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As our elder population increases, many CPAs are faced with financial and legal questions concerning their aging clients and families. Sometimes these issues span into areas beyond the CPA’s expertise and as your client’s most trusted adviser, they will turn to you for reliable referrals to qualified professionals.
Should the referral be to an attorney who specializes in elder law or estate planing? Elder law transcends the typical estate, financial and probate planning issues handled by estate planning attorneys. Besides estate planning, elder lawyers usually specialize in nursing home care issues; conservatorships; Medi-Cal entitlements and estate recovery; long-term care and disability planning; asset preservation strategies; and elder abuse and fraud recovery.
NAELA describes elder lawyers as “attorneys who genuinely empathize with the true physical and mental difficulties that often accompany the aging process. Their understanding of the afflictions of the aged allows them to determine more easily the difference between the physical versus the mental disability of a client.”
FIRST STEPS
Locating and interviewing potential elder law attorneys well in advance of when your clients will need their services makes good sense. Figure A provides resources where CPAs and their clients can find qualified legal help.
In
Source : accessmylibrary.com
Special needs’ grows niche in elder-law
(This article originally appeared in Lawyers USA, another Dolan Media publication).
In the view of many trusts and estates lawyers, “special needs” law has developed into an important niche practice area.
Three elder-law attorneys recently launched the Academy of Special Needs Planners, believing that it is time for a group devoted to lawyers, other professionals and consumers seeking information and advice about special needs planning.
“Special needs” law deals with the financial and care needs of individuals with physical or learning disabilities - many of whom are the middle-aged children of aging Americans planning their retirement.
“It’s a growing area for a variety of reasons,” said Harry S. Margolis, one of the academy’s founders.
“In previous generations, having a disability meant a shorter life span, but that’s not true any more,” he noted. “And there are a lot more older clients who are taking care of children with special needs. So ultimately, the question comes up - ‘What plans do you have in place for them?’”
Margolis, founder of the Boston elder-law firm Margolis & Associates, has been active in the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys since its inception in 1988. He said NAELA has been devoting increasing attention to special needs planning because of its similarities with elder
Source : accessmylibrary.com
Winston-Salem, N.C., Center Specializes in Elder Law; Aids Senior Citizens
By Richard Craver, Winston-Salem Journal, N.C. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Jul. 14–The twilight years of William and Hattie Greene’s lives were supposed to be filled with family time and adding new chapters to a loving 44-year marriage.
Instead, William Greene, 81, has spent the past two years taking care of his 80-year-old wife, who has dementia because of a series of mini-strokes.
As her illness worsens, the health-care demands on her husband have begun to affect his well being to the point where he realizes that one of life’s most painful decisions must be made. He is preparing to place her in a nursing home, which he knows could be her final residence.
Unlike thousands of elderly North Carolina couples who make this kind of complex and costly decision alone or uninformed, Greene has found help. He was recommended to The Elder Law Clinic, which is based at the J. Paul Sticht Center on Aging and Rehabilitation at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
“All the issues involved with Hattie’s care was taking its toll on my nerves, and it wasn’t doing either one of us much good,” Greene said. “I really had nowhere dependable to turn for getting the legal help I needed, such as how to sign up for Medicaid and the best nursing home possible, until I was put in touch with the clinic.
“This clinic has been a blessing because the people have given me direction about how to handle my wife’s needs. With all the negative talk about what we
Source : accessmylibrary.com
Trust and estate lawyers say that “special needs” law
(This article originally appeared in Lawyers USA, another Dolan Media publication).
In the view of many trusts and estates lawyers, “special needs” law has developed into an important niche practice area.
Three elder-law attorneys recently launched the Academy of Special Needs Planners, believing that it is time for a group devoted to lawyers, other professionals and consumers seeking information and advice about special needs planning.
“Special needs” law deals with the financial and care needs of individuals with physical or learning disabilities - many of whom are the middle-aged children of aging Americans planning their retirement.
“It’s a growing area for a variety of reasons,” said Harry S. Margolis, one of the academy’s founders.
“In previous generations, having a disability meant a shorter life span, but that’s not true any more,” he noted. “And there are a lot more older clients who are taking care of children with special needs. So ultimately, the question comes up - ‘What plans do you have in place for them?’”
Margolis, founder of the Boston elder-law firm Margolis & Associates, has been active in the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys since its inception in 1988. He said NAELA has been devoting increasing attention to special needs planning because of its similarities with elder
Source : accessmylibrary.com
State recovery law to impact families
During its recent marathon session, the state Legislature passed a law that could have a direct effect on some Michigan seniors and their families.
