Category Archives: Guardianship

Beware of Non-Lawyers Offering Medicaid Planning Advice

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In recent years a number of non-lawyers have started businesses offering Medicaid planning services to seniors. While using one of these services may be cheaper than hiring a lawyer, the overall costs may be far greater.

If you use a non-lawyer to do Medicaid planning, the person offering services may not have any legal knowledge or training. Bad advice can lead seniors to purchase products or take actions that won’t help them qualify for Medicaid and may actually make it more difficult. The consequences of taking bad advice can include the denial of benefits, a Medicaid penalty period, or tax liability.

As a result of problems that have arisen from non-lawyers offering Medicaid planning services, a few states (Florida, Ohio, New Jersey, and Tennessee) have issued regulations or guidelines providing that Medicaid planning by non-lawyers will be considered the unauthorized practice of law.

For example, in New Jersey, a non-lawyer may NOT provide legal advice on issues such as:

  • Medicaid eligibility, including provisions of wills and powers of attorney;
  • On the need for guardianships and the authority to transfer assets;
  • On nursing home laws;
  • On transfers of property;
  • On the impact of marriage and divorce; or
  • On estate administration and the elective share.

All of these issues can be important to a Medicaid applicant.

Only lawyers can provide advice on:

  • Strategies to become eligible for Medicaid;
  • Spending down resources;
  • Tax implications;
  • Guardianships;
  • Sale or transfers of assets;
  • Creation of trusts or service contracts and the like.

Applying for Medicaid is a highly technical and complex process. A lawyer knowledgeable about Medicaid law can help applicants navigate this process. An attorney may be able to help your family find significant financial savings or better care for you or your loved one. This may involve the use of trusts, transfers of assets, purchase of annuities or increased income and resource allowances for the healthy spouse.

Execute a Power of Attorney Before It’s Too Late

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A durable power of attorney is an extremely important estate planning tool, even more important than a will in many cases.  This crucial document allows a person you appoint — your “attorney-in-fact” or “agent” — to act in place of you — the “principal” — for financial purposes when and if you ever become incapacitated due to dementia or some other reason.  The agent under the power of attorney can quickly step in and take care of your affairs.

But in order to execute a power of attorney and name an agent to stand in your shoes, you need to have capacity.  Regrettably, many people delay completing this vital estate planning step until it’s too late and they no longer are legally capable of doing it.

What happens then? Without a durable power of attorney, no one can represent you unless a court appoints a conservator or guardian. That court process takes time, costs money, and the judge may not choose the person you would prefer. In addition, under a guardianship or conservatorship, the representative must seek court permission to take planning steps that he or she could have implemented immediately under a durable power of attorney with gifting authority.

This is why it’s so important that you have a durable power of attorney in place before the capacity to execute the document is lost.

If you do not have someone you trust to appoint as your agent, it may be more appropriate to have the probate court looking over the shoulder of the person who is handling your affairs through a guardianship or conservatorship.

Because you need a third party to assess capacity and because you need to be certain that the formal legal requirements are followed, it can be risky to prepare and execute legal documents on your own without representation by an attorney. For assistance executing a durable power of attorney before it’s too late, contact the elder law and estate planning attorneys at Costanzo & Russom Law Group, LLC.