Additional Resources Mentioned
Takeaways
Tip 1: How to Find an Attorney Who Specializes in Elder Law
Finding the right elder law attorney requires more than just a quick Google search. Here's how to identify professionals with genuine expertise in this specialized field:
Look for Specialized Credentials
Professional credentials can be helpful indicators of specialized knowledge in elder law:
Board Certification: In states like Florida, attorneys can become board-certified in elder law after practicing for a certain period, passing examinations, and receiving peer reviews.
Master of Laws (LLM) in Elder Law: This represents additional year of specialized education beyond a law degree.
National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) Membership: In states without certification processes, membership in NAELA can indicate a focus on elder law.
Ask the Right Questions
While credentials are important, practical experience is equally crucial. When consulting with potential attorneys, ask specific questions about their practice:
How many Medicaid applications did they file last year?
What percentage of their practice focuses on elder law?
Do they handle guardianships, Medicaid planning, or VA benefits cases regularly?
Use Reliable Resources to Find Specialists
Several organizations maintain directories of elder law attorneys:
NAELA.org: The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys website has a searchable directory. "They have a really good search function where you can type in your zip code and find elder law attorneys within a certain radius," Courtney notes.
State-specific organizations: For example, Florida has the Academy of Florida Elder Law Attorneys (AFELA.org).
Personal referrals: Ask for recommendations from support groups related to your specific diagnosis, your current attorney, financial planner, church community, or friends who have worked with elder law attorneys.
Tip 2: Prioritize These Legal Documents and Planning Tools
Once you've found an elder law attorney, certain planning tools should take priority:
Common DIY mistakes include:
Adding children to bank accounts or property titles
Giving away assets based on outdated or incorrect advice
Trying to "hide" assets from Medicaid
Tip 3: Understand Medicaid and VA Benefits Options
A significant part of elder law involves helping clients navigate government benefits for long-term care:
Medicaid Myths and Realities
Many people misunderstand how Medicaid works for long-term care. Common myths include:
Myth: You can only get Medicaid in a nursing home. Reality: In Florida and some other states, you can receive Medicaid benefits at home, in assisted living, or in a nursing home.
Myth: You have to spend down all your money to qualify for Medicaid. Reality: In many states, especially Florida, there are planning options that don't require spending down all assets.
Myth: Medicaid recipients must go to inferior "state" nursing homes. Reality: Most nursing homes, including many upscale facilities, accept Medicaid.
Myth: Medicaid is the same everywhere. Reality: While Medicaid has federal minimum requirements, states have different rules, benefits, and planning options. As Beth explains, "I know what Medicaid provides in Florida regardless of whether you live in Tallahassee or Fort Myers. And the same with an elder law attorney in another state—they're going to know what type of Medicaid benefits you can get."
VA Benefits for Long-Term Care
Veterans and their surviving spouses may qualify for additional benefits:
Aid and Attendance: This VA benefit helps veterans and surviving spouses with long-term care needs. "A lot of our veterans think they had to have been injured in service to get benefits. That's not what we're talking about," Beth clarifies. "We're talking about VA Aid and Attendance, which is helping families, veterans, and surviving spouses of veterans with long-term care needs."
VA Medical Benefits: Some areas offer in-home care services through the VA medical system. "We have self-directed VA benefits where the VA will assist with paying for care in your home, different than Aid and Attendance. But you have to have been enrolled in the medical side of VA," Beth notes.
Tip 4: Use This Time to Address Other Important Legal Matters
Working with an elder law attorney provides an opportunity to review and update other important legal and financial arrangements:
Review Beneficiary Designations
Create an Asset Inventory
Consider Account Consolidation
Address Healthcare Decision Documents
Be Cautious About Adding Others to Accounts or Deeds
Discuss End-of-Life Preferences
Read More in This Blog here
Full Episode Transcript
Sue Ryan
We don’t know what we don’t know. They do. And it’s really important. In this episode, we’re talking with Beth Prather and Courtney Lovejoy, elder law attorneys with the firm Green, Schoenfeld and Kyle about the importance and positive impacts of working with elder law attorneys. We’re sharing four tips. Let’s get started.
