It’s official. After a long wait, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019 (Public Law 116-23) took effect on January 1, 2020. This new law extends the presumption of exposure to herbicides to Veterans who served in the offshore waters of the Republic of Vietnam. It means that Veterans who served within twelve nautical miles of the Republic of Vietnam are now entitled to service connected benefits based upon a condition that is presumptive to exposure to Agent Orange. This is also a win for the eligible survivors of these veterans.

Elder abuse is a silent epidemic in our culture. Approximately one in ten Americans aged 60 and older have experienced some form of elder abuse. One study estimates that only 1 in 14 cases of abuse are reported to authorities.

What is elder abuse? We posed this question to Carol Armstrong, Ph.D., a licensed professional counselor and life care coordinator for Donna J. Jackson and Associates, a Life Care Planning Law Firm in Oklahoma City.

Statistics indicate that about 43% of American households have at least one gun in their possession. According to estimates by the Alzheimer’s Association, 5.7 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease today. By 2050, that number is project to rise to nearly 14 million.

If an elderly relative needs to qualify for Medicaid in order to pay for long-term care costs, including at an assisted living facility or nursing home, where do you start? We posed this question to Madeline Thorn, an attorney at Fendrick Morgan, a Life Care Planning Law Firm in New Jersey.

Pictured above: Laurie Adamshick's parents, Bob and Fusae Shield.

Around the nation, older adults make their marks every day as volunteers, employees, employers, parents, grandparents, mentors, and advocates. They offer their time, talents, and experience to the benefit of our communities.

For Marty Fogarty, elder law is personal.

Marty is the founder of The Heartland Law Firm, a Life Care Planning Law Firm in Glenview, Illinois. Marty knows firsthand how taxing the elder care journey can be. Like millions of other older adults suffering from dementia and “elder frailty,” Marty’s father fell through the cracks of an impersonal and fragmented elder care system, a system which often disregards the frail elder’s personal dignity.

Did you know that a little-known compensation program available for people exposed to radiation as a result of the United States military’s domestic nuclear testing program is coming to an end? The Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) can offer up to $100,000 for those who may have developed cancer or other specified diseases after such exposure. However, the RECA program is set to sunset in 2022.