As more Americans age in to their golden years, attorneys are increasingly see and advising elderly clients about their estate planning needs. One of the many problems our aging population has inadvertently brought is that many attorneys do not have the knowledge about the aging process needed to know how it could impacts their elderly clients. Many seniors experience cognitive changes that could impact their ability capacity to create legal documents. However, there is not a good source of information for attorneys to learn how to accommodate their clients who experience cognitive changes that are not the result of diminished capacity or dementia. Many elderly people often gain wisdom at an older age, and attorneys need to know how to properly advise these clients to accommodate their wishes. The article provided below attempts to create guidelines to help attorneys advise their elderly clients.
See Mary Helen McNeal, Slow Lawyering: Representing Seniors In Light of Cognitive Changes Accompanying Aging, 117 Penn. St. L. Rev. 1081 (2013).
Special thanks to Katherine Pearson (Professor of Law, Penn State University – The Dickinson School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.