Whatever country you’re listening from, today we’re talking with legal professionals who help the elderly and their families navigate legal issues. In the United States, these are called elder law attorneys. Beth and Courtney, welcome. Please introduce yourself to us and talk about when you think it’s the best time for somebody to initially reach out to elder law attorneys.
Beth And Courtney
Courtney Lovejoy, I’m an elder law attorney at Green, Schoenfeld and Kyle as Sue mentioned. Beth and I practice in Medicaid planning, VA planning, estate planning, probate and trust administration and guardianship. And we’re both Lee County, Florida natives. I went to University of Florida for my law degree and I have my LLM or masters of law and elder law.
Beth And Courtney
My name is Beth Prather. I am a board certified elder law attorney. I’ve been practicing 32 years here in Lee County. As Courtney said, this is the only place I’ve ever lived other than my college years. I did my undergraduate at Emory University. I have an MBA from Nova University and I have my Juris Doctorate from the University of Maine School of Law.
So when’s the best time for someone to initially reach out to an elder law attorney? I think the quick answer is if you have a diagnosis, you should have seen an elder law attorney yesterday.
Beth has a good explanation of the difference between an estate planning attorney and an elder law attorney. And sometimes it’s the same person, but do you want to share your explanation? A lot of people don’t understand what an elder law attorney is. They think it’s, I’m not old enough for an elder law attorney, but aging related issues can happen to a 20 year old who has a motorcycle accident. You can get early onset Alzheimer’s.
in your 40s and 50s. You can have a major stroke at 35. So the difference between an elder law attorney and I’m going to use a little bit of a different description. Most people understand what an estate planning attorney does when you’re healthy. You do wills, you do trusts, durable powers of attorneys. Elder law attorneys do that too, again, when you’re healthy.
Most people understand what a probate attorney is or an estate attorney. After death, estate attorneys help you administer a trust or administer a probate estate. Elder law attorneys do that as well. But our primary focus is in between being healthy and being deceased, where someone in the family unit is sick. That’s where we concentrate and specialize.
So it could be Medicaid benefits, it can be VA benefits, it can be guardianship for people who failed to plan. And so that’s kind of the difference that sets us apart and what a specialty that’s provided in the United States as well as Florida to be certified in this practice area.
Sue Ryan (04:48.44)
That is very helpful. Yeah, that’s a great explanation. That’s actually clarified a few things that I hadn’t even considered. So thank you very much. Let’s move on to tip one.
Beth And Courtney (05:00.424)
So our first tip is how to find an attorney who focuses in elder law. So as we mentioned, Beth is board certified in elder law. I have my masters of law in elder law. Speaking to the masters of law, that’s generally an hour or a year of extra schooling after your law degree where you specialize in something, whether that’s tax, wills, trusts, and estates, elder law. Those are the.
common ones in our field, but there’s a whole bunch of different masters in law. Beth is going to speak to the board certification process. Board certification, a lot of people understand you have doctors that are board certified attorneys in our practice have board certifications in certain areas. You have to practice, been in practice.
doing elder law, not just an attorney, but doing elder law for a certain period of time. You have to take exams, you have peer reviews to be board certified. Here in Florida, there’s approximately 114 people that are board certified in elder law. So there is a stringent qualification to become board certified.
but basically it’s setting you apart where you are specializing in elder law. If we’re going to talk about seeking an elder law attorney, it isn’t necessarily that they have to be board certified or necessarily that they have to have a master’s in elder law. That shows their specialty because it’s a requirement to be able to have those designations.
The primary concern is you need to ask them how many Medicaid applications did they file last year? Because even if you’re board certified or have an LLM in elder law, if you filed one Medicaid application last year, the practical experience is not there. or guardianship cases. If you there are some board certified elder law attorneys that don’t do Medicaid or that don’t do guardianships. So you need to ask those questions. It’s not just the designation, although that is a good starting point, but you still need to ask those questions. Because anyone can call themselves an elder law attorney.
