Elder Law / Medicaid Planning
As you approach and pass retirement age, you may well face some very difficult choices with regard to long-term care, preserving your assets, transferring assets to your spouse or children, maintaining eligibility for Medicaid, and obtaining assistance from Medicaid and/or Veterans Benefits. Helping seniors age with dignity, and remain independent for as long as possible, is our goal as caring elder law attorneys.
Medicaid Planning
The cost of health care and long-term care is skyrocketing. Many seniors find that they must rely on Medicaid to pay for their long-term care or nursing home costs (which exceeds $11,000 per month). Unfortunately, many families facing these exorbitant costs are receiving poor advice from their neighbors, friends, family and even advisors regarding their Medicaid and long-term care options. We help seniors and their families navigate the difficult, confusing laws surrounding Medicaid planning.
A Medicaid Crisis
A Medicaid crisis is a situation in which an individual has either been admitted to a nursing home or is about to be placed in one, and has been told that they have too many assets to qualify for New York Medicaid. Through proper crisis planning, many of your hard-earned assets can be shielded from the nursing home’s grasp, despite what social workers, nursing home intake staff and other well-meaning professionals may tell you. The fact is, they do not fully understand the complex and ever-changing laws governing Medicaid eligibility. We do. Speak to us before you start “gifting” assets, naming people jointly or other potentially catastrophic financial mistakes. And even if you are already in a nursing home, we may still be able to help you obtain the assistance you are entitled to and need.
Medicaid Pre-Planning
Pre-planning is for people who are healthy now but want to prepare for the possibility of incapacity and the high costs of long-term care. We can assist you by designing a comprehensive estate plan that takes into account the possibility of prolonged stays in a nursing home or assisted living facility, and protects your assets against the high costs associated with such care. When you consider that half of all women and a fourth of all men will spend time in a nursing home at some point in their lives—and that most families go broke within one year of a prolonged nursing home stay—Medicaid pre-planning makes a lot of sense. Call us today for sound counsel.
Medicaid Application
Completing the New York State Medicaid application is a detailed, confusing, and time-consuming process. Mistakes can be costly and lead to financially devastating delays in receiving Medicaid assistance to which you may be entitled. We can assist you in preparing the application itself or take the reins and lead you through the entire process from beginning to end.
Guardianship
Guardianship is the legal process by which one person, called the “guardian”, is appointed by the court to take legal responsibility for the care and management of the person, or the estate, or both, of another person, called the “ward”, who is considered incapable of administering his or her own affairs.
Guardianship Litigation
A contested guardianship arises when either the proposed “ward” contests having a guardian appointed on their behalf or when multiple people apply to be appointed guardian over the same person. Another facet of guardianship litigation involves the removal of one who has been appointed guardian but who has committed some sort of wrong doing in their service as guardian.