Elder Law Answers
Can My Father Cash in a Life Insurance Policy Without Affecting My Mother's Medicaid?
My mother is in a nursing home here in California and is on Medi-Cal (Medicaid). My father...
Read moreShould I Use a Non-Lawyer Service to Help Me With My Mother's Medicaid Application?
- August 27th, 2013
Q
I am planning to use a company to help get me through the Medicaid application process for my mother. Any opinion on using an organization like that versus a lawyer? They are very reasonable -- much less than a lawyer would charge.
A
As always, the answer is it depends. If your mother is spent down, no transfers were made over the past five years, and it's simply a question of processing the application, you should be fine using a non-lawyer service. But if any planning needs to be done, if your father is still alive and living in the community, or if there's anything unusual about your mother's finances, you need to use an elder law attorney. Even if the attorney helps your mother qualify a month sooner, that will justify her fee. And the attorney may be able to save you much more. The fee may come from funds that would otherwise be paid to the nursing home. In any case, we strongly recommend that you consult with an elder law attorney to determine whether planning is possible and advisable.
Local Elder Law Attorneys in Ashburn, VA
Meet Mindy Felinton
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Mindy Felinton
Felinton Elder Law & Estate Planning Centers
Mindy Felinton concentrates in the areas of Medicaid planning, Veterans' Benefits, asset protection, nursing home planning, elder law, wills, estate planning, trusts, living wills, powers of attorney, probate administration and trust administration and began her legal career 30 years ago as an Assistant State Attorney...
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Meet Jean Ball
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Jean Ball
Hale Ball Carlson Baumgartner Murphy PLC
Jean Galloway Ball is certified in Elder Law by the National Elder Law Foundation. She is a 1977 honors graduate of the National Law Center, George Washington University, and she did her undergraduate work at the University of California at Berkeley, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1971. She is admitted to practice in Vir...
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Meet Margaret O'Reilly
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Margaret O'Reilly
Margaret A. O'Reilly, PC
Margaret A. O’Reilly is an estate planning and elder law attorney with over thirty-five years of legal experience. Attorney O’Reilly graduated from Duke University with a degree in psychology, and received her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, Massachusetts. For over 15 y...
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