Estate Planning, Estate Administration, & Elder Law

Every adult should have an estate plan in place.  A basic estate plan should include a Last Will and Testament, Financial Power of Attorney, Health Care Power of Attorney, and Living Will.  Depending on your unique situation, a Revocable Living Trusts or various Irrevocable Trusts can be used to protect your assets and avoid probate upon your passing.  Richard Cogan consults with clients regarding their unique estate planning goals and makes personalized recommendations based on what is right for you and your family.

When your loved one passes away it is a very difficult time.  Richard Cogan can help you navigate the probate and estate administration process, being highly hands on or largely advisory depending on your needs and desires so that you can efficiently administer your loved one's Estate.

If you have a child born with a developmental disability or an adult relative who has suffered a loss in mental capacity, a guardianship may be necessary to ensure that you or someone else  has the legal authority to act on their behalf and to ensure that they do not engage in activity beyond their capacity.  Guardianships are divided into Guardian of the Person and Guardian of the Estate, and each can be full or limited in nature.   Richard Cogan can help you understand the steps necessary to obtain a guardianship, represent you in the guardianship proceedings, and work with you to see if other estate planning tools, such as an ABLE account or special needs trust can help your loved one have the financial resources they need going forward.

Most people do not realize that Medicare does not cover long term nursing home care.  If you need to be in a nursing home long term you have three options to finance your care: private pay (often exceeding $10,000/month), long term care insurance (if you have it), or Medicaid.  Medicaid has strict income and asset limits in order to qualify and has a 5-year lookback period for asset transfers.  Richard Cogan can assist with both proactive Medicaid Planning (using Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts and gifting strategies more than 5 years before you are likely to need nursing home care) and crisis planning (creating an asset spend down plan, setting up a Qualified Income Trust, and preparing the Medicaid Application) to ensure you and your family retain as much of your assets as possible.