Baton Rouge Elder Care Lawyer

Are you looking for an elder care lawyer in Baton Rouge, LA?

At Richard J. Tomeny Jr. Attorney at Law, we provide trusted elder care counsel for families throughout Baton Rouge.

If a parent or spouse in Baton Rouge is starting to need help with bank accounts or medical decisions, the documents that person signs now will decide who may act for them later. Our Baton Rouge, LA elder care lawyer prepares procurations, health care powers of attorney, living wills, and trusts, and advises families on Medicaid and interdiction when no documents were ever signed.

Richard J. Tomeny Jr. Attorney at Law has advised Louisiana individuals, families, and small business owners on wills, powers of attorney, and trusts for more than four decades.

Call our office to arrange a private consultation.

Elder Care Lawyer Baton Rouge, LA

An elder care lawyer handles the legal side of aging. That means deciding who manages money and property when an older person no longer can, who makes medical decisions, how long-term care will be paid for, and how the estate passes afterward. In Louisiana, much of this work depends on the mandate, which is the Civil Code’s term for a power of attorney. When no mandate exists, the question goes to court.

Owner-occupied homes make up 59.3% of occupied housing in East Baton Rouge Parish, and the median value of those homes is $248,800, according to Census Bureau housing figures. For many older residents, the house is the largest asset a long-term care plan has to account for.

Types of Elder Care Cases We Handle in Baton Rouge

Our elder care attorney in Baton Rouge, LA handles the planning documents an older client signs as well as the proceedings a family faces when those documents are missing. Some matters close in one signing appointment. Others continue for months.

• Powers of attorney. Louisiana calls this document a procuration or mandate, and the agent’s authority extends only as far as the document grants it. Because Louisiana requires express authority for acts such as selling immovable property, we draft procurations that name each power the agent will need, from bank accounts to real estate.
• Health care directives. A health care power of attorney names the person who will make medical decisions, and a living will records the person’s wishes about life-sustaining procedures. We prepare both so that the agent and the treating physicians work from the same instructions.
• Medicaid. Medicaid pays for nursing facility care and certain home and community-based services for people who meet its medical and financial requirements. We review income, assets, and prior transfers against those requirements before the application is filed.
• Elder law. Elder law reaches beyond the planning documents to questions of capacity, nursing home admission agreements, and financial exploitation by caregivers or relatives. We advise families on each of these as the need arises.
• Trusts. A revocable trust can hold a home or investment accounts and name a successor trustee who takes over management, without a court proceeding, if the person who created it becomes incapacitated. We draft the trust and retitle the assets into it, since a trust controls only the property placed in it.
• Interdiction. When an adult can no longer care for themselves or their property and never signed a procuration, a relative may ask the court to appoint a curator. We handle both full and limited interdictions; a limited interdiction removes only the decisions the person can no longer make.
• Wills and plan updates. A diagnosis or a move into care is often the point at which an existing testament no longer fits. Older wills can be revised so they work alongside any trust or long-term care plan.
• Probate. After a parent or spouse dies, the documents signed during life determine how much of the estate passes through a succession. We complete the court filings that transfer the remaining property to the family.

Why Choose Richard J. Tomeny Jr. Attorney at Law as My Elder Care Lawyer in Baton Rouge, LA?

Experience With Louisiana Property and Closings

The family home is usually the asset an elder care plan has to resolve first. Selling it, placing it in a trust, or reserving a usufruct for a surviving spouse all require documents that will satisfy a title examiner years later. Richard J. Tomeny, Jr. has been approved as a closing attorney by the U.S. Small Business Administration, the Jefferson Parish Development Corporation, and several Greater New Orleans banks, and real estate has been part of his practice throughout his career. That background suits the work of an estate planning lawyer in Baton Rouge, LA whose clients are deciding what should happen to a house.

