Machado & Carden, LLP provides a broad range of legal and support services to older and disabled clients and their families. This focus enables the firm to be particularly sensitive to the multiple stresses that these individuals and families confront on a daily basis, which are compounded by the complexities of the American legal and health care systems. To help our clients navigate this system, Machado & Carden, LLP provides the following services: :
?
?
?
Machado & Carden, LLP begins its representation of many clients with a comprehensive estate and long-term care planning evaluation. This evaluation dictates the best planning strategies to pursue in order to meet the estate planning and long-term health care objectives of the client. Machado & Carden, LLP attorneys examine all aspects of the client's financial well-being and issue a follow-up letter which summarizes the client's unique situation, reviews the law, and explains our recommendations for the best possible estate plan for the client. The complex and ever-evolving rules of Medicaid play an increasingly important role with respect to traditional estate planning concerns. A knowledge of elder law, therefore, is absolutely critical for a truly comprehensive estate planning evaluation and plan.
Machado & Carden, LLP represents clients seeking guardianship and conservatorship of relatives who can no longer manage their personal or financial affairs and assists family members in fulfilling the duties imposed by these new roles. If no family member is willing or available to fill this role, Machado & Carden, LLP attorneys act as guardian or conservator on a temporary or permanent basis. The Machado & Carden, LLP team consists of an attorney, paralegal and bookkeeper, along with a social worker that we call on as needed. This expert team of professionals provides comprehensive monitoring of the ward's medical, emotional, legal, and financial needs.
Machado & Carden, LLP works closely with personal injury attorneys and clients to make sure that their settlement funds are properly managed and that they continue to receive the public benefits to which they are entitled. What may appear at first to be a large recovery can be quickly dissipated if invested unwisely or spent on health care needs and living expenses that might be provided by other sources. Proper planning is required to make sure the money lasts a lifetime. Each individual?s situation is different and requires a strategy crafted to meet his or her needs. Machado & Carden, LLP works with attorneys, clients, family members, social workers and courts to create the best strategy available in each case.
Machado & Carden, LLP provides full representation of fiduciaries administering estates. Probate administration includes filing the petition for appointment of the personal representative, preparing and filing the inventory of estate assets, paying decedent's debts, distributing assets, filing tax returns, and filing an account with the Probate Court. If real property must be sold, the firm provides representation during the real estate transaction as well.
Machado & Carden, LLP prepares or assists in the preparation and submission of the Medicaid application to the appropriate long-term care unit of the Division of Medical Assistance (the "DMA"). At the client's request, we handle all communications with the DMA, thereby removing the individual as much as possible from the tedious and often frustrating application process. In addition, Machado & Carden, LLP represents clients in connection with Medicaid and Medicare appeals in administrative hearings and before the applicable court.
Machado & Carden, LLP assists clients with disabilities with legal planning for their long-term needs. Machado & Carden, LLP also advises the parents or other family members of disabled persons on how they can effectively provide for them, with careful regard for preserving eligibility for Medicaid and other public benefits. The firm provides information about planning options, drafts supplemental needs trusts and other documents as appropriate, and advises trustees of trusts for the benefit of disabled persons concerning trust administration.
Joshua M. Machado , a partner with Machado & Carden, LLP, received his undergraduate degree cum laude from Brandeis University and law degree cum laude from Boston University School of Law. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder law Attorneys. He is co-author of the Nursing Home Medicaid Eligibility Chapter in Estate Planning for the Aging and Incapacitated Client in Massachusetts published by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education. He speaks regularly before senior and professional groups including the American Bar Association, the Boston Tax Institute, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Harvard Medical School, as well as to health care professionals in hospitals and nursing homes.
Eric R. Carden, a partner in the Boston elder law firm of Machado & Carden, LLP, where he specializes in representing elderly and disabled clients and their families. He received his law degree from the Washington College of Law of The American University, and his B.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Mr. Carden concentrates his practice in the areas of estate, disability and long-term-care planning. A former chairman of the Elder Law Practice Group for the Massachusetts Bar Association?s Probate Council, he is also a frequent lecturer on elder law issues for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (?MCLE?), the Massachusetts Bar Association, Health Education Network, and the Boston Tax Institute. Mr. Carden authored the Older Clients and Long-Term Care Chapter for Drafting Estate Plans (MCLE, Inc., rev. ed. 2004). He is the chairman of the MCLE seminars Elder Law Litigation and Advocacy, Advising Elders in Crisis, and Elder Law Basics for Paralegals. Mr. Carden is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and the Massachusetts and Rhode Island Bar Associations.
Rebecca J. Benson , Of Counsel to Machado & Carden, LLP, received her law degree cum laude from Harvard Law School and her B.A. summa cum laude and M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. Before joining Machado & Carden, LLP, she was a Staff Attorney for the Senior Citizens' Law Project of Cambridge & Somerville Legal Services and an associate with Goulston & Storrs in Boston, and Of Counsel to Margolis & Machado, LLP. She is the author of Check Your Rights at the Door: Consumer Protection Violations in Massachusetts Nursing Home Admission Agreements and has taught a course on the rights of nursing home residents at the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Patricia Keane Martin , an associate with Machado & Carden, LLP, received her law degree from Suffolk Law School and her B.A. from William Smith College. Ms. Martin concentrates her practice in the areas of elder law, probate and trust administration. Prior to joining Machado & Carden, LLP, she was a sole practitioner whose practice included real estate and business law, in addition to estate planning. She is a frequent lecturer for Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education and an instructor at Northeastern University. Ms. Martin is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and the Bristol County Estate Planners.
All Machado & Carden, LLP attorneys are members of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.
?
?
Firm Profile | Attorneys | Estate & Long Term Care Planning Information
Upcoming-Recent Events | Client Questionnaire | Useful Links | Directions | | Home
All contents copyright Machado & Carden, LLP, 2006
