What I need help with is this: I have not taken care of all the financial & legal matters that need to be addressed. A friend of mine asked her insurance agent to recommend an attorney for me. Well she recommended an estate attorney over an hour away. I hear all of you recommend an elder attorney. I know that there are some elder attorneys closer than an hour away. My question is, what is the difference between an estate attorney & an elder attorney & which, in your opinion, should I go to? I suppose if I would look at previous threads I would find the answer, but I guess I'm just too lazy. Thanks for any help with this.
Elder attorney will be able to help you if you need help in getting qualified for medicaid or VA care. They also know how to place your property real and other to be in a special trust for his care in case someting happens to you. I believe there more bases to cover when the person has a problem with dementia.
If you have a local lawyer your husband knows and trusts, start by having that lawyer do a basic durable power of attorney both for financial matters and for health care (in some states those are usually done separately, in some states together). Do a durable power of attorney for you as well, so someone other than your husband can make decisions if something happens to you. Those are the highest priority, and they don't necessarily require a specialist. At the same time, have the attorney draw up a very simple will for your husband, so he can sign that while he still can (if he can't then you will need to pursue guardianship).
If you have some assets but not enough to pay for years in a nursing home (and therefore might need Medicaid or VA benefits), then you need an elder care attorney to advise you on what to do with your assets. If you think it is about 5 years before you will need help, this is particularly urgent because there is a lot more you can do if you are outside the 5 year lookback. You really need the specialist attorney to do a new will for you, that will set up a trust for your husband if something should happen to you. You may need a new will for him too, but you may find that the attorney advises you to move assets now, so nothing complicated needs to be set up in his will. If you have a way to leave your husband home, you can certainly start by meeting with the specialist lawyer without him.
Elder Care Attorney without a doubt... They have the expertise in the areas of medicaid, and VA that a regular estate lawyer may not. Also they can advocate for you and help get through the wickets of preserving your estate etc... Estate lawyers are fine if both have good health or no big health issues but with ALZ or any other serious life threatening diseases Elder Care is the way to go.. Make sure they are certified.
Elaine, You need an elder law attorney, they can do anything and more that an estate attorney can do. If you are looking at trying to save your assets for yourself and make sure your husband is also cared for then the Elder Law Attorney needs to be well versed in Medicaid laws of your State. Depending on what State you live in, most always the spouse left at home can save everything. There is no 5 year look back for transfers spouse to spouse. In fact there is no look back penalty at all in a case where a spouse transfers to the spouse.
You need to act soon as most folks in the know feel that after November all the Medicaid laws will be changing and thus may not be any chance to protect from Medicaid. Usually as in the past, transfers that have been made before the law changes have always been grandfathered, lets hope it works this way this time.
Just think about attorneys the way you do doctors. Each has his own area of expertise, and it's very very rare to find one who is an expert in every speciality. Elder Care Attorneys are essential, in my opinion, anytime one is dealing with Alzheimer spouses. Listen to all of us who have been there. An hour may seen like a long drive, but it's worth every extra minute you spend getting to him in the long run.
You do need a good Elder Care Attorney and there are usually not many in each city. We had 2. After Paul had obvious dementia we went to him about making some small changes in each of our wills. The new wills were prepared in a more condensed form but with the same intention as the originals except for change of Executor. When we went in for the Will Signing, the Lawyer had his witnesses come in while he asked us if we "understood and agreed" about the new Will. First he asked Paul and Paul said no. The lawyer questioned him some more and he still said no even after I did a brief explanation about the trust. He still said no - the lawyer folded up the folder and said "we can't do this" he doesn't understand. I went ahead and signed my will but Paul's remained as was. Thankfully there was no big change and or lawyer and I agreed all was fine.
My lawyer was an estate lawyer for years and just recently became certified in elder law. While there have been blocks of time when I seemed to need a lot of attention there have been other blocks of time when I needed little or none. Within the last few months I needed to consult a specialist in guardianship and did go to another attorney for that. I felt I needed a specialist's specialist.
For me it is hard to go but I felt good about getting it underway, even though I am not really done yet!
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Everyone! I was pretty sure I needed an elder attorney, but I just wanted to make sure & I knew I would get the correct info here. Also thanks to a everyone who told me to make sure he/she is certified. If the lawyer an hour away was a certified elder care lawyer I would definitely make the drive, but he is an estate lawyer. I will look in the phone book & call the eldercare lawyers & see if they are certified. I also think that the Alzheimers website has a list of certified eldercare lawyers (you have to enter your zipcode). Again, thanks everyone!
Elaine, why don't you check the website www.naela.org-they have all the elderlaw attorneys listed by state and identify those that are certified. Most are NOT certified.
FL, thanks for the link. I went there & it looks like I will be driving a distance for a certified lawyer. I live in a rural community & while we have LOTS of lawyers none seem to be certified & from what all of you have said it is a very important detail. I'm actually going to wait for the name of the estate lawyer from my friend, but if he/she isn't on the list then I will chose one that is & go from there. Again thanks to all who responded to my cry for help.....you are the GREATEST!
ElaineH If it makes you feel any better about the drive, I drove 3 hours to see the Elder Lawyer that I went to. I knew he was the best and I was right.