Our Blog
Popular Posts
What Do Estate Planning and Elder Care Have to Do With Each Other?
First, what’s the difference between Estate Planning and Elder Care? Estate planning and elder care/elder law are two areas of legal practice that are often under the same umbrella, but there are important differences between them. Many times these two concepts are...
Why You Need a Healthcare POA
What does signing a Healthcare POA do for me? We talked previously about how a POA differs from a DNR (which is now referred to as a POLST). A Healthcare Power of Attorney is a very useful legal document that provides authorization for someone to act on your behalf...
Why a Care Plan Is Essential to Your Peace of Mind
We all know that aging is a part of life. However, when it comes to caring for aging loved...
Our Blog
Mom Is Having Memory Trouble and the Family Is Worried
Every week we talk with several families who are worried about the challenges of aging and call us for help. Recently, a family was concerned about mom's declining memory and dementia. Mom is mostly unaware of her inability to handle things on her own and...
Who Needs a Life Care Plan?
In a recent blog post, we talked about the challenges that our extended lifespan creates these days. Because people are living into their 80's and 90's on a regular basis, this creates financial, physical, medical and emotional struggles. Seeing families struggle with...
Elder Care Advisors: Helping People Age Well
These days, our extended life span creates a lot of challenges when it comes to managing the financial, physical, medical, and emotional reality of aging in America. We recently asked those who are facing retirement, or beginning to struggle with the challenges of...
New Medicare Cards Continue to Be Mailed Out
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) continue to mail out new Medicare cards to residents of Illinois. The rollout started in June, but continues into July. Sadly, along with any big wholesale change like this (affecting roughly 60 million seniors...
What Is a Trustee and When Might You Need One?
You've probably heard of trusts and trustees before - most likely in the context of a rich kid living off of their trust fund. However, trusts are not just legal tools for the wealthy. We've talked about trusts before, and if you want to delve a little deeper into...
4 Things You May Not Know About POA’s
Some people get nervous when they think about signing a Power of Attorney. Maybe they saw a movie where a guy was swindled out of a fortune when he signed one. Maybe giving someone control over your affairs is unsettling to you. Whatever the case may be, Powers of...
Forget About The “Estate” And Just Do Planning
Estate Planning isn't just for people with estates... I talk a lot about "estate planning," whatever that means. It sounds like lawyer talk and often makes people's eyes glaze over. Well, I want you to forget about the estate and just call it planning, because that's...
The Myth of a “Simple” Will
"I just want a simple will." We hear this a lot. The people who say it generally assume they have a "regular" family with straightforward assets. They don't want to pay a lot for elaborate documents they don't understand. They just want a last will and testament. We...
Medicaid FAQ
Using a government benefit such as Medicaid is a fairly common way to pay for long-term care. According to AARP, 65% of nursing home residents use Medicaid to pay for their care. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation out there, which makes this very...
What Is a Power of Attorney? Why Might You Need One?
Think of all the decisions you make in a week or a month -- how much money you spend, or save, whether you get your car fixed, whether you go to the doctor if you aren't feeling well. What will happen if you can't make those decisions for yourself? Someone will have...