Dutton Casey & Mesoloras, PC

Estate planning is for everyone, but not every estate plan is the same. A good estate plan should consider both the inevitability of death and the possibility of disability, and should make the subsequent management of your financial and personal affairs easy for your loved ones. It should ease your concerns about what happens to your property upon your death and ensure that your wishes are followed. As estate planning attorneys, we assist by considering and addressing the technical aspects of your situation while explaining and utilizing documents that make sense for you.

Advanced planning can make a significant difference for a loved one with special needs. Proper special needs planning can allow your loved one to maintain their eligibility for critical public benefits and government programs, while ensuring a safety net for their supplemental needs. Every public benefit and government program available to a person with special needs has its own set of rules. It is important that every special needs plan considers those rules while using the planning tool that makes the most sense. We assist by considering your goals for the care of your loved one, reviewing the financial circumstances of you and your loved one, and creating a plan to meet your loved one’s current and future needs.

Long-term care (LTC) is a range of services and supports you may need to meet your health or personal needs over a long period of time. LTC planning involves deciding on a plan for what you want when you are no longer able to make decisions for yourself and at the end of your life. Starting the process of LTC planning before you need it allows you to learn about the services available for LTC given your financial circumstances, detail your end-of-life wishes, complete the necessary legal documents, and appoint decision-makers. Between our attorneys and client care coordinator, we assist with all aspects of an LTC plan so its there when you need it.

Many people who have been assigned the duty of administering an estate and/or trust are still grieving the loss of their loved one, yet have the additional stress of wondering – what do I do now? There are a variety of ways a loved one’s post-death affairs may need be handled, depending on their financial circumstances and estate plan. We assist by reviewing your loved one’s circumstances at their death and helping you with all aspects of administration, whether it be a small estate affidavit, court involved probate estate, or trust administration. We also assist when you are not administering, but rather receiving funds from an estate and/or trust, so that you can feel confident you are being treated fairly and as your deceased loved one intended.

Guardianship is a legal process where a disabled person receives a court appointed guardian to manage her financial and legal affairs. Guardianship is often inevitable where a disabled person has lost the ability to manage their own affairs and does not have a power of attorney to manage their affairs for them. Guardianship is also an effective option for a disabled person who is being taken advantage of by an unscrupulous power of attorney, caregiver, or family member. Since the court continues to monitor the guardians it appoints, guardianship is a good way to protect the disabled persons’ personal care and finances.

Litigation occurs when parties take legal action in a court to resolve a dispute. Although one of the goals of estate and trust planning is to avoid court involvement and disputes between parties, the documents themselves or the actions of the parties can result in litigation. The types of litigation around an estate or trust can be very broad, from a will contest to improper actions of a trustee to unclear terms of a will or trust. These cases are complex and difficult to manage on your own. We assist by guiding you through the legal implications and available remedies depending on your situation, while taking the necessary action to achieve your desired outcome.

Instances of abuse, neglect and financial exploitation, including undue influence, of older adults and people who have a disability have increased dramatically. These issues are complex and difficult to manage while still ensuring the protection of a loved one’s personal and financial affairs. There are a broad range of legal remedies available under Illinois law to address abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation. We assist with navigating and pursuing these remedies to stop current abuse, remedy past exploitation, and protect your loved one from future harm.

Elder law covers all aspects of planning, counseling, education, and advocating for all of our clients in the greater Chicago, Illinois area. Elder law attorneys are a resource to their clients because they understand their clients’ needs may extend beyond basic legal services and stay informed about and connected to the local networks of professionals who serve the same populations. Elder law encompasses all aspects of planning for aging, illness, and incapacity. The specialization requires a practitioner to be particularly sensitive to the legal issues impacting older clients or people who have a disability. Elder law attorneys bring more to their practice than an expertise in the appropriate area of law. They also have knowledge of the senior population and their unique needs as well as the myths related to competence and aging. They are aware of the physical and mental difficulties that often accompany the aging process. Because of their broad knowledge base they are able to more thoroughly address the legal needs of their clients. For example, when planning an estate, an elder law attorney would take into consideration the health of the person or couple, the potential for nursing home care and the wishes and concerns of the person or couple if that event were to occur.

Health care costs are the number one reason people file for bankruptcy. The cost of caring for an aging or disabled loved one can leave family members searching for answers in navigating the changing and complex rules for Medicaid assistance in Illinois. Planning for future and current Medicaid eligibility can protect assets and minimize the cost of long-term care. Even with the implementation of a Medicaid plan, the Medicaid application process itself is complicated. Proper review and organization of the application as well as routine communications with the Medicaid offices are essential to obtaining an approval. We assist with Medicaid planning and applications so that you have help through all steps of the process.

We understand that planning for the today, as well as the future, can be difficult and confusing. To meet these needs, our firm offers Care Navigation and Advocacy…a service that is designed to help with decision making and establish, and maintain, quality care. Our Care Coordinator, Monica DiOrio. supports both our clients and attorneys by providing comprehensive assessments, family caregiver advocacy and education, and the resource information needed for the client and family to understand and make decisions.

A move to senior housing may be a welcome change that comes with plenty of time to review options and plan for, or maybe made in a time of crisis, such as when a loved one must be transferred from a hospital into a nursing home for rehabilitation and possible long-term care. Do you know you and your family’s priorities for housing? Have you figured out how you will finance nursing home care? There are many issues to think about in order to ensure the best fit for you and your family. The attorneys and client care coordinator at Dutton Casey & Mesoloras can guide you through the process of selecting the housing, financing nursing home care, reviewing contracts for a the many types of senior housing, residents’ rights, and a variety of other long-term housing care issues. We can can guide you through the process of selecting a nursing home, financing nursing home care, nursing home admissions, reviewing contracts for a variety of types of senior housing, residents’ rights, and a variety of other long-term care issues.

Guardianship of a minor is a legal process where a court appoints a guardian for a child under the age of 18 to make decisions on their behalf and/or manage their financial affairs. A minor needs a guardian of the person when the minor has no living parents, when the parents cannot be found, or when the parents are unable or unwilling to care for the minor. A minor needs a guardian of the estate when he or she has, or is about to receive, significant money or property. We assist with all aspects of guardianship for a minor, from deciding whether guardianship is necessary to the court appointment process to ongoing representation of a guardian.