And yet they may not be certified to do it, or even if they are, they may not focus in your specific area. So you want to make sure you’re asking the kinds of questions to get the information you want for what your needs are.
Beth And Courtney
And I will say not all states have a certification process for elder law. Florida does. But we do in the United States, and I’m calling it nationally, in the United States there is an ability because there’s, as I said, there’s many states that don’t offer that to get certified nationally.
But you can get certified by NAELA. And I think Courtney, you speak a little bit about that, but there are other options for people that are not in Florida or in a state that doesn’t have certifications for elder law. two really good resources that we recommend a lot are two websites. One is called naela.org, N-A-E-L-A dot org. That is in the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. They have a really good search function on there where you can type in your zip code and 15 miles away from me, et cetera. And that’s a good way to find people who classify themselves as elder law attorneys that are members of NAILA. So I’d probably start there to find a couple people, see if they’re board certified, if they have their masters of law and elder law, and then maybe when you have a consultation with them
inquire about how many Medicaid applications that we file, the things that Beth touched on. The Florida specific branch of NAILA is afela.org, a-f-e-l-a.org, and they have a good list of Florida elder law attorneys. the AFELA stands for Academy of Florida Elder Law Attorneys. As Courtney said, it’s just a state chapter of the national organization.
Sue Ryan
And we’ll put these in the show notes so people will be able to find out what those websites are. And I’m going to compliment what you shared with my own personal experience, because when it became the right time for my husband and me to look for an elder law attorney, we went out to the support group for our diagnosis. We went out to our attorney and our financial planner. We talked to people at our church.
We talked to other friends in the community and we asked other people who they had used and got names from them, which is very helpful. What I will say, however, and since you’re here, Beth, and I’ve shared this with you before, we got names from people and yet to the person, everyone who gave your name said one variation of this, Beth Prather, and she’s the best. And what I have learned is yes, you are the best and
In the past few years, Courtney, as you and I have been working together as well, you’re both the best. And we’re very, very fortunate that you’re sharing your time and your wisdom with us. And this leads us to, go ahead.
Beth And Courtney
Part of that is how many years I’ve been doing it. I’ve been doing it a long time, but I will say I joined Green, Schoenfeld and Kyle about three and a half years ago, primarily for Courtney. She is very, very good as an elder law attorney. We’re a good team. Yes, a very good team.
Sue Ryan
You are an excellent team and you were transformational in my life. I cannot speak enough about the positive impact that you and what you both have done. You are an excellent team.
Beth And Courtney
And I want to just share that since you brought it up is that you had an elder law attorney. I mean, I’m sorry, you had an estate planning attorney. There was no illness at the time. And so even with the support of your estate planning attorney, we worked together after the diagnosis to accomplish your estate plan with your estate planning attorney, as well as the illness and planning for that.
Sue Ryan
That was something that was very helpful for us because one of the things that I had, you hear about it, but until you actually experience it, you don’t know. You didn’t know our estate planning attorney and our estate planning attorney didn’t know you. And yet both of you worked together, got to know each other and shared information so you could both support each other in what it was. And that kind of teamwork was incredibly valuable because I didn’t know the questions that I didn’t know. And I didn’t know what kind of information they would need. for you.
You each reached out to each other and said, let’s have a conversation. And it was hugely valuable for us. So that’s one of the things I think, know, part of what we were saying in the beginning is, some of the important information and the value that you bring. This is one of the things that teamwork of the elder law attorney working with other members of a team that you’ve already got in place adds, you’re not replacing your complimenting and adding to. And yet you went down a path that we didn’t know anything about.
So it was hugely valuable. That leads us to our second tip.
