Economist | Life Care Planner |
|---|---|---|
| Core question | What the plan costs in present dollars | What care the person needs and what each item costs today |
| Foundation | The plan's cost tables, growth data, discount rates, life expectancy | Medical records, provider recommendations, cost research |
| Output | Present value schedule reconciled to the plan | Itemized life care plan |
| Contested inputs | Growth rates, discount rate, horizon | Medical foundation, frequency, duration, unit cost |
| Credential family | Graduate economics or finance training, professional association membership | Clinical license plus a planning certification |
Retain the economist once a plan exists, or is expected, and the future care cost must be presented as a single figure alongside the other economic losses. The economist also reviews an opposing valuation of a plan and reprices it under supportable growth and discount assumptions.
Retain the life care planner when the case involves lifelong or long-term care needs that no treating provider has organized into a costed plan. The plan is the foundation; without it the economist has no item-level cost stream to value.
Both experts work on the same future-care number, and the two reports must reconcile. The plan supplies the items, frequencies, durations, unit costs, and the life expectancy basis; the economist supplies the growth rates by category, the discount rate, and the arithmetic that turns the schedule into a present value. Neither substitutes for the other: the economist does not add or remove care items, and the plan's author does not discount. The life care plan cost projection service describes the hand-off.
No. The plan is a clinical document that rests on medical foundation and cost research, prepared by a credentialed planner. The economist values the plan and states in the report that the items and costs were taken from it.
The economist's report can attach or summarize the plan and then value it, but the plan's authorship stays with its author, who is disclosed and available for testimony on the items. Courts and opposing counsel expect each expert to testify to their own work.
They should not. The economist adopts the plan's horizon and states it, or presents the valuation under each horizon in dispute. A mismatch between the two reports is a common cross-examination theme and is avoidable.
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