New York Estate Planning Lawyer Ettinger Law Firm Home Home About the Firm Our People Practice Areas Contact Us More CONTACT US FOR A FREE CONSULTATION or LIVE WEBINAR RESERVATION or WATCH RECORDED WEBINAR 1-800-500-2525 EXT. 117 Trusts and Estates Wills and Probate Tax Saving Strategies Medicaid Office Locations: Albany; Bohemia; Brooklyn; Fishkill; Huntington; Lake Success; Melville; Middletown; New City; Rhinebeck; Rockville Centre; Saratoga; Staten Island; White Plains Schedule an in-office, Zoom or phone consultation Here. New York Elder Law Estate Planning Lawyers About Ettinger Law Firm With over 30 years of experience, Ettinger Law Firm has been practicing elder law estate planning exclusively since 1991. Our practice consists of Living Trusts, Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts, Medicaid Applications, Wills, Probate, Estate Administration and Special Needs Trusts in our fourteen offices in Albany, Bohemia, Brooklyn, Fishkill, Huntington, Lake Success, Melville, Middletown, New City, Rhinebeck, Rockville Centre, Saratoga, Staten Island and White Plains. We serve elder law estate planning clients in the following counties of New York: Albany, Columbia, Dutchess, Greene, Kings, Nassau, New York, Orange, Putnam, Queens, Ulster, Rensselaer, Richmond, Rockland, Saratoga, Schenectady, Suffolk, Sullivan, Warren, Washington, and Westchester. Our founding attorney, Michael Ettinger, is author of “Elder Law Estate Planning” and a leading authority on elder law estate planning matters. He was a founding member of The American Academy of Estate Planning Lawyers and Past President of The American Association of Trust, Estate and Elder Law Attorneys. The firm today consists of ten lawyers and fourteen paralegals and support staff. Elder Law and Disability Planning Elder law addresses disability planning. As people's life expectancies have increased due to advances in medical science as well as health and nutrition people are living much longer than just a century ago. One result is that many more people now become disabled before they die – some say that as many as half of us will have a period later in life where we are unable to manage our affairs. Elder law protect the needs of frail seniors by providing substitute decision-making through the use of Powers of Attorney, Health Care Proxies and Living Wills, Revocable and Irrevocable Living Trusts, Medicaid Planning and Medicaid Applications. Proper elder law planning allows you to avoid guardianship proceedings upon disability and keep control with your loves ones. Ettinger Law Firm has prepared many thousands of each of the foregoing matters since 1991 and can help you with a free elder law and disability planning consultation at any of our fourteen New York locations. Please contact us by telephone or email. Estate Planning With Revocable Living Trusts Estate Planning has been defined as “Getting your assets, upon death, to whom you want, when you want, in the way you want, with the least amount of taxes and legal fees possible.” Estate planning most often results in the use of revocable living trusts to avoid probate at death. Probate is a court proceeding required to prove the will valid before the executor may proceed to distribute assets to the named heirs. Probate can often be expensive and time-consuming, resulting in frustrating delays. Revocable living trusts do not require court proceedings at death and thus have become the most popular alternative to wills for seniors. Other advantages of living trusts are they are significantly less expensive to settle upon death than wills, they can keep your assets in the bloodline with Inheritance Protection Trusts, and they afford privacy of the deceased person's affairs since there is no probate record of how much you had, who you left it to, or who you may have left out. Again, with a living trust you keep control with your loved one instead of handing it over to courts and judges as you do with a will. Living trusts also provide for who takes over if you should become disabled, avoiding potentially expensive and time-consuming guardianship proceedings and keeping control in the family. Ettinger Law Firm has prepared thousands of revocable living trusts. For a free revocable living trust consultation at any one of our fourteen New York offices, please contact us by telephone or email. Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts (MAPT's) have been protecting clients' assets for over thirty years. Also known as an irrevocable Medicaid trust, these trusts avoid guardianship proceedings on disability, avoid probate proceedings at death, keep assets in the bloodline with Inheritance Protection Trusts, and have the added feature of protecting your assets from nursing home care costs. There is a five year “look back” period upon transfer of assets to the Medicaid trust. This means that assets are not fully protected until five years after the date of transfer. However, the time pro rates, so let's say you don't make it five years – you need nursing home care three years after you put your assets into the Medicaid trust -- in that case you only have to pay for the two years that are left. There are many misconceptions and myths about Medicaid trusts. Well-meaning but ill-informed professionals such as accountants, financial advisors and even general practice lawyers often give incorrect advice in this area. For example, very few know that in New York we can actually revoke the irrevocable trust – we just have to get all family members to sign. Ettinger Law Firm has prepared thousands of Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts. To get the correct advice about Medicaid trusts at one of our fourteen New York offices, please contact us by telephone or email. Medicaid Applications Whether a loved one needs Medicaid for home care (Community Medicaid) or Medicaid for nursing home care (Institutional or Chronic Care Medicaid) an application for Medicaid benefits is required. Due to complex asset and transfer rules, various “look back” periods and different Medicaid practices in the various counties of New York State, the application should be made with the assistance of an experienced elder law attorney. Ettinger Law Firm has filed thousands of Medicaid applications. Certain assets are exempt from Medicaid where there is a spouse at home (the “community spouse”). Apart from the exempt assets, there are a number of ways to protect assets from Medicaid such as where there has been an adult caregiver living in the home for two or more years before applying for Medicaid, spousal refusal and transferring the assets to a Supplemental or Special Needs Trust to a disabled child under the age of sixty. To learn more about your eligibility for home care Medicaid benefits or nursing home Medicaid benefits, please contact us by telephone or email to schedule a free consultation in one of our fourteen New York offices. LEARN MORE Contact Us Free Consultation 1-800-500-2525 Ext. 117 Name (Required) Email (Required) Phone (Required) Message CONTACT US NOW Practice Areas Elder Law Estate Planning Wills Medicaid Strategies Living Trusts Special Needs Trusts Estate Administration and Probate Young Family Estate Planning Reviews powered by BirdEye Upcoming Seminars Free online Elder Law Estate Planning Seminar "Four Advantages of Using Trusts" every Wednesday at 2:00 pm hosted by attorney Michael Ettinger. Choose to watch "live" to get all your questions answered or watch recorded copy now. Get all your questions answered live. REGISTER Our Videos ELDER E-LERT Search Search SEARCH Free Elder Law Estate Planning E-Book Click here to receive your free emailed copy of Michael Ettinger's book "Elder Law Estate Planning" 2021 edition. 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Name (Required) Email (Required) Phone (Required) Message CONTACT US NOW CAPITAL DISTRICT Albany County 125 Wolf Rd #225 Albany, NY 12205 Phone: 518-459-2700 Saratoga County 340 Broadway 3rd Floor Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 Phone: 518-581-9200 HUDSON VALLEY Dutchess County 200 Westage Business Center Dr #235 Fishkill, NY 12524 Phone: 845-897-4700 Orange County 75 Crystal Run Rd #G34 Middletown, NY 10941 Phone: 845-692-8700 Dutchess County 6369 Mill St #216 Rhinebeck, NY 12572 Phone: 845-876-6266 LONG ISLAND Suffolk County 80 Orville Dr #100 Bohemia, NY 11716 Phone: 631-589-3333 Suffolk County 425 New York Ave Huntington, NY 11743 Phone: 631-824-8000 Nassau County 3000 Marcus Ave #1E7 New Hyde Park, NY 11042 Phone: 516-327-8880 Suffolk County 1 Huntington Quadrangle #2S12 Melville, NY 11747 Phone: 631-673-3777 Nassau County 100 Merrick Rd #212W Rockville Centre, NY 11570 Phone: 516-502-0100 WESTCHESTER/ROCKLAND Rockland County 345 N Main St #5 New City, NY 10956 Phone: 845-353-9555 Westchester County 140 Grand St #410 White Plains, NY 10601 Phone: 914-684-6100 NEW YORK CITY Kings County 300 Cadman Plaza W 12th Floor Brooklyn, NY 11201 Phone: 718-625-5100 Richmond County 900 South Ave 3rd Floor Staten Island, NY 10314 Phone: 718-477-2700 Attorney Advertising Toll-free: 1-800-500-2525 Ext: 117 Toll-free Fax: 1-800-500-5445 We serve the following localities: Albany County including Albany; Bronx County including The Bronx; Dutchess County including Fishkill, Poughkeepsie, and Rhinebeck; View More Home Disclaimer Privacy Policy Site Map Contact Us New York Estate Planning Lawyer | New York Elder Law Attorney | Ettinger Law Firm This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. 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