Nov. 18, 2015 – Ask a dinner party guest his age, and you’ll break the rules of etiquette. Ask a job applicant what year she was born, and you risk violating employment discrimination laws. But ask a new client how old he is, and you’re fulfilling your responsibility to provide competent and thorough representation.

An individual’s legal health can be significantly influenced by how old the person is. Many statutes and regulations make explicit distinctions on this basis, and judges, juries, and even lawyers sometimes make decisions based on legally invalid personal or societal beliefs. The recently revised volume II of State Bar of Wisconsin PINNACLE^®’s Advising Older Clients and Their Families will help you help clients make the most of their 60s, 70s, 80s, and beyond.

Determining Eligibility for Medicare

Take, for example, age 65. It no longer necessarily signals that it’s time to retire. One’s 65th birthday does, however, set the boundaries for eligibility for and enrollment into the Medicare program. People who are not automatically eligible for Medicare coverage can choose to purchase it, but they are limited to enrolling during specific periods. The initial enrollment period begins three months before a person’s 65th birthday and ends four months after. If a person enrolls later than this period or the general or special enrollment period, he or she will pay a late-enrollment penalty. Chapter 10 of Advising Older Clients, revised in 2015 by attorneys with the Greater Wisconsin Agency on Aging Resources, comprehensively discusses these eligibility issues and other concerns under Medicare.

Planning for Long-Term Care

Turning age 65 also brings an individual into the category of “SSI-related,” one of the nonfinancial eligibility conditions for Medicaid coverage. Although there are no specified enrollment periods for Medicaid, gaining coverage as soon as possible after the 65th birthday will be important for people who lack assets and income to pay for nursing home care. Chapter 11 of Advising Older Clients presents a thorough treatment of Medicaid, with a focus on the ever-changing areas of divestment and estate recovery.

Developing Strategies for Personal-Injury Claim Damages

But getting older is not an unqualified positive. Many people rely on negative stereotypes to make assumptions about the value and abilities of older individuals. For example, if you’re representing a 65-year-old individual with a personal-injury claim, choosing the types of damages to request as recovery will present unique concerns. As the authors of Advising Older Clients’ new chapter 19 point out, many clients genuinely intend to work until age 70 or later. However, a jury, which could be composed of young adults, might be skeptical of anyone working beyond age 65.Thus, a claim for loss of future earning capacity must be approached with caution for older plaintiffs. Anticipating and overcoming issues such as this are unique to personal-injury claims of older clients.

Counsel Your Clients Well with Advising Older Clients

In addition to Medicare, Medicaid, and an overview of negligence claims for older individuals (in new chapter 19, authored by Ann Jacobs and Amy Risseeuw), volume II of Advising Older Clients and Their Families discusses veterans’ benefits, nongovernmental health care benefits, estate planning, end-of-life planning documents, guardianship and protective placement proceedings, community long-term care, and nursing home regulation and answers almost every question you might have about representing older clients.

How to Order

The print edition of volume II of Advising Older Clients and Their Families is available to members for $219, plus tax and shipping. Visit the WisBar Marketplace to order the print edition.

Print purchasers who subscribe to the State Bar’s automatic supplementation service will receive future updates at a 10 percent discount off the regular update price.

Annual subscriptions to the electronic Books UnBound start at $149 per title and $769 for the full Books UnBound library (single-user prices; call for firm pricing). Visit the WisBar Marketplace to order the Books Unbound edition.

Current full-library subscribers to Books UnBound automatically receive these updates.

For more information or to order, contact the State Bar at (800) 728-7788 or (608) 257-3838.