ELDER LAW
Elder law is an area of law that focuses on the legal needs of the elderly. These needs include retirement planning, life insurance, medical costs, and estate planning. Larry Griggs, in St. Augustine, Florida can serve your elder law needs using his expertise in matters related to:
Medicare, Social Security, veterans disability, and other government benefit programs
Powers of attorney, which provide a person with the ability to make medical or financial decisions on another person's behalf
Health and personal care planning, including medical care directives, long-term care plans, and end of life decisions
Retirement planning
Insurance
Wills and trusts
Financial planning and
Quality of life and independence
The following are some Frequently Asked Questions regarding Elder Law:
My parent is about to enter a nursing home. How can Elder Law help me?
How can Elder Law help save us money?
Won't the help of an Elder Law attorney be too expensive?
Will doing this planning effect the level of care my loved one will receive?
This sounds too good to be true. Will it really work?
How much of the assets can be saved?
I've heard many rumors about Medicaid. Are these true?
What if we need help finding a nursing home?
How soon should I contact you for help?
My parent is already in a nursing home. Is it too late for us?
What makes Larry Griggs, Elder Law attorney different from other attorneys?
What other legal issues can Elder Law help me with?
What other information is important for Elder Law clients and prospective clients to know?
1. My parent is about to enter a nursing home. How can Elder Law help me?
Elder Law is here to hold your hand and walk you through the process of having a loved one enter a nursing home. Larry Griggs, attorney at law, is experienced with all types of nursing home issues. The laws are always changing, and we keep abreast of all the changes.
The primary benefit, in addition to having an experienced and knowledgeable attorney to answer all your questions, is that we can help you and your family do the proper planning to protect and preserve assets so that all of your loved one's money is not spent on the nursing home. There is a better way to pay for the nursing home, and we can help you find it. Caring for a loved one should not cost the savings of a lifetime.
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2. How can Elder Law help save us money?
With the proper planning, Elder Law can help your loved one qualify for Medicaid and protect and preserve the life savings that your loved one spent his or her entire life working to build. We help save the assets, through a variety of strategies that may include gifting, rental property, purchasing annuities, life insurance, tax and estate planning, and many other options that enable qualification for Medicaid while still saving the assets.
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3. Won't the help of an Elder Law attorney be too expensive?
Not at all. The first consultation is free, and the total legal fee will be only a small fraction of the money we can save your family. In fact, usually, the cost of one month's payment to the nursing home will cover the fees, and in exchange, the savings will be tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the level of assets.
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4. Will doing this planning effect the level of care my loved one will receive?
In nursing homes that accept Medicaid patients and private-pay patients, the level of care is identical regardless if your loved one pays for it out of his or her own money, or if Medicaid pays for it. The only difference is, how much it is going to cost you. By doing the proper planning with Elder Law, you can save your money from being depleted on nursing home costs.
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5. This sounds too good to be true. Will it really work?
Yes. The government has issued a very complex set of laws, rules, regulations and procedures that specifically allow for this type of planning, but only if it is done correctly. These laws are constantly changing, and we keep abreast of every change in the law as soon as it happens. We have successfully qualified several hundreds of people for Medicaid benefits, while protecting their life savings, and the list of clients we have helped grows every day. In fact, we have never had a Medicaid application for benefits denied for any client who followed our instructions. We know how to save you and your family money. It will work for you, if you work with us.
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6. How much of the assets can be saved?
Typically, for an individual without a spouse, we can save usually 2/3 to 100% of the assets and perhaps even more, depending on a variety of factors, including how far ahead the planning was started. For a married couple with one spouse entering, or already in, a nursing home and the other spouse still living in the community, as incredible as it sounds, we usually can save 100%!
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7. I've heard many rumors about Medicaid, such as you can not make a gift and apply for Medicaid without waiting three years, that all of a couples’ income will go to the nursing home, or that spouse of someone entering a nursing home has to spend all their assets except for their house. Are these true?
Most of these are myths that are simply false. Click here to read our Medicaid Myths article
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8. What if we need help finding a nursing home?
We can help with that too. We have many contacts in the industry that can help you locate the perfect facility. We also can direct you to financial planners, social workers, accountants, and many other professionals who devote their careers, like we do, to helping seniors and family members of seniors. Plus, we have personal experience with almost all of the nursing homes in the area, and we have contacts in most of them that can sometimes help with the process of finding and entering the perfect nursing home for you or your loved one.
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9. How soon should I contact you for help?
The earlier we can start the planning, the more money we can save. Remember, Noah built the arc before it started raining. We see all the time where our clients will put their head in the sand and think their problems will go away. If you plan now, before your loved one has to enter the nursing home, then you not only give yourself peace of mind so that you are ready for when the time comes that a nursing home is needed, but you also can maximize your savings. Above all, do not put off dealing with the issue until it is too late. Procrastination is the greatest threat to our future and security and our loved ones.
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10. My parent is already in a nursing home. Is it too late for us?
Not at all. It is almost never too late to plan, even for those already in a home. However, the earlier you begin planning, the better.
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11. What makes Larry Griggs, Elder Law attorney different from other attorneys?
We have experienced Elder Law attorneys who have been practicing in this area even before “Elder Law” was even a recognized area of the law. Larry Griggs concentrates on Medicaid and nursing home planning and related areas. Unfortunately, most attorneys, even estate planning attorneys, do not concentrate on Medicaid planning because the laws and procedures are so complex and change so often, and because a mistake in planning will often result in a loss of Medicaid eligibility completely. Only attorneys who concentrate in Elder Law can help you through the process safely and securely. In addition to Elder Law, Larry Griggs also provides a full service law firm that can help with all your legal needs.
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12. What other legal issues can the Elder Law help me with?
Elder Law is simply one aspect of Larry Griggs, P.A., a full service law firm that can help handle your business, real estate and elder law needs. Larry Griggs, Elder Law attorney has specialized experience and expertise helping seniors and their family members, as well as those who want to plan for the days when they become seniors. In addition to Medicaid and other long-term care planning, we can help clients with trusts, wills, powers of attorney, patient advocate designations, probate court proceedings (including estates, guardianships and conservatorships), and even probate litigation, including family feuds that unfortunately often result when the proper estate planning is not done ahead of time. We can provide assistance with any legal issue, and for the rare legal problem or question that we do not handle, we will refer you to another attorney who does.
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Call (904) 471-5204 or email
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for more information regarding your Elder Law or Corporate Law representation needs.