Beth And Courtney
Tip two, prioritize these things first. So Beth and I agree, the single most important thing you can do to plan for Medicaid or to plan for an illness is to have a good, durable power of attorney. When I say a good, durable power of attorney, I mean a durable power of attorney that has Medicaid planning language in it and VA planning language in it. You can have a power of attorney that works great at the bank or to sell real estate.
but if it doesn’t have that good Medicaid and VA planning language in it, we’re in big trouble when now there’s been a diagnosis and now the person is no longer competent. It makes it extra tricky to get them qualified for an extra expense. Yes. So I’m going to share, expound on that because Florida has very strict rules with regard to durable powers of attorneys.
and crisis Medicaid and VA benefits planning. I’ve been doing this a long time and I have not yet seen a durable power attorney from another state that has higher requirements than Florida does. people here in Florida, you have to have specific language that authorizes crisis Medicaid planning tools and those paragraphs have to be initial.
Beth And Courtney
It’s four and a half pages of our durable power attorney is just the Medicaid and VA benefits language that we need. So other states don’t have that requirement. you, depending on where you are, the other thing is Medicaid, a lot of people think that Medicaid is a federal program. Well, it’s part federal and that’s the floor or the minimum.
but then it’s also state specific. So what we do here in Florida may not work in Georgia or New York. So it’s, you know, I think it’s, we talk about, that’s what the elder law attorney is gonna look at. You may have had a durable power attorney from 10 years ago, but it may not have the language needed for illness or planning for care.
Beth And Courtney
So that’s where the elder law attorney can help out.
I’m gonna talk about something a little bit different. I am a huge proponent of long-term care insurance. If you can afford it and you’re well enough to get it. We don’t sell long-term care insurance, we’re not licensed, we’re just big proponents of it because it gives you some flexibility. I think some people think that Medicare, not Medicaid, but Medicare is gonna pay for care in your home.
That’s a short-term rehab solution. Other people think Medicaid will pay for 24-hour care in your home. They do not. It’s going to provide some help. Our goal is to keep people out of nursing homes if at all possible where Medicaid pays the big bucks. So long-term care insurance can help. I’ve had clients on both long-term care insurance and Medicaid at the same time.
to help keep their loved ones out of a nursing home. So I got my long-term care insurance when I was 40 years old and it’s probably because of what I do. But my father had a major stroke young. And so if you wait too long, then you may not be eligible for it because you have a diagnosis.
Beth And Courtney
if you want me to pick it up with another priority. So I’d say another thing to prioritize if you have a diagnosis or if you see Medicaid on the horizon, and Beth and I like to say, no one has that crystal ball to know when you’re gonna die or when you’re gonna get sick or if you’re ever gonna get sick. But if you have a diagnosis and you see that Medicaid may be on the horizon, limit your gifting or if you can, make no gifts at all.
Beth And Courtney
So a lot of us have heard about the five year look back period with Medicaid. What that refers to is when you apply for Medicaid, Medicaid looks back five years to see if you’ve given your money away to get qualified for Medicaid. So that’s buying your son a house. That’s a big gift. That’s obvious, right? But also $100 to your grandson or $1,000 for a graduation present.
If any of that gifting has been done within the last five years, we can fix it a lot of the time, but it’s going to have to be reported to Medicaid and your elder law attorney is going to have to fix it. So if that gifting is limited or if there hasn’t been any gifting, it’s a heck of a lot easier to get Medicaid.
Sue Ryan
It sounds like that’s something really valuable to get some education on to understand what it is if you’re thinking about having long-term care insurance or if you’re going to be looking at qualifying for Medicaid at some point in time.
Beth And Courtney
I’m going to piggyback on that and say that trying to do it yourself, the social worker at the hospital or your next door neighbor said you can’t have any money and so you give it all to your kid. It’s much harder for us to fix things than it is to come see us and plan correctly. so here in Florida
We have a hodgepodge of people from all over the United States. And so they equate what happened in Missouri or what happened in California or Ohio. And they think that we have to do that before we go see the elder law attorney. You need to see the elder law attorney before doing any planning on your own and let them help you to plan for that? And touching on that too, we hear this a lot. Well, I need to protect my assets. I need to hide them from Medicaid. But that’s not true. We show Medicaid everything we do. There’s no hiding. There’s no lying. We just make your assets and your income work within Medicaid’s rules.