Peer Recognition Over a Long Louisiana Career

Fellow attorneys named Mr. Tomeny one of the top lawyers in New Orleans Magazine in 2009. He has been a member of the Louisiana bar since 1978. Our firm represents individuals and families during life and heirs and surviving spouses after a death, so the office that prepares an older client’s documents can later settle the estate.

What Is Important To Understand About Elder Care Cases?

What Are Important Aspects of an Elder Care Case?

Each of the issues below is easier to resolve before a hospital stay than after one.

• Capacity at the signing. A procuration or testament is valid only if the person understood what they signed. When memory loss has begun, a Baton Rouge elder care attorney records the client’s understanding at the signing, which makes a later challenge harder to sustain.
• Federal benefits. The Treasury Department does not recognize a power of attorney for negotiating Social Security payments. An agent who needs to manage those benefits must apply to serve as a representative payee.
• Transfers before a Medicaid application. Gifts of money or property made in the years before an application can delay eligibility, which is why asset protection planning should begin early. Louisiana’s Medicaid long-term care program may also seek repayment from a recipient’s estate after death, though recovery is deferred while a spouse survives.

Key Elder Care Documents and What They Do

Four documents carry most elder care plans.

1. A power of attorney, called a procuration in Louisiana, authorizes an agent to handle financial and property matters and can take effect as soon as it is signed.
2. Health care directives pair a health care power of attorney, which names a decision-maker, with a living will that states the person’s wishes about life-sustaining procedures.
3. A revocable trust places assets under a trustee’s management and names a successor for incapacity.
4. A testament governs what passes at death, subject to Louisiana’s protections for forced heirs.

When none of these exist, the alternative is a court proceeding. Louisiana’s equivalent of guardianship for an adult is interdiction, in which the court appoints a curator to act for the person and an undercurator to oversee the curator.

What Is The Elder Care Case Timeline?

Families reach an elder care attorney in Baton Rouge at different stages. Some arrive years before care is needed; others arrive after a diagnosis.

• Planning meeting. The first meeting covers the client’s assets, existing documents, family members, and the care the client may need.
• Drafting and signing. Documents are drafted for review and then executed before a notary and witnesses at one appointment.
• Funding and distribution. Assets are retitled into any trust, and copies of the health care directives go to the agent and the client’s physicians.
• Periodic review. Plans should be reviewed and updated after a death in the family, a move into care, or a change in health.
• Long-term care or interdiction. If nursing care becomes necessary, the Medicaid application follows. If the documents weren’t signed in time, an interdiction petition is filed and the court sets a hearing.

What Should You Bring to Your Elder Care Consultation?

Bring every document that already exists, including older versions the client may have signed years ago.

• Any existing procuration, health care power of attorney, living will, testament, or trust
• Recent statements for bank, retirement, and investment accounts
• Deeds to the home and any other real estate
• Social Security, pension, and insurance benefit letters
• A list of the client’s physicians, if capacity or long-term care is in question

At the consultation, our Baton Rouge elder care lawyer explains what the existing documents accomplish, where the gaps are, and which documents to prepare first. When the older client can attend, their own instructions guide what we draft.

19th Judicial District Court and Local Resources

• Interdiction petitions that an elder care lawyer in Baton Rouge files for parish residents are heard by the 19th Judicial District Court, which holds original jurisdiction over civil matters in the parish.
• Suspected financial exploitation, abuse, or neglect of an older adult is investigated by Elderly Protective Services, a program of the Governor’s Office of Elderly Affairs.
• Nursing facility coverage and home and community-based waiver programs are administered by the Louisiana Department of Health, which also verifies an applicant’s assets electronically before approving coverage.

Reach Out to Richard J. Tomeny Jr. Attorney at Law to Schedule a Consultation

Our Baton Rouge elder care lawyer can review your family’s documents and identify what is missing while the older client is still able to sign. Richard J. Tomeny Jr. Attorney at Law welcomes the spouse or adult children who will serve as agents to attend the meeting as well. Contact us when your family is ready to meet; we reply to each request and schedule the consultation at a time that suits everyone.