Other issues might include the need for long term care planning, solving disputes with family members, providing for powers of attorney, medical care planning or guardianship.
Elder Law is a growing specialty of estate planning that helps the elderly deal with many of the problems unique to their circumstances as retirees:
- Preservation or transfer of assets seeking to avoid spousal impoverishment when one spouse enters a nursing home;
- Medicare claims and appeals; qualification and application; planning strategies;
- Centrelink (formerly department of social security) pensions and disability claims and appeals;
- Private health insurance issues;
- Superannuation and life insurance issues;
- Disability planning, including use of durable powers of attorney, discretionary trusts, advanced directives & “living wills,” for financial management and health care decisions, and other means of delegating management and decision-making to another in case of incompetency or incapacity;
- Guardianships;
- 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;
- Probate;
- Administration and management of trusts and estates;
- Long term care placements in nursing home and life care communities;
- Nursing home issues including questions of capacity, patients’ rights and nursing home quality;
- Elder abuse and fraud recovery cases;
- Housing issues, including discrimination and home equity conversions (reverse mortgage);
- Age discrimination in employment;
- Retirement, including public and private retirement benefits, survivor benefits and pension benefits;
- Mental health issues, especially regarding capacity and ability to live independently;
Rod Genders is a senior Australian lawyer specialising in accident compensation and estate planning in Adelaide. His boutique specialist law firm is one of the oldest and most respected in Australia – visit it at www.genders.com.au . Rod is also a prolific author and speaker. Some of his articles and books on Wills, Probate, Trusts, Estate Planning, Asset Protection and Retirement Planning may be found at www.genders.com.au/adelaide-lawyer-blog.
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