What is the difference between estate planning and elder law?

Quick Answer

Estate planning is largely about what happens after you die. Elder law is about the years before, when aging, illness, or incapacity create legal problems while you are still here. They overlap heavily, and a good elder law practice does both, because families almost never need only one.

The distinction that matters

Estate planning asks who receives what, and how smoothly. Wills, trusts, beneficiary designations, probate avoidance.

Elder law asks a harder question. What happens when someone is still here but can no longer sign, decide, drive, manage money, or advocate for themselves? Who has authority, how does care get paid for, and what has to go to court because a document was never signed?

Now realize how much of the damage in a family happens in that middle stretch, long before anyone is thinking about an estate.

What sits in the elder law half

Long-term care planning and Medicaid eligibility, because care costs are the single largest financial threat most families face late in life.

Powers of attorney and healthcare directives, which decide whether your family has authority or has to ask a judge for it.

Capacity, which quietly governs whether planning is even still possible.

Guardianship and conservatorship, which is where you end up when the documents were never done.

Veterans benefits, special needs planning, and protecting the spouse who is still at home.

Why the pieces are not separate boxes

A family comes in asking about a will and needs a health care power of attorney far more urgently.

A family comes in about Medicaid and needs a deed reviewed first, because how the house is titled changes the answer.

A family comes in after a dementia diagnosis and needs powers of attorney reviewed, care planning, Medicaid planning, and asset protection all at once.

Handling one system in isolation is how families solve today’s problem and create next year’s.

The Georgia part

Nearly all of this is state law. Georgia’s five-year Medicaid look back. Georgia’s status as an income cap state, requiring a Qualified Income Trust when income runs over. Georgia’s two-witness requirement for wills. Georgia probate procedure, which varies by county.

National advice on these topics is often technically accurate and practically useless, because the rule that decides your outcome is a Georgia rule.

Which do you need

If you are in your thirties with young children, you need estate planning: a will naming guardians, and powers of attorney.

If a parent has been diagnosed with dementia, or a spouse is heading into a facility, you need elder law, and quickly.

Most families eventually need both, and the same three documents are the foundation for either: a last will and testament, a financial power of attorney, and a health care power of attorney.

The timing difference

Estate planning can generally wait a few months without much changing.

Elder law frequently cannot, because capacity is the deadline and capacity does not come back.

Your next step

Schedule a complimentary 15-minute Strategy Session with our Decatur office at 404-549-5001.

More is on our Estate Planning page and across our elder law services.

Related questions

• What is Elder Law?
• When should I meet with an Elder Law Attorney?
• What should be the ultimate goal of estate planning?
• When is the appropriate time to begin planning?

This page is presented for educational purposes only and nothing on it should be treated as legal advice. What applies to you is very fact specific to your situation and your family. Our attorneys are licensed in Georgia and Michigan. This area of law has frequent statutory and policy changes.

   

Looking to find an experienced estate lawyer in the Georgia area who is skilled in asset protection and estate plan preparation? Shannon Pawley is an attorney in Georgia with expertise in estate planning and asset protection. Shannon can provide assistance with creating an estate plan to include making a will and how to establish a trust properly. If you have questions about asset protection or questions about making an estate plan, reach out to Shannon and she will be glad to help answer all the estate planning questions you might have!