Deborah K. Blum-Shore

The practice of elder law focuses on a specific kind of client — an elder or an individual with special needs. Working with the client, and also often with his or her family, we focus on all of the client’s needs as he or she faces the challenges of aging and/or disability. We help to solve our client’s legal, financial, and health care problems and to maximize his or her quality of life.

The essence of estate planning is providing for your own disability and ensuring through your love, wisdom and resources that your loved ones will be cared for after you are gone in the same way you cared for them in life. All of us will ultimately face death, and many of us will face disability at some time in our lives. Estate planning engages us in confronting the financial and emotional consequences of death and disability, and allows us to take control of our futures.

Estate administration is the process by which the assets owned by someone at the time of death are identified, collected, and distributed to others. In some cases, this process requires the assistance of the probate court; in others, especially where the decedent left assets in trust, this work is done privately. In all cases, our goal is to ensure that the process is accomplished as efficiently as possible, and that the deceased person’s final instructions are honored.