Elder Law
What exactly is Elder Law?Elder Law is a blend of legal disciplines that serve seniors and their families, veterans and their surviving spouses, individuals and families, and those who have special needs.
When Elder Law is used to serve seniors and their families, we often refer to this as long-term care planning. Long-term care planning, or “senior” estate planning, will consist of pre-planning, wait and see planning, or crisis planning, and often qualification for Illinois Medicaid. Also, the preparation of certain types of specialized wills and trusts, powers of attorney for both property and health, and other healthcare directives is necessary. Sometimes guardianship is required when not enough pre-planning has been done.
When we engage in Elder Law for veterans and their spouses, we are often planning for eligibility for certain benefits offered by the Veterans Administration. Often, the benefit we are seeking is Aid and Attendance or other non-service-connected VA pension benefits.
Serving individual and families in the area of Elder Law requires the development of either traditional estate plans or “senior” estate plans. We can assist you through the design, creation of documents, and funding of your estate plan. Updates and periodic reviews are required and eventually the administration of trusts and estates after death is required. We pride ourselves in being able to assist you in handling the transition for your loved ones from planning, to illness, and eventually through death in a way that will appear seamless to you, but in reality has many important, moving legal aspects.
Some seniors come to us with loved ones who have a disability. It is at that stage that we engage in special needs planning, including the coordination of specialized documentation necessary to obtain public benefits offered through Illinois Medicaid, Social Security Administration, Medicare, as well as any other governmental benefits that may be available.