Elder law is the area of law focused on issues that affect the aging population. While estate planning focuses on what happens when the individual passes away, elder law focuses on what happens while the individual is still alive. It is lifetime planning. This can include helping clients with guardianship issues, addressing elder abuse claims, handling discrimination claims, planning for long-term care, obtaining government benefits, and helping with special needs issues.

The Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT) is a powerful tool used in elder law planning. The MAPT can be used both in a proactive planning case or in a crisis planning case. Let’s take a look at when the MAPT would be used in each type of case, and how a MAPT intersects with estate tax, gift tax, and income tax.

How should a prior estrangement between child and parent affect the ruling in a guardianship case for the parent? This issue was recently litigated in an Indiana slip opinion.

Peggy, a 90-year-old Indiana resident, had three children – Randy, Terri, and Sherry. Randy and Terri also live in Indiana; Sherry lives in Florida. Peggy’s husband died in 2002 and thereafter her relationship with Terri became estranged. In 2003, Peggy executed a financial power of attorney, naming Randy as her agent and Sherry as her successor agent.