Dignity comes first
The client's wishes and autonomy stay central. We plan around the life the person wants, not only the assets they hold.
Practice area · Estate Planning · Elder Law
Elder Law
Counsel for the family steward navigating an aging parent's care — capacity and guardianship, Medicaid planning and the five-year look-back, advance directives, and protection from financial exploitation. The work protects dignity and assets at the same time, and it is most effective when it begins before a crisis forces it.
- Discipline
- Estate Planning
- Engagement
- Per matter
- Counsel
- Christopher Moye
Elder Law
Dignity comes first
The client's wishes and autonomy stay central.
The problem
By the time care is urgent, the options that protect the home and savings have usually narrowed.
Medicaid's five-year look-back, the cost of long-term care, and the question of who can legally act for a parent who has lost capacity all reward planning done early. Done late, the same questions become a crisis handled under pressure — which is why elder-law planning is most valuable before it feels necessary.
Principles · 01
How we draft the matter.
Every engagement is composed against these commitments. They shape the protections we add, the questions we ask, and the document that leaves the file.
Protect assets within the rules
Strategies that shield savings from care costs while preserving benefit eligibility — built to the Medicaid rules, not around a promise of approval.
Reduce the burden on family
Clear authorities and directives so the people providing care can act without conflict, court, or guesswork.
What we watch · 02
What can break the matter.
These are the terms, structures, and practical risks that usually decide whether the work holds when the file is tested.
CAREGIVERSTEWARD
Medicaid and long-term care
Planning for the five-year look-back and the cost of care — Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts, spousal strategies, and the timing that determines whether they work.
CAREGIVERFAMILY
Capacity and authority
Durable powers of attorney, health care proxies, and living wills executed to New York's requirements — so someone can act without a guardianship proceeding.
FAMILYSTEWARD
Protection from exploitation
Safeguards and oversight that protect a vulnerable adult from financial exploitation while preserving as much independence as possible.
The work · 03
Four steps. One engagement.
Each step is concrete; each step has a deliverable. The scope is defined, the matter moves, and the file closes.
- 01
Situation review
We start with the facts that drive the plan — health status, the assets at stake, the family dynamics, and who is available to act.
- 02
Plan design
We map the directives, authorities, and asset-protection strategy to the goal, and explain the trade-offs and timing in plain terms.
- 03
Documents
We prepare and execute the powers of attorney, health care proxy, trusts, and related instruments to New York's requirements.
- 04
Review and support
We revisit the plan as health, family circumstances, or the law change — elder-law planning is rarely finished in one sitting.
Proof
What stands behind the work.
What stands behind the work — credentials and representative engagements, stated plainly.
Elder-law and estate matters are handled by Christopher Moyé, Esq., who authors the firm's published writing on estate planning and elder law.
Medicaid planning, capacity and guardianship, advance directives and powers of attorney, special-needs planning, and elder-exploitation protection.
Every engagement starts from the family's actual situation — health, finances, and who can act — before any document is drafted.
Common questions
Questions clients ask.
Plain answers to the questions that come up most. If yours is not here, send the facts — we answer in writing.
- What is the Medicaid look-back period in New York?
- When you apply for Medicaid long-term care, the agency reviews asset transfers made during a look-back period — five years for institutional (nursing-home) care. Gifts or transfers for less than fair value during that window can create a penalty period of ineligibility. Planning earlier gives strategies like a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust time to work; we will not promise an approval, but we structure the plan to the rules.
- Can I protect my home from nursing-home costs?
- Often, yes — but the tool and the timing matter. A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust can hold the home outside countable assets when it is funded well before care is needed, because of the look-back. We assess whether a trust, a different transfer, or a spousal strategy fits your facts.
- What documents should every aging adult have in place?
- At a minimum: a durable power of attorney so someone can manage finances, a health care proxy to make medical decisions, and a living will expressing end-of-life wishes. New York has specific execution requirements for each, and we prepare them so they actually work when they are needed.
- What is the difference between a power of attorney and guardianship?
- A power of attorney is signed while a person still has capacity, choosing in advance who will act. Guardianship is a court proceeding used after capacity is lost and no valid authority exists — slower, public, and more expensive. Planning ahead with a power of attorney is how families avoid guardianship.
- How do I protect a disabled family member's benefits?
- A special-needs trust can hold assets for a person with a disability without disqualifying them from means-tested benefits like Medicaid or SSI. We structure the trust so an inheritance or settlement supplements, rather than replaces, the benefits they rely on.
PROTECT DIGNITY AND ASSETS AT ONCE
Plan for care before the crisis.
Bring the situation you are facing — an aging parent, a new diagnosis, a Medicaid question. We build the directives, authorities, and asset-protection plan that protect the person first.
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