An elder care law specialist will ensure that your loved one isn’t the victim of these issues. With a lawyer on your side, everyone will know that your loved one is protected. If they do suffer from a traumatic abuse or get taken advantage of, your lawyer knows how to punish them to the full extent of the law.
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An elder law attorney, sometimes referred to as an elder care attorney, can help older adults and their families navigate the complicated financial and legal decisions they face. It’s a growing specialization, with nearly 500 certified elder law attorneys across all 50 states.
May 05, 2018 · People see an elder attorney for many reasons. These include: A concern about leaving money to the right people or organizations Concerns about moving to a nursing home or another senior care concern A desire to preserve the family home and keep it in the family Concerns about choosing the right person to have power of attorney over you
Jul 18, 2018 · An elder care law specialist will ensure that your loved one isn’t the victim of these issues. With a lawyer on your side, everyone will know that your loved one is protected. If they do suffer from a traumatic abuse or get taken advantage of, your lawyer knows how to punish them to the full extent of the law.
An Elder Law Attorney specialize in servicing our aging population with legal matters as they relate to health care, long term planning, guardianship, retirement, estate planning, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, trust and much more. Elder Law Attorneys are advocates for the older adult, their loved ones and/or family members.
An elder care law specialist will ensure that your loved one isn’t the victim of these issues. With a lawyer on your side, everyone will know that your loved one is protected. If they do suffer from a traumatic abuse or get taken advantage of, your lawyer knows how to punish them to the full extent of the law.
Hiring an elder care attorney is important when you’re trying to navigate the landscape of dealing with Medicare and Medicaid. Medicare is an automatic benefit for older Americans after a certain age. With the combined efforts of Medicaid for lower-income Americans, you can help pay for long-term care in some states.
An elder law attorney can find legal standing for why your loved one deserves assistance. If you don’t have the money right away, they can advocate for public programs to help. Learn about the different levels of care so that you know what to expect and how much it will cost.
Estates Can Be Difficult To Manage. If your loved one has a large estate with lots of assets to deal with, managing them and unloading them can be a hassle. Without the help of an attorney, you’ll be spending hour after hour at city hall filling out paperwork.
If your elderly loved one has a disability, they might find travel to be a struggle. They might need special accommodations that their care facility doesn’t feel compelled to provide. Whether or not they want to provide that care, it might be their legal responsibility.
If your loved one has a large estate with lots of assets to deal with, managing them and unloading them can be a hassle. Without the help of an attorney, you’ll be spending hour after hour at city hall filling out paperwork. You could end up paying huge taxes and fees without receiving a dime for your efforts.
Elder law is a multifaceted, relatively new area of focus in the legal field.
Personal care matters include guardianship in old age and long-term care planning. This includes decisions on how to provide care to the elderly in the family. It also involves deciding on whether one should care for them at home or in community/nursing home, depending on their health conditions the quality of care and finances.
Elder care attorneys also deal with all financial issues like assets and property protection. These include but are not limited to pension plans, claims and benefits, estate planning and administration, asset protection, living trusts, wills and ethical wills, power of attorney, and probate and trust administration.
Julie Ann Garber is a vice president at BMO Harris Wealth management, a CFP, and has 25 years of experience as a lawyer and trust officer. Julie Ann has been quoted in The New York Times, the New York Post, Consumer Reports, Insurance News Net Magazine, and many other publications.
Elder law isn't the same thing as estate law, although they cover some of the same issues. Elder law addresses your finances and property in such a way as to best provide for you and your family while you're still alive.
Medicaid imposes some strict guidelines for eligibility should you ever need long-term care. Benefits are income- and asset-based, but you can't just give away everything you own to qualify if you suspect you might need this type of care sometime in the imminent future.
Take a look at your life and your assets to see if you fit into one or more of these situations that can impact your finances:
State laws are very specific about what can and cannot be included in a will, trust, advance medical directive, or financial power of attorney. These laws control who can and cannot serve as a personal representative, trustee, health care surrogate, or attorney-in-fact under a power of attorney.
That old Latin saying “caveat emptor” or “buyer beware” certainly applies to elder law matters if you're thinking of handling things yourself with a little store-bought assistance.
The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys is comprised of lawyers who specialize in this field. It's a non-profit organization that's been around to assist seniors since 1987. Members are located in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. You can search their website for assistance in finding someone in your area to work with you.
What Elder Law Attorneys Do? Elder law attorneys, also called elder care attorneys, estate and trust attorneys, or Medicaid lawyers, assist persons in preparing for long-term care and death. They assist seniors in a large and diverse array of legal tasks, which encompasses retirement planning, estate planning, creating wills and durable power ...
On the other hand, Medicaid attorneys often focus more on the legal aspects of Medicaid planning, such as creating Medicaid asset protection trusts or Qualified income trusts, which makes them the better option for this type of assistance.
This is because Medicaid has a look back period. During this period, an applicant cannot gift assets or sell assets for less than market value in an attempt to meet Medicaid’s asset limit.
One such strategy that elder law attorneys can implement is a Medicaid asset protection trust (MAPT). This type of trust not only prevents one from becoming ineligible for Medicaid due to gifting assets ...
An option to meet the income limit in this case is a Miller Trust, often referred to as a Qualified Income Trust (QIT). In oversimplified language, income that is over Medicaid’s income limit is put into an irrevocable (meaning it cannot be changed or cancelled) trust to be used for very specific purposes.
For persons who have Medicaid cases that are fairly simple and straightforward, a Medicaid planner, also called a Medicaid specialist or a Medicaid Advisor, might be a good option. Working with a professional Medicaid planner can be a lot more cost efficient than working with a Medicaid attorney.
The look back period is 5 years in all states except California (Medi-Cal has a 2.5 year look back).
An elder law attorney is a lawyer specializing in issues that affect the aging community. Elder law attorneys are experts in Medicaid and related issues, but their expertise extends to all broader issues related to elder care, aging, and the law – a wide-reaching, often complicated milieu of interrelated topics.
The biggest difference between a Medicaid specialist and an elder law attorney is that Medicaid specialists are not lawyers. Likewise, elder law attorneys cannot call themselves “Medicaid specialists,” as this is not a designated law specialization.
Elder law attorneys are experts in Medicaid and related issues, but their expertise extends to all broader issues related to elder care, aging, and the law – a wide-reaching, often complicated milieu of interrelated topics . An elder law attorney can do everything a Medicaid specialist does, and additionally offers legal services related to aging, ...
A Medicaid specialist is a person or niche firm that specializes in establishing Medicaid eligibility, facilitating the application process, and even completing the actual application on behalf of the Medicaid recipient.