As the population of the country ages, more people will run into legal or planning issues that are unique to seniors. This might include help with obtaining veterans' pensions, Medicare or Medicaid. Other issues might include the need for long term care planning, solving disputes with family members, dealing with financial elder abuse, providing for powers of attorney, medical care planning or guardianship.
Elder Law attorneys represent a growing specialty of the law that helps the elderly deal with many of the problems mentioned above. But Elder Law attorneys can often do much more for their clients. Below is a list of services that an elder law attorney might provide. This list was taken from the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys' website.
Below is a list of what an elder law attorney (lawyer) might do:
· Preservation or transfer of assets seeking to avoid spousal impoverishment when a spouse enters a nursing home
· Medicaid qualification and application and Medicaid planning strategies
· Medicare claims and appeals
· Social security and disability claims and appeals
· Supplemental and long term health insurance issues
· Disability planning, including use of durable powers of attorney, living trusts, "living wills," for financial management and health care decisions, and other means of delegating management and decision-making to another in case of incompetency or incapacity
· Conservatorships and guardianships
· Estate planning, including planning for the management of one's estate during life and its disposition on death through the use of trusts, wills and other planning documents
· Probate
· Administration and management of trusts and estates
· Long term care placements in nursing home and life care communities
· Nursing home issues including questions of patients' rights and nursing home quality
· Elder abuse and fraud recovery cases
· Housing issues, including discrimination and home equity conversions (reverse mortgage)
· Age discrimination in employment
· Retirement, including public and private retirement benefits, survivor benefits and pension benefits
· Health law
· Mental health law
Joseph McHugh is an elder law attorney serving the Burbank / Glendale area. LA Law Center, LLP can be reached at (818) 241 - 4238 or visit us online at www.la-lawcenter.com
