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Welcome to the Shalloway & Shalloway, P.A. News Room, an area designed to be your connection to news about elder law, disability law and related topics. Here you'll find the latest news about legal issues affecting the elderly and the disabled.

Below you will find the following:

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Fact Sheet
Story Ideas
Recent Press Releases

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FACT SHEET

Stage-Setting Demographics and Events

• In the 1700's only 20% of the U.S. population lived to age 60. Today, 80% live to age 60.
• Palm Beach County has over a quarter of a million residents over the age of 65, one in every four residents.
• Palm Beach County has almost twice as many residents 65+ and 85+ as Hillsborough County, a county with an almost equivalent population.
• 43% of persons age 65 will enter a nursing home in any given year.
• 24% of those in a nursing home will remain so for 1 year or more.
• There are 4 million victims of Alzheimer's Disease nationally.
• Palm Beach County estimates 48,000 victims of Alzheimer's Disease.

A Profile of the Elderly

• Many are healthy, active and vital. But those who are incapacitated fall into 2 Major Groups:
  1. Those developmentally disabled (i.e., occurred during first 18 years of life), who are living longer, and
  2. Those who acquire a disability due to aging who are also living longer.
• An "invisible" population due to physical limitations and homebound status.
• Fragile financial security due to imminent threat of long-term care costs.
• The Elderly's children and other family members who live out of state often worry that they are unable to provide or arrange for proper planning or care.
• Depression era born, they value independence, management of own affairs and often decline advice from well-intended family and professionals due to understandable pride and despair of an encroaching incapacity.

General Issues of a Greying Nation (County)

• Long-term Care options and financing (at home and institutional).
• Incapacity Planning: Financial Management and Medical Decision-making Systems.
• Need for Role Modeling: This is a "first impression" "precedent setting" generation.
• Socialization activities for quality of life and self-worth preservation.
• Protection from Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination.

What is unique about Elder Law

• Practice is defined by the client and their needs and embraces a diverse number of legal areas unlike other areas of law such as divorce which are defined by subject.
• Problem-solving primarily targets the middle-class elderly.
• Practice is defined by the client and their needs and embraces a diverse number of legal areas unlike other areas of law such as divorce which are defined by subject.
• Problem-solving primarily targets the middle-class elderly.
• Legal focus shifts to lifetime issues of incapacity and impoverishment as opposed to traditional after-death plans to avoid estate tax and probate delay and costs.
• Creates Plans and Documents to avoid Incapacity and Impoverishment risks due to:
  • Nursing Home Costs (ranging $3,500 to $6,000.00/month)
  • Guardianship costs & Expenses ($2,000 or more to establish guardianship plus on-going administration expenses)
  • Inability to manage finances
  • Inability to make medical and personal care decisions
  • Creates plans & Documents to avoid probate & taxes.

WHAT SERVICES DOES AN ELDER LAW ATTORNEY PROVIDE TO HELP?

• Prepares Medicaid eligibility plans and applications to pay for nursing home care.
• Prepares trusts to create eligibility for Medicaid to pay for nursing home care and to avoid the need for a guardianship with its costs.
• Prepares documents that appoint substitute decision-makers for financial and medical/personal management if one becomes incapacitated.
• Prepares Living Wills to preserve client's right to die with dignity.
• Plans and prepares asset transfers to protect against spousal impoverishment if one spouse enters a nursing home.
• Reviews and advises clients on the use, rights and duties re: long-term and supplemental health insurance.
• Establishes and administers guardianships for those who are incapacitated
• Files claims and appeals denials for Social Security Disability, Medicare, HMO's.
• Enforce medical and financial powers of attorney and living wills in court if needed.
• Prepares traditional wills and trusts to avoid estate tax and probate costs and delay.
• Reviews and advises families re: nursing home admission contracts and the like.
• Intervenes to resolve concerns of nursing home resident's rights re:
• Wrongful Discharge
• Negligent Care
• Violation of Privacy
• Denial of Access to Information & Participation in Care & Treatment
• Acts as an Information & Referral Source of Aging Network Service Providers and refers the family to:
  • Transportation services for homebound elderly
  • Respite care services for Caregiving Family Members
  • Nursing Home information/ratings
  • Tax, Health Care and Insurance Professionals
  • Support Groups for Family (e.g., Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases)
  • Agencies that intervene and mediate problems residents may have with nursing homes or professional care-givers.
  • Agencies that prepare needs assessments for incapacitated elderly and assist in placement or enrollment with needed service providers and offer on-going monitoring of such providers to absent/out of state family members.

STORY IDEAS

• Medicaid Planning for Nursing Homes, Assisted Living Facilities and Home Health Care.
• Medicare
• Guardianship
• Estate/Asset Planning
• Veteran's Benefits
• Planning for the Developmentally Disabled & for the Chronically Mentally Ill

News Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jennifer Sampson
November 14, 2005
(561) 686-6200

G. Mark Shalloway, Esq.

West Palm Beach, Florida- The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) has announced that G. Mark Shalloway of the elder law firm of Shalloway & Shalloway, PA in West Palm Beach has been named Vice President of the Board of Directors. Established in 1987, NAELA is a non-profit association that assists lawyers, bar organizations and others who work with elderly clients and their families. Members of NAELA are attorneys who are experienced and trained in working with the legal problems of aging Americans and individuals of all ages with disabilities. The mission of NAELA is to establish NAELA members as the premier providers of legal advocacy, guidance and services to enhance the lives of people with special needs and people as they age. NAELA currently has more than 4,900 members across the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. For more information, please contact Jennifer Sampson at (561) 686-6200.