What is the Difference Between an Elder Law Attorney and an Estate Planning Attorney?  

The main difference between an estate planning attorney and an elder law attorney stems from the attorney’s ability to help you during the different stages of life. However, for estate planning or elder law, the impetus is upon you to take action, get off the sidelines, get on the field, and slay the metaphorical four-headed beast mentioned in previous videos and articles. 

An estate planning attorney is more useful during the foundational steps you take in your 30s, 40s, 50s, and even early 60s. They are helpful when you’re devising and designing your estate plan so that your loved ones are well-situated and at peace when you can no longer be with them. An estate planning attorney helps you develop a comprehensive estate plan that will do the three P’s. This is to protect what you worked hard for, preserve the equity and appreciation in the investments that you earned and invested in over your lifetime, and then pass on your legacy to your loved ones.   

When it comes to estate planning, it typically starts with putting the foundational last will and testament in place. You also need to complete disability planning which comprises the big six of disability planning. I created a video where you will find the nitty-gritty details on what the big six disability planning includes. In addition, if you want to avoid probate court or the estate death tax, you can create a comprehensive revocable trust. In this trust, you can include a bypass tax credit shelter sub-trust to minimize or reduce the estate death tax for your state or the federal estate tax. Roughly twelve states in the country still have an estate death tax.

Further, if you need protection from long-term care costs, you can work with your estate planning attorney to create an irrevocable Medicaid asset protection trust. This allows you to transfer your property into a trust and protect it. First, however, you need to beat the five-year look-back period with Medicaid. You can also work with your estate planning attorney to create an irrevocable life insurance trust to reduce your estate tax implication. If you own a business, a business succession plan can be designed to help the business pass down smoothly. Lastly, if you have a special needs child or loved one, you can talk to your estate planning attorney about first-party and third-party special needs trusts. These steps are part of pre-planning and creating a blueprint or foundation for the future. 

However, you enter the elder law spectrum once you are over the third quarter to the early fourth quarter of life. This can occur when you are 60 years of age or over. At this point in life, you may need to turn up the volume and become the leader of your family by making sure the estate plan is in place and up-to-date, so an elder law attorney can concentrate on the areas of elder law that can help you. 

There are about 12 categories of elder law. This ranges from Medicaid to Medicare, trusts, wills, social security law, veterans benefits, and even employment law for seniors. An elder law attorney should be positioned to guide you in the best direction regarding what your goals are and what your situation may be. Elder law attorneys can generally do things in addition to what the estate planning attorney does. For example, they can assist you with the Medicaid application process and protect and preserve any additional assets you and your spouse may own before the Medicaid process begins. 

 Elder law attorneys can usually help you with special needs trust planning if you have a loved one who’s incapacitated and did not create the proper disability planning. If needed, they can help you petition the probate court for formal fiduciary offices like guardianships and conservatorships. A guardianship helps manage health care and medical affairs for a loved one, and conservatorships allow you to manage financial affairs.

The elder law attorney’s job is to ensure that you are adequately protected from your financial assets to your personal autonomy and well-being. If you feel that you may end up in a state of diminished capacity, an elder law attorney can make sure there is a proper disability plan in place, such as a durable financial power of attorney with enhanced elder law powers to have someone help you manage your finances. Further, if you suspect a loved one is being exploited, neglected, or abused, it may need to be reported to adult protective services or law enforcement. An elder law attorney can provide guidance in this type of situation.  

The differences between estate planning and elder law are mainly seen when you look at where you are in life and what you need to help you continue moving forward and protecting your life and legacy. However, there are times when you encounter attorneys that can handle all aspects of these areas of law. By hiring an attorney experienced in both, you can feel secure and comfortable knowing you have pre-planned and are prepared for anything that arises as you get older. 

We specialize in educating and helping you protect what you have for the people you love the most. Contact us to learn more about how we can help