Attorneys Set for Windfall in Babyboomers Crisis

As attorneys get geared up to what has been called the "Largest Transfer of Wealth in the 21st Century" elder law is set to produce big windfalls for lawyers due to get involved in a range of complex family dilemmas including whether elderly parents have the capacity to make their own decisions.

According to Brian Herd, elder law specialist and partner at Queensland-based Carne Reidy Herd Lawyers, said baby boomers would produce more work for lawyers than their parents because of the greater complexity of their lives.

"It's the baby boomers in particular, the next older generation that we're really targeting because they're the ones that are going to have significant wealth, significantly complex lives, complex families,'' he said.

"All of that is a pot for lawyers, in terms of legal issues arising out of that vast vat of complexity that older people take with them into retirement. The current generation is a bit simpler in terms of their circumstances.''

Issues surrounding the capacity of an older person was one of biggest areas of elder law. Herd said disputes could arise in families over whether their parents had the capacity to make their own decisions and whether an enduring power of attorney should be appointed.

The economic downturn had also seen an increase in elder abuse and Herd said some children saw their parents as being the solution to their money problems.

He said the area of elder law gave lawyers an insight into the "extraordinary amount of dysfunction'' in some families but it was this same dysfunction that created work and led to "legal bliss''.

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"Individuals 65 and older control over 70 percent of the nation's wealth,"