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Elder Law · Annapolis, Maryland

Plan ahead for the realities of aging. With dignity intact.

Long-term care funding, Medicaid asset protection, crisis Medicaid planning, powers of attorney, and special needs planning — for Maryland families navigating what comes next for a parent, a spouse, or themselves.

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What we handle

Comprehensive elder law for Anne Arundel County families.

Medicaid Asset Protection

Irrevocable trusts and gifting strategies that respect Maryland's 60-month lookback and protect the family home.

Crisis Medicaid Planning

When care is already needed and the lookback window has closed — spousal transfers, caregiver agreements, and protective annuities to save what remains.

Long-Term Care Planning

Coordinating nursing home, assisted-living, and in-home care funding with private pay and Medicaid.

Powers of Attorney & Directives

Elder-law-grade POAs with the gifting and trust-funding powers Maryland Medicaid actually requires.

Special Needs Trusts

Third-party special needs trusts that let you provide for a loved one with a disability without disqualifying them from SSI or Medicaid.

Family Conversations

Helping adult children and parents talk through care, finances, and decision-making before a crisis forces the conversation.

Common questions

Straight answers.

Elder law covers the legal issues that arise as people age — long-term care funding, Medicaid eligibility, powers of attorney, advance directives, and protecting assets from nursing home costs. In Maryland, it also includes navigating the state's specific Medicaid rules, the five-year look-back period, and estate recovery after death.

The earlier, the better — ideally five or more years before long-term care becomes necessary. Maryland Medicaid reviews asset transfers made in the 60 months before an application is filed. Planning done inside that window is harder to protect. Planning done outside it is largely beyond Medicaid's reach.

Not during their lifetime if a spouse lives there, or if your parent intends to return home. After death, Maryland's estate recovery program can seek reimbursement from the estate — which can mean a lien on the home when it's sold. Proper planning, including a Medicaid Asset Protection Trust established before the five-year window, can protect the home from recovery entirely.

Crisis Medicaid planning is what we do when a loved one is already in a nursing home and paying privately — and the family needs to qualify for Medicaid as quickly as possible while protecting as much as the rules allow. Strategies include spousal protections, converting countable assets to exempt ones, Medicaid-qualified annuities, and the caregiver-child exemption. Time matters: call before another month's bill arrives.

A Medicaid Asset Protection Trust (MAPT) is an irrevocable trust that removes assets — including your home — from Medicaid's countable asset calculation after Maryland's five-year look-back period passes. Assets placed in a MAPT more than five years before a Medicaid application are protected from spend-down and from estate recovery after death. You can still live in the home. Your children or other beneficiaries inherit what's inside the trust.

Yes — but only if it's drafted correctly. Standard financial powers of attorney often lack the specific gifting and trust-funding powers Maryland Medicaid planning requires. Elder-law-grade powers of attorney include these provisions explicitly. A power of attorney that lacks those provisions can leave a family unable to act at this step.

It is not too late. Even after a nursing home admission, strategies exist to protect remaining assets — including spousal protections, exempt-asset conversions, Medicaid-qualified annuities, and in some cases the caregiver-child exemption for the family home. The options narrow with time, which is why the most important thing you can do right now is call and find out where you stand.

Talk through your situation — confidentially.

The first 20 minutes are free. No pressure, no clock.

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New article: Is it too late to protect assets once someone is already in a nursing home? →

See also: Estate Planning · Trusts · Probate · Medicaid Estate Recovery Guide · Medicaid Asset Protection Trust Guide · All Guides