Medicaid for the aged population requires payback for long term care which involves chronic medical conditions such as dementia. The payment for these benefits is due when the recipient dies and states are very aggressive in their collection. The payback is often in the tens of thousands of dollars forcing families to sell the family…

Hello friends,

For years I have been writing about the injustice of families afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease or other dementia who will lose their home if they ask their government for a bit of help. If they won the “Genetic Disease Lottery” they would have gotten a different brain disease, say cancer for example and…

Recently I wrote about under-appreciated caregivers who “can’t get any respect.”  However that observation is not true about all elder “caregivers.”  Sometimes the “caregiver” is abusing the elder. What are the signs of elder abuse?

Let’s describe the scene for both categories.  First in both cases we typically have a sole child who is living…

Like all elder law and estate planning attorneys, I met daily with seniors who were adjusting to the needs of aging by authorizing a child to act for them. The legal role may have been of an agent under a power of attorney or a co-trustee of their revocable living trust. This an almost routine…

Hi I am Jim Schuster a retired Elder law attorney of some 30 years. I’m born, raised and live in Michigan and I think you’ll find just a bit of that down to earth mid-west practicality here. In this blog series I will share stories and insights in the field of elder issues including those…