Many people either do not know what elder law attorneys do or just assume they sue nursing homes and write $100 wills. On the contrary, elder law covers a wide array of legal areas dealing with progressive life changes.
Traditional estate planning attorneys help clients plan for their estate which is necessary, but still insufficient for their needs. Very quickly, clients start dealing with issues including a developing disability, ongoing struggles with a spouse, and deaths of loved ones’. Considering the recent financial crisis, these issues add heavily to the stress of where best to spend money. Folks spend their retirement savings in less than a year for nursing home care. Families agonize over whether to send their kids to college or pay for a parent’s care in a skilled nursing facility.
Therefore, elder law should help people plan for their lives, not just their deaths. A great deal of elder law includes planning for payment of long-term care such as self pay, LTC insurance, Medicaid, or VA benefits. Clients can determine what options for long-term care work best for their family such as assisted living, home health care, or a nursing home.
Other areas of Elder Law practice include:
- Guardianship over a person, their estate, and many times, both;
- Not-so-traditional estate planning;
- Estate settlement;
- Advanced Health Care Directives & compliance with HIPAA laws;
- Access to benefits including Medicare, Medicaid, and VA benefits; and
- Financial and retirement planning.
As more baby boomers enter retirement, these areas of law will grow in demand as the need for advanced planning and long-term care increases.
Tiffany N. Ballenger, Esq.
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