About the Attorney
Helene V. Wenzel has an estate planning practice* which includes the preparation of wills, living trusts and durable powers of attorney; conservatorships; probate; domestic partnership documents; and ElderWorks: planning for incapacity, long-term and Nursing Home care and Medi-Cal eligibility. For two years before opening her solo practice, she was Staff Attorney at California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform (CANHR), in San Francisco, where she answered questions from consumers, private bar attorneys and legal aid staff throughout California on matters pertaining to Nursing Home placement, Medi-Cal eligibility, spousal impoverishment and asset management, and estate recovery at death. She also handled pension counseling and advocacy under a federal grant from the Administration on Aging, recovering thousands of dollars for senior retirees and widowed and divorced spouses.
Helene is currently President of the Northern California chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA). She is a new member of the Board of New Leaf Service for Our Community, where her special interest is New Leaf Outreach to Elders (NLOE).
She regularly addresses attorneys, financial planners, care givers, church and community groups on the many complex and important issues in elder law. A sample of these addresses follows:
Invited Lectures, Seminars and Publications:
2008
Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB), San Francisco, Sacramento: "Public Benefits in estate Planning"
2007
Sage Eldercare – "The Necessity of Wills and Powers of Attorney" presentation to Senior members at Grace Cathedral, January 2007.
San Francisco Commonwealth Club – "Tricycles, Bicycles and Life Cycles-Caring for Aging Parents" March 2007.
eWomen San Francisco Chapter monthly meeting – "Estate Planning for Smart Women" April 2007.
2006
Bar Association of San Francisco (BASF) - Disability Rights Committee
"In the Shadow of Terrie Schiavo:
Health Care Decision Making and California Law"
2005
National Business Institute (NBI): "Stopping the Abuse in CA Elder Law: How to Protect Assets and Provide Services": Spouses And Medical Considerations; Protecting Elderly Client’s Assets; Ethical Considerations; Preserving Family Assets with Medicaid
Continuing Education of the Bar (CEB), San Francisco, Sacramento: "Drafting and Implementing Durable Powers of Attorney"
St. Gabriel Church, San Francisco, "Estate Planning and Charitable Giving"
Institute on Aging (IOA)-Dept of Psychology "Introduction to Elder Law Issues'
State Bar of CA Legal Services, Access and Fairness Programs: "The Good, The Bad, The Impact of AB205"
Lorman Education Services, "Medical Records Law & Elder Law Issues'
Horizons Foundation: "LGBT Aging - Are We Prepared"
American Society on Aging (ASA) - "Capacity: What Is It? How Do We Assess It/ What Happen When We Lose It?"
Society of Certified Financial Retirement Advisors: "Long-Term Care and Medi-Cal Planning"; "Trusts and Financial Planning"
2004
American Conservatory Theater Foundation - "A Guide to Estate Planning for Diverse Communities"
California Association of Homes and Services for the Aging (CAHSA), "How Frail is Too Frail? When Seniors Can No Longer Live Independently." - Legal Issues and Capacity
NBI, "California Elder Law" Planning for Incapacity; Long Term Care; Medi-Cal Planning and Estate Recovery; Ethical Considerations
National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR) and University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Lesbian Health Research Center (LHRC): "Old Lesbians- Aging Well and Safely - Legal Issues"
Elder Care Services of S.F. and Walnut Creek: "Client Capacity and California Law"
2003
St. Dominic’s Church, SF, "Estate Planning and Charitable Giving"
National Business Institute, "California Elder Law"
Jewish Family and Children's Services (JFCS), San Francisco, "Estate Planning for LGBT Elder"
American Society on Aging (ASA) West Coast Summer Series on Aging Annual Meeting, San Francisco, "Capacity and Conservatorships"
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, "Estate Planning for Single People"
Glide Memorial Church "An Overview of Estate Planning for Alternative Relationships"
NCLR Elder Law Project at Spectrum- Marin "Legal Forum For the Greater LGBT Community"
