In my book, “How to Protect Your Family’s Assets from Devastating Nursing Home Costs: Medicaid Secrets,” I consistently emphasize the importance of checking out the availability of various techniques discussed in the book with a local, experienced elder law attorney. But what about those “Medicaid Planners” who are not attorneys? Can their advice be relied upon? Let’s take a look…
To become an attorney, you must attend an accredited law school, study for 3 years, pass all the course exams, and then take a two-day bar exam to become licensed. Those attorneys wishing to hold themselves out as Medicaid planners must then attend numerous CLE (Continuing Legal Education) courses and embark on a lifetime of study and education, since this field is constantly changing.
Some attorneys then go on to become a CELA (Certified Elder Law Attorney), a designation issued only by the National Elder Law Foundation (the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates approved the National Elder Law Foundation as the certifying entity for specialization in elder law in February 1995). To become so certified, the attorney must have been practicing at least 5 years, and within the most recent 3 years (i) have spent an average of at least 16 hours per week practicing elder law, (ii) have handled at least 60 elder law matters, and (iii) have participated in at least 45 hours of continuing legal education in elder law. There are additional qualifications required, including passing an all-day exam. Whew!
Let’s compare that to the requirements of, say, a Certified Senior Advisor. The CSA designation can be earned by paying $995 to the Society of Senior Advisors, completing an online course, passing four open book multiple choice 10-question mini-exams, one longer closed-book exam, and writing a four-page article about a meeting with a professional outside your own profession who works with seniors. That’s it. Essentially, it can all be done within a week’s time.
Certainly the 700-page course book and other materials are helpful and useful. But the bottom line is that there is no way anyone completing the course will have more than a very cursory understanding of all the issues that may be involved in a typical Medicaid planning case. While laudatory for offering education in areas of concern to seniors, the CSA program seems designed for the most part as a marketing angle for those in the financial services industry. In my experience, the CSA designation has been used after a salesman’s name (”John Doe, CSA”) as if to equate the designation with “J.D.” or “Ph.D.” As you can see by a comparison between what is needed to earn a law degree to that needed to earn a CSA, the ratio is about 365-to-1: three years of study vs. three days (or so).
Does that mean that the additional education offered by a designation such as a CSA is worthless or useless? Not at all! Anyone who is in the profession of advising others can benefit from additional and specialized education. However, the elder law attorney, with significantly more extensive and advanced training, has the background to spot issues about which a CSA would have no clue, e.g., the effect of the elective share on Medicaid transfers between spouses; the difference in ownership of various types of deeds; the tax effect of a life estate in a house; the limitations of a durable power of attorney in Medicaid planning; the interaction of wills, trusts, and intestacy when planning; etc. Too often in my practice, I have had to use my legal training to untangle complex legal issues that at first seemed to have no bearing on the Medicaid planning problem I was presented with by the client. Would the financial services advisor who had completed the CSA course be able to spot these issues? If you have any doubts, then you have your answer.
Medicaid planning is not a “one size fits all” proposition. A professional must examine and apply the current law to each client’s financial situation, family dynamics, and life goals. Be sure the advisor you choose has the necessary training and experience to assist you correctly and completely.
(For more info on the CELA requirements, see: http://www.nelf.org/become.htm; for more info on CSA requirements, see: http://www.society-csa.com/OnlineRequirements.aspx)
© 2007 by K. Gabriel Heiser
Attorney K. Gabriel Heiser has devoted his legal practice to Medicaid planning, elder law, and estate planning for the last 24 years.
NOTE: For more information on this topic and other Medicaid planning techniques, see www.MedicaidSecrets.com, which describes an exciting new 256-page book written by attorney Heiser, “How to Protect Your Family’s Assets from Devastating Nursing Home Costs: Medicaid Secrets.” You don’t have to go broke to get Medicaid to pay your nursing home bills, you just have to know the rules and planning techniques. For the first time ever, you can learn the inside secrets of high-priced estate planning and elder law attorneys, in attorney Heiser’s new book.
Tags: asset protection, elder law, Medicaid, nursing home
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