I’m just one one word we hear a lot is you’ve got to spin down to get Medicaid. I will say Florida is very very liberal when it comes to Medicaid rules. Probably one of the most liberal states in the United States. We don’t have to spin down. We have lots of crisis Medicaid planning options. Some states are horrible.
and it’s very difficult and it’s just been my practice. can’t say this is true, but just in my practice in years, Ohio and Connecticut are very difficult. So by seeing an elder law attorney, some of these states, you have to do a five year pre-Medicaid plan. And that’s why it’s important that you see the elder law attorney at the beginning of a diagnosis rather than when you get at what’s in that you need help with care.
Sue Ryan
And we found that to be true. We were very fortunate that we began our journey with you so early on. And one of the things that was really valuable in our work with you is that even before our first meeting, you gave us homework. We had a lot of things that you asked us to bring and do and be prepared to discuss when we came. And then throughout our session with you,
You kept giving us homework. You kept adding things to the list of things for us to be doing and having. But one of the things, and we’re talking again about positive impacts of elder law attorneys. One of the things that was so transformational for the rest of our journey that was something you said, and it made so many other inflection points in our journey along the way much easier, is you said, we’re already getting to the really deep details of your finances and of looking at where you’ve got insurance or not insurance or things like that. Now is the time to look at everything. Any other legal agreements you’ve got, any other, how are your cars, how’s your home, who’s got signatures on things. Look at everything now and make the choices. We went ahead and did the DNR. So we put all of our affairs in place as we were working on the homework with you so that
Every single inflection point from that point in time that came along with the diagnosis, we didn’t have to go through anything because it had already been done. And in so many conversations I hear from people, they’re at the end of like, my gosh, my husband can’t sign now and the house is in his name, things like that. So in the work with the relationship with the elder law attorney, what impresses me is that your vision is of more than just the specificity of what you do.
It’s how does all of the surrounding things make your journey easier?
Beth And Courtney
So now we’re going to introduce our tip three, which is an explanation a little bit about Medicaid and VA benefits and what type of help we can get from those agencies. We’ve been talking about Medicaid, but our primary discussion in this is long-term care needs. so Medicaid and VA are a financial resource to help pay for that care journey. So Courtney, you want to talk about Medicaid? Sure. So I think maybe it’d be helpful to share some of our Medicaid myths to explain this concept. So in Florida specifically, and in some other states, you can get Medicaid at home or assisted living or a nursing home. So one myth that we hear a lot of the time is I can only get Medicaid if I’m in a nursing home.
Well, in Florida and some other states, that’s not true. You can’t get Medicaid at home or assisted living as well. Beth touched on one of our other myths, which is you got to spend down all your money to get Medicaid. That’s not true in a lot of states, Florida specifically. And then another myth that we hear a lot is if I’m on Medicaid in a nursing home, I have to go to a state Medicaid nursing home. That’s not true. In this area, there’s a ton of nursing homes and all but two except Medicaid and the three fanciest nursing homes in this county that I can think of all except Medicaid. So don’t just wait to call an elder law attorney if your loved one is having to go to a nursing home. It’s possible that we could get Medicaid to help pay for care at home or assisted living as well. Do you want to add anything to that? Yeah, I’ll just add that I have seen through national conferences where some states you may only get care at home and a nursing home through Medicaid. Some states are similar to us where you can get it in all three levels, meaning at home, assisted living, or nursing home. I will say that I’ve seen some states where you can get a lot more care at home than you can in Florida. So every state has different rules and different benefits that Medicaid provides.
