Planning ahead means your family knows exactly what you wanted, and nobody has to guess or go to court to find out. Most people come to us worried about the same things: protecting a home they’ve owned for decades, paying for care without spending down everything they built, and sparing their kids a fight.
Miller Law Firm PC is led by a Certified Elder Law Attorney, one of roughly 600 nationwide, and our team includes two social workers who help families think through care as well as paperwork. If you’re looking for an elder law attorney in Gladwyne, call today to schedule your consultation.
When one firm handles every stage, your will, your care plan, and your family’s next steps all line up. Most people who come to us for elder law in Gladwyne already have documents somewhere, usually drafted by a firm that never got into Medicaid or capacity work. We pick up from there.
We want your family to have an easy time of it, which is why every will we write includes the notarized affidavit that lets Montgomery County accept your signature on its own. Plenty of older wills skip that step, and it costs the family weeks.
A trust can pass the house to your children without probate, though only if the deed actually made it into the trust. We see unfunded trusts all the time, usually through no fault of the family. Retitling is part of what we do, not an afterthought.
Pennsylvania rewrote its power of attorney rules back in 2014, and anything signed before then can get turned away at the bank. If you’re not sure when yours was done, bring it in. We’ll look it over and update it if it needs updating.
Privacy law is strict, and a hospital legally can’t share much without written permission, even with a spouse. So if a call comes in from Lankenau at two in the morning, a HIPAA authorization already on file means the people who love you can get real answers.
Grandparents often name a disabled grandchild right in the will, meaning well and not realizing the gift can end Medical Assistance eligibility the day it arrives. A special needs trust takes the inheritance instead, so the help arrives and the benefits stay put.
Most families face this during a two-day discharge conversation nobody saw coming, and the options are whatever’s available that week. When long-term care planning happens years ahead, you get to choose the care you want and protect what the lookback would otherwise reach.
If nothing was signed and a parent can no longer decide, there’s still a way forward. Pennsylvania tightened its guardianship rules in 2024 and added a certification most petitioners can’t meet alone. Our certified guardian services clear it, and we’ll walk you through your own petition too.
There’s a version of this where care gets paid for and the house stays in the family, and it usually comes down to starting early. Most Gladwyne families have more room to work with than they realize, though the best options tend to close quietly once care is already underway.
Around here the first move is rarely a nursing home. It's aides in the house, and at roughly $34 an hour in Pennsylvania, around-the-clock coverage runs past $20,000 a month. Families often spend two years that way before anyone brings up Medicaid.
Pennsylvania looks back five years at anything you've given away, so timing matters more than almost anything else. A Medicaid asset protection trust set up well ahead of need can shelter the house. We'll tell you honestly what's still on the table.
Waverly Heights sits right in the village, and contracts like theirs deserve a slow read before anyone signs. Whether an entrance fee is refundable changes how Medicaid counts it later, and Type A, B, and C agreements carry very different risk down the road.
If a parent has already slipped past the point of signing anything, families tend to assume court is the only road left. It often isn’t, and even when it is, the process now leans much harder toward keeping people in charge of their own lives wherever that’s still possible.
Since 2024, a Pennsylvania judge has to weigh what’s already in place before appointing anyone. A signed health care directive or financial power of attorney can end the question entirely, which is one more reason to handle those while there’s still time.
Financial exploitation usually comes from someone already close by, a relative or a new friend who turns unusually attentive. When you’re worried about a relative’s accounts, protecting what’s theirs is often possible without going to court at all.
Anyone serving as guardian for three or more people now needs a state certification, and a law license doesn’t satisfy it. We hold it. That matters when no family member can serve, and elder law attorneys in Gladwyne who can act as certified guardians are genuinely scarce.
The family home is usually the biggest thing on the list and the one people worry about most. A few Pennsylvania rules catch families off guard here, and all of them are easier to work around while there’s still time to plan.
Most families here brace for federal estate tax and never owe a dollar of it. Pennsylvania is the one that lands: 4.5% to your children, 12% to siblings, 15% to a niece, nephew, or friend. Paying within three months earns a 5% discount.
A will from the 1990s often lacks the notarized affidavit that lets your signature stand on its own. Without it, two witnesses have to turn up in person and confirm they watched you sign. Decades later, finding them is usually the hard part.
An Avalon place or a Florida condo means a second probate in that state, on top of the one here. Where you’re legally domiciled affects the tax bill too, and snowbirds are often surprised which state gets to claim them.
You get one team from the first conversation through the last filing, which spares your family the worst kind of scramble. Plenty of attorneys will draft a document set and wish you well. Working with an elder law firm in Gladwyne, PA that stays involved is a different experience entirely.
We write the will, and years later we handle the Medicaid application and eventually the probate. You never have to explain the family history twice, and nothing gets lost in a handoff between firms during a week when your attention is somewhere else.
Nobody signs anything here without understanding what it does and why it’s in there. We’d rather spend an extra hour at the table than have your children discover in a year that the plan wasn’t quite what everyone assumed.
When someone can’t easily travel, we can meet at the hospital, the rehab facility, or at home. That comes up more than you’d think here, whether it’s a signing that can’t wait for a discharge date or a client who has simply stopped driving.
Below are the questions we hear most often from families across Lower Merion. If yours isn’t here, call us and ask. Most of these conversations start with someone who isn’t sure what they need yet, which is a perfectly good place to begin.
Often, yes. Since 2024, a judge must find that less restrictive options are insufficient before appointing a guardian, and a valid financial power of attorney is exactly that. Elder law attorneys in Gladwyne see this constantly: one signed document keeps a family out of court entirely.
It depends who inherits. Children and grandchildren pay 4.5% of the home’s value, siblings pay 12%, and anyone else pays 15%. A surviving spouse pays nothing. Paying within three months of death earns a 5% discount on the total.
Yes, and it’s worth doing before you commit. An elder law firm in Gladwyne, PA will look at whether the entrance fee is refundable, how Medicaid would treat it later, and which contract type you’re actually signing, since Type A, B, and C spread the financial risk very differently.
In Pennsylvania, sometimes. A filial support law lets facilities pursue adult children for a parent’s unpaid bill, and our courts have enforced it. Planning ahead is the reliable way to keep your kids out of that position entirely.
Miller Law Firm is the best elder law attorney in Gladwyne because we stay with families through the whole arc, not just the drafting. The same team that writes your plan handles the Medicaid application years later and the probate after that, without a handoff mid-crisis.
You don’t need to have it all figured out before you call. Most families start with a few questions and a rough sense that something should be in place. As an experienced elder law attorney in Gladwyne, we’ll help you sort out what matters first. Call today to schedule your consultation.
