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Elder Law

Pittsburgh Elder Law Attorneys

Western Pennsylvania has one of the country’s largest elderly populations.  People are living longer and looking for help navigating how to age with dignity without going broke. Our estates, trusts & taxation attorneys can help you sort through the difficult decisions that you or your parents are facing as they age.

Long Term Care Planning

Assisted Living, In-Home Care, and Nursing Home options can quickly drain your financial resources. Our estates, trusts & taxation attorneys can help you with planning to preserve as much of your assets as possible while preparing for the possibility of long-term care. Long-term care insurance, care-taker agreements, Medicaid, Veteran’s benefits, and various estate planning tools can be utilized to develop a plan that works for you and your family.

Medicaid Planning

Medicaid planning is essential if you want to preserve any assets for your spouse or children but the planning is complicated. When you are faced with needing nursing home care, either for yourself, your spouse, or your parent, you want to be able to apply for Medicaid with dignity and without losing everything that has taken a lifetime to build. We can discuss your options, help you to develop a plan, and assist you with your Medicaid application.

Special Needs Planning

If you have a child or grandchild with special needs, you may be concerned that he or she may lose Medicaid, Waiver and SSI benefits if he or she receives an inheritance. The utilization of a Supplemental Needs Trust (3rd Party Special Needs Trust) allows for the disabled child to benefit from such a trust without Medicaid benefits being lost.  However, sometime a disabled individual already received an inheritance or proceeds from a litigation settlement.  In these types of cases a Special Needs Trust (1st Party Special Need Trust) will need implemented as soon as possible so any Medicaid, Waiver and SSI benefits are preserved and protected for such disabled individual.  We can also help generate a plan that incorporates the above trusts along with discussing the benefits of creating and funding an ABLE account.  All of these planning techniques provide a means to enhance a disabled individual’s quality of life.

Powers of Attorney and Living Wills

A good estate plan will include a Durable Power of Attorney and a Health Care Power of Attorney/Living Will. Additionally, it will assist with the coordination of the designation of beneficiaries for life insurance, 401(k)s, IRAs, and other retirement plans and investment vehicles. We strongly recommend everyone have a Living Will and Powers of Attorney so there is no question about what your wishes are and how you want your estate handled.