It’s called “estate recovery,” and it gives Michigan the right to try to collect Medicaid bills for long-term care from an individual’s estate.
It applies to nursing home care or Medicaid waivers, which allow long-term care at home. It still requires federal approval.
The new law may cost some families money, but East Lansing-based elder law attorney Doug Chalgian has a bigger concern: that high-pressure sales folks will use the new law as a lever to sell seniors financial products they don’t need.
“People have said if you go through probate, it’s going to take all your money,” he said. “These types of things have resonance with older folks because they’re afraid of that and because they’re so confusing.”
So, here’s Chalgian’s word on the new law
More : lsj.com
Elder Law Section, FAWL support gay adoption lobbying
The Bar’s Elder Law Section and the Florida Association for Women Lawyers have become the latest organizations to endorse the Family Law and Public Interest Law sections’ request to lobby for the repeal of the Florida law that bans gays from adopting.
The FAWL executive council at a recent meeting endorsed a resolution supporting the two sections, which want both to repeal the gay adoption ban and adopt a best-interest-of-the-child standard.
The Elder Law Section Executive Council decided at its October 4 meeting to support the two sections’ request to push their position at
Source : accessmylibrary.com
Elder Law
Elder Law by attorney Jeffrey A. Helewitz (Delmar 2001) is a textbook that endeavors to help the student/reader understand elder law from a practical point of view. The acknowledged goal of the author is to “demystify” elder law for paralegal students. Beyond this goal, the book is a primer for anyone who asks the question, “What is elder law?”
The book is comprehensive in its scope, covering the full gamut of elder law topics
Source : accessmylibrary.com
Feeling the 50-Year Itch: Seniors aren’t waiting around for death to do them part
Last year Kit Levedahl’s husband divorced her–after 48 years of marriage, three children and two grandchildren. He was 74; she was 72. She had expected to travel the world with the “dashing” World War II fighter pilot she fell in love with a half-century ago. But, she says, her husband met a younger woman. “I kept hoping that maybe he’d change his mind,” she says. “It breaks up a family–more so I think than when you’re younger, because you have less time to pick up the pieces. More people are involved.” The family no longer convenes for Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas jigsaw puzzles. Their daughter, Babs Levedahl, 44, says, “It’s devastating.”
” ‘Til death do us part” was easier to honor at the turn of the last century, when average life expectancy was only 47, than today, when it is 76. More years to live means more time for couples to grow tired
Source : accessmylibrary.com
Young attorney enjoys growing field of legal practice, elder law
(This article originally ran in St. Louis Daily Record, St. Louis, MO, another Dolan Media publication).If you are never too old to learn, you are never too young to plan for going the distance. When Devin Staley started his career course, like most young people, he was not sure exactly where he intended to go.
Now, one year after passing the Missouri Bar exam, Staley is setting the pace in a field of legal practice that few young people have entered into immediately after law school, but some have begun to recognize as a growing area of public service.
“It just kind of happened,” said Staley about his establishing a career in elder law. “I ended up in this area of practice very much by accident.”
This native of Springfield, Mo., said he entered college uncertain about what he wanted to do as an adult. He attended and graduated from Truman State University with a double major in philosophy/religion and in English. It did not take him long to realize that his bachelor’s of arts degree was not particularly designed to help him jump into any
Source : accessmylibrary.com
Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs Announces That the Law Firm
This Addition Enhances the Firm’s Traditional Strength in Trusts & Estates Law
AKRON, Ohio, Dec. 27 /PRNewswire/ – Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, LLP is very pleased to announce that the law firm of Kaufmann & Kaufmann has joined the firm’s Akron office. This addition brings three new attorneys to the firm, enhancing the services of its Trusts & Estates Practice Group.
The new attorneys are Philip S. Kaufmann, Loma L. Swett, and Steven P. Mutersbaugh, all with Kaufmann & Kaufmann of Akron. In addition, the group will be strengthened with the support of two paralegals, a law clerk, and an administrative assistant, all of whom will be joining the BDB team from Kaufmann & Kaufmann. The transition will take place on January 1, 2007.
