Elder Law

Legislation that made changes to the Florida Health Care Surrogate Act was enacted in October of 2015. Although many of the changes affected competent adults, there were also changes that [...]

Florida recently enacted changes to the Florida Health Care Surrogate Act that gives patients additional flexibility in appointing an agent and add additional notification requirements for [...]

In the 2013 case Laizure vs. Avante at Leesburg, Inc. (SC10-2132), the Florida Supreme Court had to consider whether a nursing home patient’s agreement to arbitrate all claims against a nursing [...]

Despite having a power of attorney and other lesser restrictive alternatives in place, there may still be situations in which appointing a guardian is necessary for the safety of the [...]

While appointing a power of attorney can mitigate the need for a guardianship, there are other times in which a guardianship is necessary. In the last blog post, we discussed the need for a [...]

In estate planning documents, an agent can be  chosen to act under a power of attorney, which is especially  useful in the event that the principal becomes incapacitated and cannot make decisions [...]

In 2015, Congress passed the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 which put an end to Social Security strategies that allowed couples to grow their spousal benefits. The two strategies “file and [...]

In the fall of 2015, Congress voted down the Social Security strategies known as “file and suspend” and “restricted filing” which were collectively called “claim now, claim more later.” These [...]

For many retired seniors, finding a senior living community can be a challenging task. It can be tough to transition from living independently to moving into a community with frequent and close [...]

Advance directives are documents that spell out your medical wishes for end-of-life care. Advance directives include living wills and the appointment of healthcare surrogates. As you get older it [...]