Elder Law

What is Elder Law?

A: The practice of Elder Law and Special Needs Law involves much more than tax and estate planning for senior citizens and persons with disabilities. Elder Law and Special Needs Law also focuses on helping senior citizens and those with disabilities access the maximum amount of government benefits and assisting them to secure independence through disability planning. The attorneys at the Elder Law Firm of Anderson Associates have successfully fought for Medicare coverage for home health care, veteran's pensions, HUD rent subsidies, and Medicaid for nursing home and home care. Elder Law and Special Needs Law also focuses on preventing financial exploitation, avoiding probate guardianship, preventing unnecessary pain, and providing life support with comprehensive powers of attorney. Finally, an Elder Law and Special Needs attorney advocates for disabled seniors and persons with disabilities to stay at home as long as possible when a disability occurs.

Should I hire a lawyer?

For issues like elder abuse, fraud recovery, and various forms of neglect, hiring a lawyer is highly recommended. However, there are a variety of reasons consulting with an attorney would save you and your loved ones a lot of money, grief, and legal hassles, including these reasons:

• Disability planning, including use of durable powers of attorney, living trusts, living wills, advanced directives, and other means of delegating management and decision-making to another in case of incompetency or incapacity Conservator-ship and Guardianship.
• Estate planning, including planning for the management of one's estate during life and its disposition on death through the use of trusts, wills, and other planning documents.
• Preservation/transfer of assets seeking to avoid spousal impoverishment when one spouse enters a nursing home.
• Medicaid planning.
• Medicare claims and appeals.
• Social security disability claims and appeals.
• Supplemental and long term health insurance issues.
• Probate issues.
• Administration and management of trusts and estate.
• Long-term care placements in nursing home and life care communities.
• Nursing home issues, including questions of patients' rights and nursing home quality.
• Housing issues, including discrimination and home equity conversions.
• Age discrimination and employment.
• Retirement, including public and private retirement benefits, survivor benefits, and pension benefits.
• Health law matters.
• Mental Health law matters.

For a free handout on Elder Law topics, or if you would like more information regarding special needs law, powers of attorney, disability law, and estate planning law, please feel free to email  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it  or call us at (906) 228-6212.