“We are very pleased to welcome these outstanding attorneys to Buckingham Akron,” said
Source : accessmylibrary.com
Free elder law advice offered
Lawyers on Call, a State Bar of Arizona program, is offering free elder law advice Oct. 1 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The State Bar of Arizona and Channel 12 (KPNX) have partnered in the project. Calls will take place during Channel 12’s Arizona Midday program, 11 a.m. to noon. Viewers will be prompted to Call 12 for Action hotline at (602) 260-1212 to reach volunteer attorneys who practice elder law.
Attorney Stephen Wade Nebgen has opened an office at 3131 E. Camelback Road, Suite 110, in Phoenix. Nebgen, an entertainment industry attorney, has been a producer in theater, music, film and television. He received a J.D. from the University of Texas.
Source : azcentral.com
Special needs’ grows as elder-law niche
(This article originally appeared in Lawyers USA, another Dolan Media publication).
In the view of many trusts and estates lawyers, “special needs” law has developed into an important niche practice area.
Three elder-law attorneys recently launched the Academy of Special Needs Planners, believing that it is time for a group devoted to lawyers, other professionals and consumers seeking information and advice about special needs planning.
“Special needs” law deals with the financial and care needs of individuals with physical or learning disabilities – many of whom are the middle-aged children of aging Americans planning their retirement.
“It’s a growing area for a variety of reasons,” said Harry S. Margolis, one of the Academy’s founders.
“In previous generations, having a disability meant a shorter life span, but that’s not true any more,” he noted. “And there are a lot more older clients who are taking care of children with special needs. So ultimately, the question comes up – ‘What plans do you have in place for them?’”
Margolis, founder of the Boston elder-law firm Margolis & Associates, has been active in the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) since its inception in 1988. He said NAELA has been devoting increasing attention to special needs planning because of its similarities
Source : accessmylibrary.com
Medicaid changes to turn planning on its head, warn elder law attorneys
Buried in the 750-page federal budget bill is a bombshell for lawyers who practice elder law and estate planning changes to the Medicaid long-term care eligibility rules that threaten to turn Medicaid planning on its head.
The changes will be “disastrous” for seniors, their families and nursing homes, said Stuart D. Zimring, immediate past president of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.
The new rules make it much harder for seniors to qualify for long-term care under Medicaid, such as nursing home expenses, by tightening the rules on asset transfers.
Many elder law attorneys have been scrambling to alert their clients to the changes, which went into effect earlier this month when President Bush signed the bill.
Bernard Krooks, an elder law attorney in White Plains, N.Y., has sent out letters to his clients about the new rules.
And Alice Reiter Feld, an attorney in Tamarac, Fla. and president of the state chapter of NAELA, recently held a seminar for her elder clients on the new law.
But Zimring, a Los Angeles elder law attorney, noted that the law provides for states to create implementing legislation, so in some states
Source : accessmylibrary.com
YWCA Seminar To Look At Elder Law
The YWCA is accepting registration for attorney Dennis Toman’s seminar, “Elder Law
Source : accessmylibrary.com
Elderly’s failure to plan for future can spell trouble
For years, Sandy Myers prodded her parents without success to plan for “when they got really, really old.” With her mother losing ground to Alzheimer’s and her father to Parkinson’s, she pressed harder: Let’s see a lawyer. Let’s go over your assets with an accountant. Still, they didn’t budge.
“They’d kind of humor me: ‘Oh, that’s nice,’ ” Myers recalled.
In the end, it wasn’t nice at all. In 1999, her father, Carl Larson, injured his head in a fall and had to move into an assisted-living facility, forcing Myers to put her mother in a nursing home. The family needed to sell the couple’s three-bedroom, 1950s ranch home in Springfield, Va., to pay the bills, but couldn’t: Joan Larson’s Alzheimer’s left her legally incompetent to sign the deed, and she hadn’t authorized anyone to sign for her.
Myers and her brother had to go through a long, costly and emotionally wrenching court proceeding to have their mother declared their financial ward to sell the house. “I sat there and watched an attorney tell her the court was stripping away all her rights: her voting rights, her driver’s license, her ability to handle money, every right she had as a citizen,” Myers said. “It’s something I live with every day.”
More : columbusdispatch.com
The booming business of elder law
Attorney David Ferber draws potential clients to the elder law seminars he holds in the basement auditorium of a Manchester, N.H., public library with newspaper ads promising that attendees will “learn the startling truth about nursing homes and Medicaid.” Ferber claims that, “Most people don’t know that the law allows you to shelter your assets” from the cost of long term care.
