Elder Law Attorney serving Atlanta
Aging can change the questions your family needs to answer. Who can manage finances if you cannot? Who will speak with doctors? How could long-term care affect your savings? And what happens if an aging parent loses the ability to make those decisions before legal documents are in place?
An elder law attorney at Chandler Law helps Atlanta families address those questions before a health or financial crisis makes the choices harder. We bring estate planning, incapacity planning, guardianship, trusts, and long-term care concerns into one plan built around what matters to you and your family.
Why an Elder Law Attorney Should Be Involved Before a Crisis
Elder law planning is not only about what happens after death. It also determines who has authority to act during your lifetime if illness, dementia, disability, or long-term care needs change what you can manage yourself.
Georgia Medicaid considers income, resources, medical needs, and functional eligibility for long-term care programs. Georgia probate courts may also appoint guardians or conservators when an adult can no longer make certain personal or financial decisions.
An elder law attorney can review the documents you already have, identify what is missing, and help your family decide what should be put in place while you can still make those decisions yourself.
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Elder Law Services We Provide at Chandler Law
Long-Term Care and Medicaid Planning
Long-term care can include support at home, assisted living, or nursing facility care. Chandler Law helps families consider how care costs, available assets, and Georgia Medicaid eligibility fit into the broader plan before care becomes an immediate need.
Wills and Trusts
A will directs certain property after death, while trusts can provide more flexibility during life and afterward. An elder law attorney prepares wills and trusts based on what you own, who depends on you, and how you want property managed or transferred.
Financial Powers of Attorney
A financial power of attorney lets someone you choose handle financial, property, or legal matters if you cannot manage them yourself. Putting that authority in place before capacity becomes an issue may help your family avoid having to seek a court-appointed conservator later.
Advance Healthcare Directives
Georgia’s Advance Directive for Health Care allows you to name someone to make healthcare decisions if you cannot communicate them yourself. It also gives you a way to record treatment preferences before your family is asked to make those choices during a medical crisis.
Adult Guardianship and Conservatorship
When an adult can no longer make informed personal or financial decisions, court involvement may become necessary. A guardian generally handles personal decisions, while a conservator manages finances or property. Chandler Law assists Atlanta families with both.
Special Needs and Family Planning
A family member with a disability may need a plan that accounts for inheritance, care, decision-making authority, and access to public benefits. Trust planning can help provide ongoing financial support without treating a standard inheritance as the only option.
Long-Term Care Planning Is Also Asset Planning
Paying for care and protecting what you have spent a lifetime building are connected decisions. Georgia Medicaid has financial and functional requirements for long-term care benefits, and certain benefits may later become subject to estate recovery.
An elder law attorney at our firm can look at care needs alongside trusts, property ownership, beneficiary designations, powers of attorney, and the rest of your estate plan. That gives you a clearer picture of how one decision may affect another before money is moved or documents are changed.
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Why Atlanta Families Choose Chandler Law
Life & Legacy Planning
Chandler Law’s planning process begins with your family, finances, priorities, and the people you trust rather than starting with a standard set of documents.
Planning That Continues
Through the Shield & Key Membership Experience, families can revisit and update their plans as health, relationships, property, and priorities change.
Planning and Guardianship
An elder law attorney handles both proactive estate planning and adult guardianship and conservatorship matters, allowing our team to assist before incapacity and when court involvement becomes necessary.
Guidance for Difficult Decisions
Estate planning and elder law can involve important choices about who will manage finances, make healthcare decisions, care for minor children, or step in if capacity declines. Chandler Law helps families understand their options and put those decisions into a practical legal plan.
How an Elder Law Attorney Builds Your Plan
Start With What Is Changing
We talk about your health, family, assets, care concerns, existing documents, and the decisions you want to keep in your hands.
Review What Is Already in Place
Wills, trusts, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, beneficiary designations, and property ownership are reviewed together to identify gaps or outdated instructions.
Put the Right Authority in Place
We prepare or update the documents needed for financial decisions, healthcare, asset management, long-term planning, and family responsibilities.
Keep the Plan Current
A plan made today may need to change after a diagnosis, move, death, change in assets, or change in care needs. Our ongoing estate planning model gives families a way to revisit those decisions over time.
Talk to an Atlanta Elder Law Attorney
You do not need to wait for a medical emergency or care decision to find out whether your current plan will work. Speak with an elder law attorney at Chandler Law about your family, your existing documents, and what should be addressed now.
Schedule Your ConsultationFAQs About Elder Law in Atlanta
01What can an elder law attorney in Atlanta help with?
An elder law attorney can help older adults and their families address legal issues that become more important with age. This may include estate planning, powers of attorney, healthcare directives, long-term care and Medicaid planning, guardianship, conservatorship, trusts, and probate. Elder law also addresses decisions that may arise during a person’s lifetime if health, care needs, finances, or family circumstances change.
02What is the difference between elder law and estate planning?
Estate planning focuses on how property and decision-making authority should be handled during incapacity and after death. Elder law can include estate planning but also covers issues connected with aging, such as long-term care, Medicaid planning, guardianship, conservatorship, and financial protection. The two areas frequently overlap, particularly when a family is planning for future care or possible incapacity.
03Can Medicaid help pay for long-term care in Atlanta?
Yes. Eligible Atlanta residents may qualify for Georgia Medicaid programs that provide long-term care in nursing facilities or certain home and community settings. Eligibility depends on the specific program and can include income, resources, medical needs, functional status, Georgia residency, and the required level of care. Some qualifying individuals may be able to receive support at home or in the community rather than in a nursing facility.
04What happens if my parent loses capacity without a power of attorney?
If a parent can no longer make certain personal or financial decisions and does not have the appropriate powers of attorney in place, court involvement may become necessary. In Georgia, a probate court may appoint a guardian for personal decisions, a conservator for financial matters, or both. Fulton County Probate Court handles adult guardianship and conservatorship matters for residents within its jurisdiction.
05Can Georgia recover Medicaid costs from an estate after someone dies?
In some cases, yes. Georgia’s Medicaid Estate Recovery Program may seek reimbursement from the estate of a Medicaid member who received qualifying long-term care or home and community-based services. Estates with a gross value of $25,000 or less are currently exempt, and recovery may also be delayed or waived in certain circumstances involving surviving family members or undue hardship.