When to Call an Elder Law Attorney

Most families call an elder law attorney about eighteen months later than they should have.

An elder law attorney specializes in the legal side of aging: powers of attorney and advance directives, Medicaid planning and asset protection, guardianship, reviewing long-term care contracts, and protecting a healthy spouse from being impoverished by the other’s care costs. Call one when: a dementia diagnosis arrives — documents must be signed while capacity remains. When long-term care looks possible within five years — Medicaid’s look-back period rewards early planning enormously. Before signing an assisted living or continuing-care contract. When a parent never completed the basic documents. Or when family conflict over money and care is starting to smolder. Many offer flat-fee document packages; Medicaid planning costs more — and routinely protects many times the fee.

The pattern professionals see over and over: families pay far more for waiting than they ever would have paid for planning.

This has been Care Without Crisis Explains, presented by Vanguard Care Solutions.

For more free videos and family resources — or when you’re ready to talk about care at home — visit vanguardcaresolutions.com or call 301-327-1444.