What is Elder Law?
Rather than being defined by technical legal distinctions, elder law is defined by the client to be served. In other words, the lawyer who practices elder law may handle a range of issues but has a specific type of clients–seniors. Elder law attorneys focus on the legal needs of the elderly, and work with a variety of legal tools and techniques to meet the goals and objectives of the older client. Under this holistic approach, the elder law practitioner handles general estate planning issues and counsels clients about planning for incapacity with alternative decision making documents. The attorney would also assist the client in planning for possible long-term care needs, including nursing home care. Locating the appropriate type of care, coordinating private and public resources to finance the cost of care, and working to ensure the client’s right to quality care are all part of the elder law practice.
Elder Law is a focus on life care planning to insure that the total health care and estate planning needs of an individual is addressed from a multi-disciplinary perspective that includes the following range of services: • Asset protection planning • Medicare and Medicaid planning • Interplay of long-term care and financial planning • Use of long-term care insurance • Health care decision making and health care proxies • Estate planning • Wills and real estate strategies to protect the family home • Housing options and alternatives to nursing homes
When I completed law school in 1993, elder law, as a defined legal practice, did not exist. Today, the Pennsylvania Bar Association has more than 800 members in its Elder Law Section. What has changed over the last 15 years?Thanks to medical advances and increased focus on our health-care needs, we are living longer. Options in living arrangements continue to expand: independent living, assisted living or personal care homes, continuing care retirement communities or nursing facilities. Long term care insurance is widely available to help us plan for future needs. The Pennsylvania Department of Aging Waiver program allows seniors in need of daily help to remain in their homes and receive community-based services such as a nurse, nurse’s aide, physical therapist, etc. Living longer requires adjustments when living independently becomes a challenge.Medical insurance can be complicated since coordination of benefits is often necessary. Seniors have Medicare and supplemental health insuran
Elder Law is a relatively new specialized field of law that deals with the issues faced by the fastest growing segment of the U.S. population, the elderly. This area of law combines elements of Estate Planning, Wills and Trusts, Conservatorship (also called Guardianship), Health Care Planning, Medicare/Medicaid Planning, and Elder Rights. Seniors are more active and live longer than ever before, but they have a new set of legal concerns that have rarely been addressed by earlier generations. Older people have always needed Wills and Estate Planning to pass their assets to their beneficiaries. Now that they are living longer, there are more issues about their future care that have to be included in Estate Planning, such as plans for housing, future medical care, and what to do if the person should become incapacitated. One of the most important questions that is being raised is how to provide long-term housing, with possibly increasing levels of care, as the seniors age. This, in turn,