Beth And Courtney
So, you know, an elder law attorney is gonna know that based on the state. And so I know what Medicaid provides in Florida regardless of whether you live in Tallahassee or you live in Fort Myers. And the same with an elder law attorney in another state, they’re gonna know what type of Medicaid benefits you can get.
Sue Ryan
One of the things that you said that I think is so valuable for all of our listeners is the fact that it’s important to do the research where you’re at and not just do Dr. Google and get an answer and think that’s what the answer is. It sounds like there is a lot of information that is unique and specific to your needs and to where you live.
Beth And Courtney
Yes ma’am, that’s absolutely correct. The other area we wanted to talk about in this tip is VA benefits. And so a lot of our veterans, first off, are very thankful for their service, but there is VA benefits called aid and attendance. A lot of our veterans think they had to have been injured in service to be able to get benefits. That’s not what we’re talking about.
We’re talking about VA aid and attendance, which is helping families, veterans, and surviving spouses of veterans with long-term care needs. Yes, there are some requirements about service, but they don’t have to have been injured in their line of duty. And so you want to ask an attorney if they assist with
VA benefits. It doesn’t mean an elder law attorney has to do an application. So here locally, our veteran service office does applications for our aid and attendance for free. So we would not be doing an application for a client because they can get it done for free with our local veteran service office, but that’s a resource that we help them with. But the elder law attorney can help you with the planning to get eligible just like with Medicaid. So it’s, I will say that there’s one other area that might be location specific, state specific, but not just state specific, but a town or city within a state. Some of our clients here, if they’re enrolled in the VA medical side, so VA has two branches, a medical side and a financial side. When I talked about VA aid and attendance, it’s the financial side. But we in our area have some benefits that are available for veterans that are enrolled in the medical. And so if you don’t, if you’re not already enrolled in medical here locally, it’s difficult to get enrolled in the VA medical side because unless you fit a certain high category, Bronze Star, know, prisoner of war, something like that, then they start looking at assets and income. So we are always encouraging our clients who served in the military to at least try as they age, try to get enrolled in the medical side because we in our area have some benefits that are available, meaning in-home care.
We have self-directed VA benefits where the VA will assist with paying for care in your home. And this is different than aid and attendance. But you have to have been enrolled in the medical side of VA. So that’s what I mean about an elder law attorney can assist you with those types of resources, have knowledge of it. It might not be in your particular area.
We don’t have it in every place in Florida, but that’s something that the elder law attorney in your state can assist with as far as resources. So this leads us to tip four, which is that use this time when there’s been a diagnosis or when you’re talking with an elder law attorney for the first time, use this time to get on top of other important areas. for example, when Beth and I are having a consult with a family to talk about Medicaid and options with care for the future. We’re also looking at are there beneficiaries named on your accounts? Are we avoiding probate when you pass away? And one thing I wanted to comment on that a lot of people don’t know is a lot of people think I have a will, so there’s not going to be a probate when I pass. Well, that’s not true. A will actually only speaks to probate assets. So if I want the food bank to get all of my money when I pass away. But if I have my niece as beneficiary on all of my accounts, well guess who’s getting all my money when I pass away? The niece, not the food bank. So make sure that you have beneficiaries that you want to receive your assets when you’re gone. Talk with your elder law attorney or a state planning attorney, whether you do need a will or perhaps a trust. This is also a good time to make a list of what you own. Oftentimes your elder law attorney is going to need that to properly advise you. The institution where you have your money, where is your checking and savings account, what’s the ownership of that account? Is it a joint account? Do you have beneficiaries named on that account? And then the approximate value. So your attorney is going to want that, but that’s also helpful for your loved ones if you get sick or when you pass away.
That’s very helpful. So I would use this time to make lists like that, make sure you have beneficiaries. Sometimes this is a good opportunity to consolidate accounts. There’s often no need to have eight different checking accounts or savings accounts. So this is sometimes a good opportunity to consolidate, to make things easier for potential eventual Medicaid, or just to make things easier for your loved ones when you get sick or when you die.
