Florida Elder Law Attorney

What Elder Law Actually Is

Estate planning is mostly about who gets what after you die. Elder law is about the years before that: paying for long-term care without going broke, staying in charge of your own decisions if your health slips, protecting the family home, and keeping a parent out of a courtroom. The two overlap, but elder law adds the living-care problems an ordinary will never touches.

Long-Term Care Is the Threat Most Families Don’t Price In

Skilled nursing in Florida commonly runs several thousand dollars a month and up. Medicare pays only for short rehab stays, not long-term custodial care, and private long-term-care insurance is rare. The bill that wipes out a lifetime of savings is usually a care bill, not a tax bill, which is why nursing-home Medicaid planning sits at the center of elder law. See Medicaid planning → · check eligibility →

Nursing-Home Medicaid, in Plain English

Long-term-care Medicaid has three tests: a level-of-care test, an income test, and an asset test. Florida is an income-cap state, which is why a Qualified Income (Miller) Trust (flat $750) is so often needed when a parent’s income is over the cap. A five-year look-back penalizes uncompensated transfers, and the homestead is generally protected for eligibility. The full numbers live on our calculator and Medicaid planning page, where they stay current.

Protecting the Home

The homestead is the family’s biggest and most emotional asset, and it has two jobs: keep the parent eligible for care benefits, and pass the home to the kids without probate. A lady bird deed does both, with the parent keeping full control during life, and, done right, it doesn’t trip the Medicaid transfer penalty the way a plain gift deed would. See how the home is protected → Some situations call for a trust instead; the right tool depends on the family.

Incapacity Planning: The Documents That Avoid a Guardianship

If a parent loses capacity with no plan, the family’s only route is a court guardianship: expensive, public, slow, and stripping the parent of rights. The fix is a small set of documents signed while the parent is clearly competent. Florida law actually requires a court to consider these less-restrictive alternatives before imposing guardianship (§744.331(6)(b)).

The financial half is a durable power of attorney (ch. 709): effective immediately (Florida bars “springing” POAs), with powers specifically listed and the seven “superpowers” separately initialed, which is exactly what an agent needs to do Medicaid spend-down. The health-care half is a designation of health-care surrogate, a living will, and a HIPAA authorization (ch. 765). Without a directive, Florida’s default ladder (spouse, then adult children, §765.401) decides for you, a real problem for blended families or unmarried partners. Surrogate, living will, and HIPAA: $350 per person.

Guardianship and Its Alternatives

Guardianship is a court taking over decision-making for someone found incapacitated; it’s a last resort. Florida favors the alternatives: a durable POA, a health-care surrogate, a funded revocable trust with a successor trustee, and a supported decision-making agreement (§709.2209) for someone who wants a helper rather than a decision-maker. The headline for worried families: the incapacity package, signed early, is what blocks a guardianship later. We handle guardianship when it’s genuinely needed, and help families avoid it when it isn’t.

Special-Needs Planning

When a family member with a disability would lose SSI or Medicaid by inheriting outright, a special-needs trust holds funds for their benefit without disqualifying them. A third-party trust is funded by parents or grandparents; a first-party trust holds the disabled person’s own money (a settlement, say) and carries a Medicaid payback. We draft them from $4,000.

Elder Financial Exploitation

Name the fear directly: a “new friend,” a caregiver, even a relative draining a parent’s accounts. Florida criminalizes exploitation of an elderly or disabled adult (§§825.101 to 825.103) and separately disqualifies an exploiter from inheriting from the victim (§732.8031), which can apply even without a criminal conviction. A well-drafted POA reduces the opening (successor agents, no self-dealing for non-relatives), and when money is already gone, litigation is available. See estate and fiduciary disputes →

Elder Law vs. Estate Planning

Estate planning is wills, trusts, avoiding probate, and who inherits, after death. Elder law is paying for care, Medicaid, incapacity documents, guardianship avoidance, protecting the home, and exploitation, during life. Most families over 60 need both, coordinated, which is exactly what one office can do. See the full estate plan →

How We Work

Flat fees quoted up front for the planning documents (Medicaid and crisis work is quoted at the consult because every family’s numbers differ), a free 30-minute consult, and the whole thing done by phone and video so an adult child in another state can drive it for a Florida parent. Kevin brings more than a decade of Florida probate, estate planning, and trust litigation, so the plans are built to hold up. Government costs (recording, filing) are additional, at cost. See pricing →

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Situations

The phone call from Ohio. An adult daughter in Columbus gets the call: Dad fell, he’s headed to rehab in Boca, and the social worker is already talking about “long-term placement” and “spend-down.” She has no POA and no idea what he owns. On a video consult we map his income against the Florida cap, set up a Qualified Income Trust, file the Medicaid application, and pull together the documents he can still sign while he has capacity. She runs it all from her kitchen table.

“We just need to protect the house.” A retired couple own their Miami homestead free and clear and want it to go to their two kids without probate, while keeping the door open to Medicaid later. A plain quitclaim to the kids would be a Medicaid transfer they’d regret and cost the kids a step-up in basis. Instead we record a lady bird deed: they keep full control now, the home passes automatically later, and the look-back trap is avoided.

The “new friend.” A widower’s daughter notices a recent acquaintance is suddenly on Dad’s bank account; thousands are missing. We find the old POA was a generic form a bank had already rejected, put a properly drafted durable POA with a trustworthy successor in place, and pursue the funds already moved. (Illustrative, not an actual client.)

Sources of Law

• Powers of attorney: Fla. Stat. ch. 709 (§709.2104, §709.2108, §709.2201, §709.2202, §709.2208, §709.2120, §709.2209). Health-care directives: ch. 765 (§765.204, §765.401). Guardianship: §744.331(6)(b). Exploitation: §§825.101 to 825.103; §732.8031 (forfeiture). Medicaid figures live on the calculator and Medicaid page (verified 2026). (retrieved 2026-06-07)

Updated June 7, 2026. Reviewed by Kevin D. Klagge, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 99502 — more than a decade of Florida estate planning, probate, and trust and probate litigation. General information about Florida law, not legal advice, and no attorney-client relationship is created. Please don’t send confidential details until we’re engaged.