Caring for Someone You Love Is Already Hard Enough
New Orleans families take care of their own. It’s part of who we are — the multi-generational households, the aunts and uncles stepping in, the adult children who rearrange their lives to make sure mom or dad is okay. But there comes a point where love isn’t enough, and the questions get harder.
How do you pay for a nursing home when it costs more per month than most families earn? What does Medicaid actually cover? Is there a VA benefit your father qualifies for that nobody ever told you about? What happens if mom can no longer make her own decisions and there’s nothing in writing?
At Legacy Estate & Elder Law, these are the questions we answer every day for New Orleans families. We are elder law attorneys, and this is what we do.
Elder Law in Louisiana — What It Covers and Why It Matters Here
Elder law is the intersection of health care, long-term care, government benefits, and legal planning as they affect older adults and their families. In Louisiana, all of that runs through a legal system that works differently from every other state in the country.
Community property rules affect what a surviving spouse can keep when the other enters a nursing home. Louisiana Medicaid has specific eligibility rules that differ from what you’d read in a national guide. The VA benefit application process has quirks that catch families off guard. And the legal documents that protect seniors — powers of attorney, healthcare directives — have to meet Louisiana’s specific requirements to be valid.
For New Orleans families, this means working with attorneys who understand not just elder law in general, but elder law in Louisiana specifically. That distinction matters a lot when your parent’s home and savings are on the line.
Elder Law Services We Provide to New Orleans Families
Medicaid Planning
Louisiana Medicaid can cover the cost of nursing home care for seniors who qualify — but the eligibility rules are strict and the application process is not forgiving of mistakes. Many New Orleans families are surprised to learn that Medicare does not pay for long-term nursing home care. Medicare covers short-term rehabilitation. For ongoing care, it’s Medicaid or private pay.
Private pay at a nursing home in the New Orleans metro area — facilities in Metairie, Kenner, or throughout Orleans Parish — can run $7,000 to $10,000 per month or more. Most families cannot sustain that indefinitely. Medicaid planning is how families protect their savings before those costs wipe everything out.
The key is understanding what Medicaid counts as an asset and what it doesn’t. The family home is often exempt. Vehicles are often exempt. Certain prepaid arrangements don’t count. And for married couples, the spouse who stays home can generally keep meaningful assets under the Community Spouse Resource Allowance — which is particularly important in New Orleans, where families often have significant property and community ties.
We help New Orleans families build Medicaid plans that protect what can legally be protected, prepare complete and accurate Medicaid applications, and guard against estate recovery — the process the state uses to seek reimbursement from an estate after a Medicaid recipient dies. Planning before that moment is the only way to stop it.
VA Aid & Attendance Benefits
Louisiana has a deep military history, and New Orleans is home to a significant veteran community — from veterans of WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and more recent conflicts, to surviving spouses who may have outlived their veteran partner by years or even decades.
Many of these veterans and surviving spouses qualify for a VA pension benefit called Aid & Attendance. It can provide over $2,000 per month to help cover the cost of in-home care, assisted living, or nursing home expenses. Most families have never heard of it.
To qualify, a veteran must have served at least 90 days of active duty with at least one day during a wartime period, been discharged under other than dishonorable conditions, and need help with activities of daily living. Surviving spouses of qualifying veterans may also be eligible, even if their financial and care needs only emerged after the veteran passed.
We help New Orleans families identify whether a veteran or surviving spouse qualifies, gather the documentation the VA requires, navigate the application, and coordinate Aid & Attendance benefits with Louisiana Medicaid when both are relevant to a family’s situation.
Long-Term Care Planning
The Touro Infirmary, Ochsner Medical Center, Tulane Medical Center — New Orleans has excellent acute care. But a hospital stay is very different from the ongoing care that follows a stroke, a progressive diagnosis like Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s, or the slow decline that comes with aging.
