Elder law attorneys guide older Americans and
their families through a variety of legal and
practical issues including estate planning,
assisted living arrangements, retirement planning, and Social Security Disability. Elder law attorneys may also defend the rights of older Americans in cases involving nursing home abuse and scams that target elderly victims.
Below is a partial list of what an elder law attorney 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
- 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
