The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) has announced that Carol Sikov Gross, Esquire, CELA (a Certified Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation as recognized by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania) of the law firm of Sikov and Love, P.A. has attended its annual Symposium on Elder Law held in Washington, D.C., on April 20-23, 2006. Some of the highlights of the 2006 NAELA Symposium, Capital Ideas in Elder Law, included William Novelli, CEO of AARP, who presented the opening keynote address on the topic of How America Can Afford to Grow Older: A Vision for the Future and Judy Schneider, a specialist on Congress and how it really works. Other sessions included a Town Hall Discussion with CMS on Medicare Part D, Veteran's Services Available for Seniors or People with Disabilities and the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.
Carol Sikov Gross, Esquire, CELA will be speaking at the Ninth Annual Elder Law Institute of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in July, 2006. She has spoken at the eight previous Institutes. This year's her topic will be on Crunching the Numbers Calculations under the revised Pennsylvania Law and under the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005. Attorney Sikov Gross will be discussing how changes in the law lead to changes in the way to do the calculations for clients to determine what assets can be protected with regard to Medicaid eligibility. This session will show how to calculate these amounts under the old law and the new law, including the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.
As the immediate Past President of the University of Pittsburgh Law Alumni Association, Carol Sikov Gross, Esquire, CELA recently interviewed law school students at the School of Law for scholarships. She also participated in functions to reward second and third year law students for their accomplishments.
With regard to public service, Attorney Sikov Gross serves as Treasurer of the Senior Action Coalition, a non-profit corporation established to help combat financial fraud against seniors by educating seniors and their caregivers about financial fraud, by serving as a clearing house for the reporting of financial fraud and by directing individuals who have been the victims of financial fraud to the appropriate law enforcement agencies. SAC is made up of representatives from the United States Attorneys Office, the State Attorney General's Office, the Postal Inspection Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the PA Securities Commission, the Center of Retired Executives (CORE), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mullen Communications, AARP and local elder law attorneys.
Carol Sikov Gross, Esquire, CELA also serves as a Trustee for the Allegheny County Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of the Allegheny County Bar Association, which provides funding and resources to numerous legal publish service projects.
On March 8, 2006, Carol Sikov Gross was one of the first local attorneys to discuss the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, signed into law on February 8, 2006. She spoke at the 7th Annual Estate and Elder Law Symposium held in Pittsburgh, PA where she spoke on the topics of Recent Developments in Elder Law and on Medicaid Planning after Recent Federal and State Changes. This program was attended by over 300 attorneys who wanted to learn about the impact on long term care planning and Medicaid eligibility by the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005.
In the fall of 2005, Carol Sikov Gross, Esquire, CELA, taught a course at the Center for Lifelong Learning at Carnegie Mellon University on Elder Law Being Prepared on One Grows Older. The course was so well received and attended that she taught the course again on May 1, 2006.
