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Main Line Elder Law provides the following legal services:
Estate Planning
Main Line Elder Law does estate and retirement planning for clients of all ages and circumstances. This can include long-term care and disability planning where appropriate, as well as trust services.
Comprehensive Estate and Medicaid Planning Evaluations
Main Line Elder Law begins its representation of many clients with a comprehensive estate and long-term care planning evaluation. This evaluation dictates the best planning strategies to pursue in order to meet the estate planning and long-term health care objectives of the client. Main Line Elder Law attorneys examine all aspects of the client's financial well-being and issue a follow-up letter which summarizes the client's unique situation, reviews the law, and explains our recommendations for the best possible estate plan for the client. The complex and ever-evolving rules of Medicaid play an increasingly important role with respect to traditional estate planning concerns. A knowledge of elder law, therefore, is absolutely critical for a truly comprehensive estate planning evaluation and plan.
Nursing Home Admissions
Main Line Elder Law assists clients seeking admission into nursing homes and assisted living facilities. We work with the client in the admission process, review facility contracts, and applications for public benefits such as Medicaid, and help ensure proper and fair treatment for those living in nursing facilities.
Guardianship and Conservatorship Services
Main Line Elder Law represents clients seeking guardianship and conservatorship of relatives who can no longer manage their personal or financial affairs and assists family members in fulfilling the duties imposed by these new roles. If no family member is willing or available to fill this role, Main Line Elder Law attorneys act as guardian or conservator on a temporary or permanent basis. Main Line Elder Law will enlist bookkeeping, geriatric care managers and social worker services for the client as needed. This expert team of professionals provides comprehensive monitoring of the ward's medical, emotional, legal, and financial needs.
Personal Injury Settlements
Main Line Elder Law works closely with personal injury attorneys and clients to make sure that their settlement funds are properly managed and that they continue to receive the public benefits to which they are entitled. What may appear at first to be a large recovery can be quickly dissipated if invested unwisely or spent on health care needs and living expenses that might be provided by other sources. Proper planning is required to make sure the money lasts a lifetime. Each individual's situation is different and requires a strategy crafted to meet his or her needs. Main Line Elder Law works with attorneys, clients, family members, social workers, and courts to create the best strategy available in each case.
Estate Administration
Main Line Elder Law provides full representation of fiduciaries administering estates. Probate administration includes filing the petition for appointment of the personal representative, preparing and filing the inventory of estate assets, paying decedent's debts, distributing assets, filing tax returns, and filing an account with the Probate Court. If real property must be sold, the firm provides representation during the real estate transaction as well.
Medicare and Medicaid Advocacy
Main Line Elder Law prepares or assists in the preparation and submission of the Medicaid application to the appropriate division of the Department of Public Welfare. At the client's request, we handle all communications with the DPW, thereby removing the individual as much as possible from the tedious and often frustrating application process. In addition, Main Line Elder Law represents clients in connection with Medicaid and Medicare appeals in administrative hearings and before the applicable court.
Planning for People with Disabilities
Main Line Elder Law assists clients with disabilities with legal planning for their long-term needs. Main Line Elder Law also advises the parents or other family members of disabled persons on how they can effectively provide for them, with careful regard for preserving eligibility for Medicaid and other public benefits. The firm provides information about planning options, drafts supplemental needs trusts and other documents as appropriate, and advises trustees of trusts for the benefit of disabled persons concerning trust administration.