Elder law.

• Author: Jackson, Mary Alice
• Position: Board certification

Several years ago, I attended a Florida Bar leadership conference in Tallahassee with representatives from other sections of the Bar. Although a colleague and I introduced ourselves as representatives of the Elder Law Section when the meeting began, it was some hours later when one of the other members finally turned to us and said, "So, what is elder law?" If our fellow practitioners were clueless about our role in the legal profession, we could not expect a higher level of awareness from the general public, who traditionally rely on the assertion in a phone book or newspaper advertisement that an attorney has expertise as an elder law attorney.

Elder law was in utero when I entered law school in 1989. Traditional estate planners were having to field more frequent questions about clients whose capacity appeared to be compromised, who were increasingly vulnerable to exploitation, who were facing years of long term care placement and were terrified about the costs associated with that care, and whose loved ones were being kept alive through the use of sophisticated medical treatments with little attention paid to the individual's wishes about end of life care. The desire to provide answers and legal protection for these clients provided the impetus for a new field of legal specialization. Now, demographics and technology spur the growth of the practice, especially in Florida.

The baby boom generation will begin turning 65 in 2011Y The 2000 census was 281 million (2). By 2030, there will be almost 70 million Americans aged 65 and older, and more than 10 million Americans who are older than 80. Since 1900, the percentage of Americans over age 65 has more than tripled (almost 13 percent in 1996); that figure will be closer to 20 percent in 2030. (3) Although figures vary, the percentage of Americans over the age of 65 who will need nursing home services at some time approaches 40 percent. The cost of living, health care, and long term care have become major factors in U.S. economic projections, and in policy discussions regarding the quality of life which faces aging America.

And so the framework for elder law took shape. Attorneys from all over the nation began talking to one another about issues that affected people after retirement, not after death. People were no longer dying within five years of retirement; instead, many people faced retirements that last two or more decades. In addition to the personal and financial challenges this...