Elder Law and Special Needs

Planning is time-sensitive

Optimally, the process of protecting assets begins many years before a nursing home or community-based long-term care becomes necessary. Capell Barnett Matalon & Schoenfeld attorneys work with you to preemptively plan and protect assets by:

• Designing a plan for the payment of uninsured medical or long-term care
• Ensuring sufficient resources remain available to pay for necessary care until an ill or elderly family member becomes Medicaid eligible
• Protecting a spouse, making sure sufficient income and assets available for his or her support should the other require long-term care
• Protecting hard-earned family assets, ensuring a legacy to loved ones; and
• Establishing Supplemental Needs Trusts to maintain a disabled family members’ quality of life without depriving him or her of the government assistance they rely on

Medicaid planning

Our commitment to our clients does not end with effective long-term care planning. Capell Barnett Matalon & Schoenfeld’s planning team guides the family through the complex, document-intensive Medicaid application process from start to finish. The system is intended to be complicated and full of pitfalls. We are there to help. Our Medicaid team can assist with:

• Community (home care) Medicaid applications
• Nursing home Medicaid applications
• Home care services provided either by a licensed care agency or a private caregiver, family friend or relative
• Helping clients maximize home care aide hours
• Pooled income trusts to protect excess income
• Annual Medicaid recertifications
• Fair Hearings

Special Needs Planning

Caring for a loved one with a disability presents unique challenges.  To secure the future of your disabled loved one, careful planning is required.  We create plans that:

• Provide the most effective strategies to ensure ongoing eligibility for government benefits
• Enable the disabled loved one to maintain the lifestyle he or she is accustomed to
• Secure the appointment of a Guardian to manage care and protect resources
• Preserve financial security for life’s extras
• Effective estate planning and trust design for disabled individuals and their families, making sure that available funds are protected, available and properly supervised for the lifetime of the disabled individual.

Each family is different.  We carefully tailor our special needs plan for each family’s needs, wants and goals, making sure that a disabled loved one is protected now and into the future.

Guardianship

Situations arise where it is necessary to petition the Court to appoint a guardian to manage the personal and financial needs of a minor, developmentally disabled adult or an individual with Alzheimer’s Disease or other forms of dementia.  The process can seem daunting,  and once you are appointed guardian, your fiduciary responsibilities are ongoing.  Regardless of the type of guardianship necessary, we are there to navigate the family through this very challenging and complex process.

• Article 81 Guardianship proceedings for incapacitated individuals to manage their personal and property needs
• Article 17-A Guardianship proceedings for developmentally disabled adults
• Contested guardianship proceedings
• Annual and Final accounting proceedings
• Creative advocacy for disabled individuals and their families