Providing Legal Solutions For Elders With Respect And Care
When you or your elderly loved one needs additional assistance to make day-to-day decisions, you want to have a plan in place. Who will provide that assistance? What kind of assistance is needed? What documents will you need to make sure your wishes are respected?
More than many other areas of law, elder law issues cross a broad spectrum of different legal practice areas. Handling these issues requires the skill and knowledge usually found in large firms, but it also requires a personal touch. An effective elder law attorney needs to have broad legal knowledge and a commitment to understanding each client’s unique needs and goals. Bingham Legal Group PC is a full-service law firm providing elder law counsel and service to clients throughout Metro Detroit and Oakland County from our office in Bingham Farms.
Everything You Need to Know About Elder Law
As you age, it becomes increasingly important to have a plan in place for your future. This plan should include your estate planning, long-term care, and health care wishes. An elder law attorney can help you create this plan and protect your rights and interests.
What is Elder Law?
Elder law is a specialized area of law that focuses on the legal issues that affect older adults and people with disabilities. These issues can include:
- Estate planning and asset protection
- Long-term care planning
- Guardianship and conservatorship
- Medicaid and Medicare planning
- Social Security benefits
- Veterans benefits
- Elder abuse and neglect
- Consumer protection
- Housing and transportation
- Health care decision-making
Why Do You Need an Elder Law Attorney?
An elder law attorney can help you with a wide range of legal matters, including:
- Creating or updating a will or trust
- Designating a power of attorney and health care proxy
- Applying for Medicaid or Medicare
- Filing for Social Security benefits
- Representing you in a guardianship or conservatorship proceeding
- Investigating and addressing elder abuse or neglect
- Protecting your assets from creditors or predators
If you are an older adult or someone who cares for an older adult, it is important to speak with an elder law attorney to discuss your legal needs. An elder law attorney can help you create a plan to protect your assets, ensure your health care wishes are carried out, and make sure you receive the benefits you are entitled to.
How to Find an Elder Law Attorney
There are a few things you can do to find an elder law attorney. While referrals from family, friends, or people close to can be extremely important, you can also check the National Elder Law Foundation for a list of state-certified elder law lawyers, as well as contacting the Michigan Bar for a recommendation.
When you are interviewing any legal professional in elder law, including our own elder law attorneys, be sure to ask about their experience, fees, and availability. You should also feel comfortable with the attorney and their staff.
Planning for Long-Term Care Costs
Long-term care is care that is needed for an extended period of time due to a chronic illness, disability, or frailty. It can include care in a nursing home, assisted living facility, or at home.
The cost of long-term care can be very expensive, and many people do not have enough money to pay for it out of pocket. Medicaid is a government program that can help pay for long-term care, but there are income and asset limits.
If you are planning for long-term care, it is important to understand your options and to make sure that you have enough money to pay for it.
Elder Law Professionals Can Help You Plan Your Future.
At Bingham Legal Group PC, we choose to maintain our smaller firm setting so that we can have more personal contact with our elder law clients and give them the personally tailored representation their cases deserve. We use our more than 20 years of experience in a wide range of practice areas to provide valuable counsel and guidance that meet each client’s needs.
We help clients with a wide range of elder law services:
- Estate planning: We help clients with all the essential estate planning documents like wills, trusts, powers of attorney and patient advocate designations.
- Guardianship and conservatorship: We can help guide you through complicated matters of choosing a guardian or conservator when a loved one can no longer care for themselves.
- Long-term care planning: Does your loved one need continual care? Let us help you plan for nursing home or in-home care.
- Business succession planning: The later years are a time to pass on business leadership and ownership interests to the next generation, but passing on business interests is much more complicated than passing on other forms of wealth. We can guide you through the considerations of business succession planning.
Because of our breadth of legal experience, we can spot various pitfalls that could be easily missed by lawyers who only handle one area of law. This provides great peace of mind for our clients, because they know they are working with a firm that can faithfully guide them through their legal issues.
Discuss Your Concerns With Us
For an appointment and consultation, please contact our experienced attorneys at 248-289-7896 or complete our online form. Our law firm proudly participates in the AARP Legal Services Program, enabling current members of AARP to receive a discount on customary rates.