Family Law

• Divorce
• Guardianship
  When a person becomes disabled, he or she is often unable to make personal and/or financial decisions. If you cannot make these decisions, someone must have the legal authority to do so for you. Otherwise, your family must apply to the court for appointment of a guardian for either your person or your property, or both. If you remember the public guardianship proceedings for Groucho Marx, you likely recognize the need to avoid a guardianship proceeding if at all possible.

Health Law

• Medicaid Planning
  Unfortunately, with the rising costs of long-term care, many people cannot afford to pay privately for home health care, assisted living, or nursing home care. According to the 2006 Study of the MetLife Mature Market Institute, the national average cost for a private room in a nursing home is over $75,000 annually. The national average cost of in- home care is between $17 and $19 per hour. As noted in a recent Harvard University Study, 69% of single people and 34% of married couples would exhaust their assets after 13 weeks in a nursing home. For those whose assets won’t last 13 weeks – much less the rest of their lives – Medicaid planning becomes an important consideration.

Trusts and Estates

• Estate Planning
  Whether you’re a parent with future educational obligations for young ones, or perhaps a loving aunt, uncle, grandparent, or stepparent, now more than ever 529 plans are an attractive tool for the escalating costs of education, as well as for income and estate planning purposes. This is because one of the hidden gems of the new Pension Protection Act of 2006 (signed into law on August 17, 2006) is a provision that makes permanent the income-tax-free growth of Section 529 plans used for qualified higher education expenses. Prior to this new law, these provisions would have expired December 31, 2010.
• Trusts
  There are two basic types of trusts: revocable trusts and irrevocable trusts. Perhaps the most common type of trust is revocable trusts (aka revocable living trusts, inter vivos trusts or living trusts). As their name implies, revocable trusts are fully revocable at the request of the trust maker. Thus, assets transferred (or “funded”) to a revocable trust remain within the control of the trust maker; the trust maker (or trust makers if it is a joint revocable trust) can simply revoke the trust and have the assets returned. Alternatively, irrevocable trusts, as their name implies, are not revocable by the trust maker(s).
• Power of Attorney
  At a minimum, you need broad powers of attorney that will allow agents to handle all of your property if you become disabled, as well as the appointment of a decision-maker for health care decisions. Alternatively, a fully funded revocable trust can ensure that you and your property will be cared for as you desire, pursuant to the highest duty under the law – that of a trustee.