Long-Term Care Attorney in Nassau County

A Retired Family Court Judge’s Perspective on Elder Law Planning

Long-term care planning is the legal process of preparing for the possibility that you or a loved one will need ongoing care at home, in an assisted living residence, or in a nursing facility. The goal is to protect a lifetime of savings, establish clear decision-making authority, and structure finances so that care is manageable without unnecessary depletion of assets. At Kirshblum Taber PC, Orly Taber focuses her practice on estate planning and elder law, including long-term care planning for Nassau County seniors and their families.

David A. Kirshblum brings more than 24 years of experience as a retired New York Family Court Judge to the firm. That judicial background shapes how we read legal documents, structure protective strategies, and anticipate how those documents hold up if they’re ever questioned or challenged. It’s a perspective that matters when the documents governing your care or finances are put to the test.

If you or a family member is beginning to think about long-term care, don’t wait for a crisis to prompt the conversation. Call our Nassau County office at (516) 908-8842 to speak directly with an attorney.

Why Long Island Families Face Real Financial Risk

Long-term care costs on Long Island can escalate quickly, whether a loved one needs home care aides, an assisted living placement, or a skilled nursing facility. Even families with significant assets can find savings eroded in a matter of months. Two legal realities make early planning especially important in New York.

First, New York Medicaid applies a five-year lookback period for nursing home eligibility. Asset transfers made within that window can trigger penalty periods that delay Medicaid coverage. Second, community Medicaid for home care operates under different rules and doesn’t currently carry the same lookback, making it a distinct planning pathway. Families that plan ahead have more options. Those who arrive in a crisis still have options, but the range narrows.

Legal Services We Provide for Long-Term Care Planning

Long-term care planning draws on several overlapping areas of law. We work with Nassau County clients across all of them:

• Medicaid planning: Structuring assets to pursue eligibility without requiring a complete spend-down, subject to individual circumstances and applicable New York rules.
• Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts: Irrevocable trusts that remove assets from Medicaid-countable resources while preserving them for heirs, subject to the five-year lookback period.
• Durable power of attorney: Designating a trusted agent to handle financial and long-term care decisions if you become incapacitated. Without this document, your family may need to pursue a formal guardianship proceeding to gain legal authority to act on your behalf.
• Health care proxy and living will: A health care proxy designates someone to make medical decisions when you no longer can. A living will records your specific preferences so your agent and providers know how to proceed.
• Spousal asset preservation: New York Medicaid has specific rules governing spousal resource allowances when one spouse enters a nursing facility and the other remains at home. We help community spouses understand what may be protected under those rules.

Medicaid Asset Protection Trusts and broader Medicaid planning are part of our established elder law practice. This page focuses on long-term care planning as its own entry point, but those connected services are available to clients who need them.

What Sets Kirshblum Taber PC Apart for Nassau County Clients

Orly Taber has earned Super Lawyers recognition in elder law and estate planning. David Kirshblum’s 24-plus years on the Family Court bench give our firm a practical understanding of how courts read legal documents and evaluate planning decisions. That lens applies whenever a power of attorney, trust, or other document comes under scrutiny. It isn’t elder law court experience, but it is judicial experience with how legal documents perform when challenged.

When clients call our firm, they speak with an attorney directly, not intake staff. That access matters when questions are time-sensitive, as they often are in long-term care situations. We also serve Nassau County’s diverse communities directly: on-site interpreters are available for Spanish, Hebrew, and Russian-speaking clients. Every plan we build is shaped by the client’s specific financial situation and family circumstances, not a template.