The evening sessions attract between 10 and 60 participants, people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s wondering what will become of their life savings if their parents go to a nursing home. Afternoon sessions draw the older people themselves. They come to ask questions about minimizing estate taxes, avoiding probate, and Medicaid. Ferber runs through his practiced litany with them, laying out the basics of estate planning–trusts, durable powers of attorney, living wills–and then moving on to the sheltering of assets to qualify for Medicaid. When it comes to their possessions and Medicaid, he admonishes them, “Nothing is sacred.” For Medicaid-planning purposes, he generally proposes an irrevocable trust to protect one’s home from Medicaid’s asset recovery process and an irrevocable family investment agreement, a sort of all-in-the-family annuity that shelters assets but still generates income.
The sessions end with the participants filling out a “feed-back sheet” asking for basic information and offering a free hour of consultation.
Ferber’s a smart guy, a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Columbia University, from which he also earned his law degree. He’s the sort of lawyer who a generation ago would have made a name for himself in courtrooms and board rooms. But today he practices elder law, lending his talents to senior citizens and their families.
Burgeoning specialty
He’s part of a booming business. The American Bar Association didn’t even recognize elder law as a specialty until 1992, and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, the specialty’s professional association, began in
Source : accessmylibrary.com
Evil’ nieces and nephews cause worries over will
The information in this column is not intended as legal advice but to provide a general understanding of the law. Readers with legal problems, including those whose questions are addressed here, should consult attorneys for advice on their particular circumstances.
Q: My mother owns a home and two adjacent properties without houses. I don’t know if she has a will. Is there any way I can find out if she does have a will and if I’m in it?
There are evil nieces and nephews who want their auntie to leave them something. What claims might my cousins make on my mother’s property that I’m hoping I will inherit? Is there anything I can do to ensure that her property gets left to me?
A: The only sure way to find out if your mother has a will or if you are in it is to ask her.
But that’s risky. Under Texas law, she is not required to leave you anything upon her death. She might find it a bit presumptuous or greedy on your part if you ask those questions. In other words, if you get too nosy, you might go from included to excluded.
More : chron.com
Twin Cities law professors find blogs a handy venue
If the phenomenon of blogging has done nothing else, it’s encouraged academics and experts in all fields to provide readers with regularly updated bits of wisdom and opinion from their specialized fields. And law professors are far from immune to the allure of blogs.
According to a study completed recently by George Washington University law professor Daniel Solove – and presented, naturally, on his blog – the ranks of blogging law professors have tripled since 2005, to a total of 365 nationwide.
And as it happens, the Twin Cities are something of a hotbed for blogging law professors: Fifteen professors from local law schools are involved in some level of blogging.
Many of those professors are sold on the idea of using their blogs not only as a way of assembling news and opinion on a specific area of the law, but also as a way of field-testing their thoughts and ideas.
“Having a blog helps me organize my own thoughts,” said University of Minnesota professor David Stras, who writes for a pair of blogs, SCOTUSblog
Source : accessmylibrary.com
How to… Find an elder law firm
As Baby Boomers march toward retirement, they face a new world of legal concerns that they probably gave little or no thought to in their younger years. To help the aging population handle this wide range of pertinent legal issues, more law firms are choosing to specialize in elder law. Elder law encompasses many subspecialties of law that affect seniors. For instance, an elder attorney commonly handles estate planning, which can include planning for the management of a senior’s estate while he is still living and transferring it after his death through trusts and wills. The elder law attorney can also assist seniors with disability planning, which can include setting up durable powers of
Source : accessmylibrary.com
Elder law draws young guns
Elder law. Say it again with some energy now. Elder law. Still doesn’t sound exciting? Maybe not, but it’s one of the fastest growing practice areas and it’s attracting some of Long Island’s youngest lawyers.
Jennifer Cona, 32, the founder and chairwoman of Jericho-based Genser, Dubow, Genser & Cona’s elder law department, said that despite its unglamorous facade, elder law is now an exciting field. It’s her firm’s fastest growing business. Last year, the firm picked up 200 new elder law cases. That’s up 68 percent from 1999 and 129 percent from 1998.
Cona’s interest in elder law grew out of her experience as a judicial clerk in New Jersey’s Office of Administrative Law, a job she took after graduating with a juris doctorate from the University of Connecticut School of Law. As a clerk, she was inundated with Medicaid regulatory work.
Cona said New Jersey had only a small amount of case law regarding Medicaid regulations. With little to go by,
Source : accessmylibrary.com