Long-term care planning addresses that gap. It’s about making sure families have a strategy for how care will be paid for, who will make decisions if the senior can’t, and how the family’s assets will be protected through the process. It covers:
- Evaluating the right care setting — in-home care, adult day programs, assisted living, or nursing home
- Understanding what Medicare covers and where it stops
- Determining whether long-term care insurance is in place and how it applies
- Identifying Medicaid, VA, and other benefit programs that may help cover costs
- Ensuring powers of attorney, healthcare directives, and other documents are in place
- Protecting the family home and other significant assets from being lost to care costs
For families who haven’t planned ahead and are now in crisis, we help find the best available path forward given the current circumstances. The options are different than they would have been with more lead time — but there are almost always steps that can still help.
The Legal Documents That Protect New Orleans Seniors
One of the most avoidable situations in elder law is a family that finds itself locked out of helping a parent because the right paperwork isn’t in place. A bank won’t talk to you about your mother’s accounts. A hospital can’t share your father’s medical information. And getting legal authority requires going through Louisiana’s interdiction process — a court proceeding that takes months and costs thousands of dollars.
Every New Orleans senior should have these documents in place well before they’re needed:
- Durable Power of Attorney — gives a trusted person authority to manage financial affairs if the senior becomes incapacitated
- Healthcare Power of Attorney — designates someone to make medical decisions at Tulane, Ochsner, or wherever care is received
- Living Will — records wishes about end-of-life treatment so the family doesn’t have to guess
- HIPAA Authorization — allows designated family members to access medical information
We prepare all four as part of every elder law engagement. For seniors who don’t have them yet, we encourage families not to wait for a health event to force the issue.
When Is the Right Time to Call?
The right time is before you need us. Elder law planning works best when there’s time to put strategies in place properly. Some Medicaid planning techniques require years of advance work to be effective. And the legal documents that protect seniors need to be signed while the senior still has the mental capacity to do so.
That said, we help families in crisis too. If a parent is in the hospital right now and the family has no plan, call us. The situation is harder than it would have been with more time, but we have helped families in that position find meaningful options.
Signs it’s time to reach out:
- A parent has been diagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer’s, or another progressive condition
- A parent can no longer live safely at home and nursing home care is being discussed
- The family needs to know how to pay for care without losing the parent’s home or savings
- A veteran or surviving spouse in the family may qualify for VA benefits
- A parent has no durable power of attorney or healthcare directive in place
- There are concerns about financial exploitation of an elderly family member
Who We Serve in the New Orleans Area
Our New Orleans office is at 629 Cherokee Street and serves by appointment. Most initial consultations are held over Zoom or phone — which means families across the metro area can get started without adding a drive to everything else they’re managing. We serve seniors and families throughout:
- Orleans Parish — all neighborhoods including Uptown, Mid-City, Gentilly, Lakeview, the Bywater, New Orleans East
- Jefferson Parish — Metairie, Kenner, Gretna, Marrero, Westwego
- St. Tammany Parish — Covington, Mandeville, Slidell
- St. Bernard Parish — Chalmette, Meraux
- Plaquemines Parish — Belle Chasse
- St. Charles Parish — Luling, Boutte, Destrehan
We also provide statewide virtual services for complex elder law matters involving Medicaid planning, VA benefits, and long-term care coordination across Louisiana.
Why New Orleans Families Choose Legacy Estate & Elder Law
Our attorneys are board certified in Estate Planning and Administration by the Louisiana Board of Legal Specialization. That credential — held by fewer than one percent of Louisiana attorneys — reflects specialized expertise that is directly relevant to the work elder law requires.
We are members of ElderCounsel, the Academy of Special Needs Planners, and the American College of Trust & Estate Counsel. We stay current on changes to Louisiana Medicaid rules, VA benefit updates, and developments in long-term care law so our clients don’t have to.
New Orleans families tell us they choose us because we take the time to understand their specific situation, explain their options in plain language, and treat their parents with genuine care and respect. We are not a high-volume practice where families feel like numbers. We are a team that takes this work seriously — because we know what it means to the families who come to us. to reach, and we treat their plan like it matters. That’s how we’ve built our reputation — and how we intend to keep it.