NCLR Elder Law Project at (GALA) Gay and Lesbian Alliance of the Central Coast - San Luis Obispo
Grace Cathedral, San Francisco, "Estate Planning for Domestic Partners"
Northern Trust LGBT Professionals Luncheon: "Basics of Elder Law for the Greater LGBT Community"
ASA West Coast Summer Series on Aging: Seminar, San Francisco: "Conservatorships for Older Persons: Using It, Avoiding It, Finding Other Options"; Seminar: "Capacity- What Is It - Issues"
St Agnes Church, San Francisco, "Estate Planning Seminar" for Diverse Communities
2002
Glide Memorial Church, San Francisco, "Estate Planning for Unmarried People"
Integrity - El Camino Real/Trinity Church, San Jose, "An Overview of Estate Planning for Alternative Relationships"
Bay Area Psychological Testing Associates (BAPTA), Rhoda Goldman Plaza San Francisco, Geriatric Assessment: A Multi disciplinary Approach: "Elder Law and Incapacity" GALA, San Luis Obispo, Estate Planning
Lorman Education Services, "Medi-Cal Planning and Elder Law Issues in California"
LGBT Center, San Francisco, Special Lecture for the Deaf Community - "Estate Planning Issues for Same Sex Couples"
San Francisco State University, Paralegal Program, lecture "Elder Law Issues"
The Bougainvillias, an RCFE, South San Francisco, "state Planning for Care givers"
Senior Roundtable, San Francisco, Coventry Park, "Estate Planning and Incapacity"
2001
Lorman Education Services, "Medi-Cal Planning and Elder Law Issues in California"
National Center for Lesbian Rights, Elder Law Project: "Estate Planning for LGBT Seniors," San Francisco and Oakland
Network for Elders Community Center, BayView Hunters Point, San Francisco, "Advance Directives"
2000
NBI, "Key Issues in Estate Planning and Probate in California"
Network for Elders Community Center, BayView Hunters Point, San Francisco, Seminars on Estate Planning
1999
Alzheimers Care Group, San Francisco, "Powers of Attorney and Estate Planning"
UCSF "Advance Directives and Elder law Concerns for Care givers of FLD patients"
On-Lok, San Francisco, "Advance Directives, Powers of Attorney, Medi-Cal and Long-Term Care Planning" - seminar for doctors, administrators and staff
1998 - 1997 - 1996
Continuing Education of the Bar, San Francisco, "Estate Planning for the Terminally Ill"
National Business Institute (NBI), Medi-Cal and Long-Term Care Elder Law Seminar
Old Saint Mary’s Cathedral, Conference on Aging and Dying, "Powers of Attorney and Conservatorships"
Jewish Community Center, San Francisco, "Wills, Trusts and Powers of Attorney"
City College of San Francisco, "What Every Senior Should Know"
UC Extension, San Francisco, "The Practice of Elder Law" - class for social workers; physical therapists
NBI, San Francisco, "Elder Law & Medi-Cal Planning: Ethical Considerations When Representing the Elderly Client"
Teaching Experience: Elder Law
New College of California School of Law 2006
San Francisco State University 2003, 2004
Affiliations:
State Bar of California; Bar Association of San Francisco: Probate and Trust Section; National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA); San Francisco Bay Area Network for End of Life Care; Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALIF); National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR)
Publications:
CEB California Domestic Partnerships - Preparation Review of Chapter "Health and Medical Care, Conservatorship, and Related Issues"
Family Caregiver Alliance, Fact Sheet "LGBT Legal Issues"
An Earlier Attorney Profile:
Before becoming an attorney, Helene taught undergraduate, graduate and Elderhostel classes on literature and contemporary issues at San Francisco State University and Yale University. She earned a Ph.D. in French language and literature from the University of California at Berkeley in 1977. She received her J.D. from New College of California School of Law in San Francisco in 1994 and was admitted to the California State Courts, U.S. District Court - Northern District of California and U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1994.
Even as very young child, Helene was fascinated by the company of ‘grown-ups' and would do her homework in their midst when her parents were entertaining. She credits these experiences, and her parents' abiding love and confidence, for her mid-life career change to an estate planning - elder law practice.