One thing that we haven’t mentioned, I think that’s very important and then I have an extra tip, is we haven’t talked about medical decisions. In Florida, we call it a healthcare surrogate. In a lot of states, it’s called durable power of attorney for healthcare. There’s also living wills and the healthcare surrogate is medical decisions during life if you’re unable to make them and a living will is an end of life decision. Am I going to be hooked up to machines if I am brain dead? It’s called a persistent vegetative state or not. And many of your listeners will probably remember Terry Shivo, the Terry Shivo case, which happened to be here in Florida. She was 37 years old once again. She was not old. So it wasn’t that she necessarily needed an elder law attorney, but an event happened to her.
And so here she was in St. Pete here in Florida and she did not have a living will. And we had decent people disagreeing about what her wish was, meaning her parents and her husband. And it was litigated for 13 years in the courts about whether she should continue to be kept alive on machines or not. So it’s important to discuss that as part of your estate planning and we do that with all of our clients. It depends on your family situation and your state laws. But that’s very important too as part of this overall review of your circumstances. The other thing that I see and I would discourage it is people planning themselves without the use of an attorney and don’t start adding kids to your accounts. Courtney had a very good reason and I’ve seen this too, is you have a kid that lives here where you live. I’m gonna add her name to the account but yet her will says it goes to three kids and that’s in her mind what she thinks gonna happen but she named her kid as a joint owner on all of her assets.
Beth And Courtney
Well, here in Florida, when she passes away, it’s going to the joint owner, her kid that lives here, not her other two kids, meaning the three kids equally. So that’s part of the self help that is not wise. The other thing is I see people adding kids’ names to houses, not just bank accounts. Bad things happen to good people. Look at 2008. I know it was horrendous and homes were upside down. People lost jobs. So you want to be very careful. What about if you add your kid’s name to an account or to your house, what if something bad happens to them? For example, they’re driving down the road, they have an aneurysm and they hit and kill people. Are you going to lose your assets because your child’s name is on it? So you need to be very careful and that’s why this talking about not doing self-help is you need to have the advice of an attorney to assist with that.
Beth And Courtney
So this is also a good time to talk with your loved ones about what you want to happen when you’ve passed away. Do you want to be buried or cremated? Do you want to have a funeral service? What are your expectations with that? And then Beth touched on this earlier, but what do you want in regards to care at end of life? Do you want that hydration or nutrition or do you just want pain management? So these are all things to talk to your loved ones about and put in writing with your estate planning or elder law attorney so that there’s no question about it when you’re sick or dying or when you’re gone.
Beth And Courtney
Let’s summarize our four tips. Number one was how to find an attorney that focuses in elder law. We talked about board certification and LLMs, but also asking about how many Medicaid applications or guardianships they’ve filed. And then we shared some resources, online resources, to find an elder law attorney. We talked about things to prioritize, like durable powers of attorney or long-term care insurance if you can afford it. That was tip two.
Tip three, we talked about Medicaid and VA benefits, things to think about when those things may be on the horizon. And tip four, using this time to prioritize other important areas and get on top of other important areas.
Beth And Courtney
Now that we’ve summarized, we want to thank you Sue for having us on the podcast and to let listeners know how we can be reached. The firm is Green, Schoenfeld and Kyle. We can be reached. The phone number is 239-208-3050. We’re in Fort Myers, Florida, but we serve the five county area, not just Lee County.
And we do appreciate you taking the time to speak with us.
Sue Ryan
Beth and Courtney, your messages are incredibly helpful and very, very valuable. And thank you again so much. For our listeners, if you have tips, in addition to the tips we’ve already shared, we’d love to hear them. Please go out to our Facebook and our Instagram pages. The links are also in the show notes and put your tips out there for other people to see. If you like this podcast, please subscribe or follow on whatever platform you listen to the podcast on. Please rate and review the podcast as well as sharing it with others. Any products that we, the links Beth and Courtney have shared and their contact information will all be in the show notes.
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