Matthew J. Parker, Esq., CELA
Mr. Parker is a principal of Marshall, Parker & Weber LLC, which has offices in Williamsport, Jersey Shore, Wilkes-Barre, and Scranton. His legal practice is focused on elder law, estate and special needs planning, and estate administration. Mr. Parker is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and received his J.D. from Penn State Dickinson School of Law in 1995. Mr. Parker is a Veterans Affairs accredited attorney for the preparation, presentation, and prosecution of claims for veterans benefits before the Department of Veterans Affairs. He is a Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA) through the National Elder Law Foundation under au-thorization from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Mr. Parker gained national acclaim when he won a landmark decision in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in the spousal annuity case of
James v. Richman. The case established specialized Medicaid annuities as a means of protecting
the financial resources of married couples when one spouse needs nursing home care. His vic-tory in this case provided an additional planning technique for thousands of seniors throughout Pennsylvania and other states. He has taught for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and is a fre-quent speaker to consumer and professional groups on elder law issues including guardianship and estate planning. In addition to his work on Elder Law in Pennsylvania, he is also the author of chapters in PBI’s Estate Planning in Pennsylvania and Fee Agreements in Pennsylvania. Mr. Parker is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, the Elder Law Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. Linda M. Anderson, Esq.
Ms. Anderson is the founder and principal of Anderson Elder Law, a firm in Media, Pennsylva-nia, serving clients of all ages in the Delaware Valley. The firm is dedicated to aiding individu-als and families to navigate the legal, financial, and medical issues related to elder law, estate planning, and long-term care and special needs planning. Ms. Anderson has over 25 years of ex-perience in the elder law field, and is a Certified Elder Law Attorney, as conferred by the Na-tional Elder Law Foundation and authorized by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. She is an ac-credited attorney with the Department of Veteran Affairs, as well as a member of the Life Care Planning Law Firms Association and the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. In addi-tion, she is an invited member of the selective Special Needs Alliance. Ms. Anderson has served as chair or co-chair for several legal organizations, including the Pennsylvania Bar Association Elder Law Section and the Delaware County Bar Association’s Elder Law Committee. In addi-tion, she serves on the Board of Directors for the Pennsylvania Association of Elder Law Attor-neys and has been a past board member of the Horizons Unlimited Geriatric Education Associa-tion. Ms. Anderson has been recognized as a “Pennsylvania Super Lawyer®” in the field of Elder Law since 2004 and as one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in Pennsylvania since 2007. She was awarded with the 2012 PAELA Member of the Year Award, and is currently the vice president of PAELA. She has also received the prestigious “AV” rating from Martindale Hubbell, and is a
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fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel. Ms. Anderson shares her knowledge with the community by holding seminars and teaching professionals, clients, and community or-ganizations about elder law, estate planning, long-term care planning, special needs planning, and veterans’ benefits. She received her bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College, has a master’s in taxation from Villanova University, and graduated from the University of San Fran-cisco School of Law.
Janet M. Colliton, Esq.
Ms. Colliton, the owner of Colliton Elder Law Associates, PC, has practiced law in Chester County, Pennsylvania and the surrounding Philadelphia suburban counties since 1978, limiting her practice since 1996 to elder law, including life-care planning, Medicaid and special needs, and estate planning and administration. She is a longtime member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Elder Law Section, and has lec-tured extensively on elder law topics including financing of long-term care, overcoming obstacles to Medicaid applications, and incorporating long-term disability in estate planning. She is also, with Jeffrey Jones, Certified Senior Advisor, a shareholder in Life Transition Services, LLC, a company established to be of service to the elderly and their families with the multiple complex legal and financial tasks involved in moving from independent living to assisted living and long-term skilled nursing care. Ms. Colliton currently serves and has served for the past 16 years as chair of the Elder Law Section of the Chester County Bar Association. She was a charter mem-ber of the Academy of Special Needs Planners. Ms. Colliton is the author of a weekly newspaper column in the business section of West Chester’s Daily Local News, “50+ Planning Ahead,” with nearly 1,000 columns published to date on elder law and estate planning in the past 19 years. Ms. Colliton is a graduate of Chestnut Hill College (A.B., Political Science, class of 1969) and Temple University School of Law (J.D., class of 1977). Before establishing her private practice, Ms. Colliton was First Assistant of Aging, the Pocopson Home, Mental Health/MR, and other county social service agencies. She was named top elder law attorney in the Philadelphia sub-urbs by Main Line Today in 2013 and 2014.
Brian Scott Dietrich, Esq.
Mr. Dietrich is the managing shareholder in the Law Office of Brian Scott Dietrich, P.C., Blue Bell. He practices health-care and commercial litigation. He has substantial experience in busi-ness, health care, and elder law litigation matters throughout the Commonwealth of Pennsylva-nia, but most notably in Berks, Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Lackawanna, Lancaster, Lehigh, Northampton, Montgomery, Philadelphia, and Schuylkill civil courts and in the Orphans’ Court Division. Mr. Dietrich’s practice concentrates on representing assisted living facilities, hospital facilities, long-term care nursing facilities, and medical practices involving contracts, employ-ment, Department of Public Welfare Medicaid, insurance, litigation defense, and plaintiff’s mat-ters. He represents various businesses including, but not limited to, residential construction companies, restaurants, service industry businesses, small- to medium-sized businesses, and professional practices. Mr. Dietrich works extensively with businesses providing elder care and long-term care services. He counsels assisted living facilities, hospitals, and nursing home facil-ities on a variety of matters including, but not limited to, obtaining payment for necessary ser-vices from the patients, residents, third-party payers, insurance, and governmental agencies. He provides general counsel services to health-care organizations. He has successfully argued debtor collection matters for various clients before the Pennsylvania courts of common pleas, magisterial district courts, Pennsylvania Bureau of Hearings and Appeals Administrative Law Division, and the Department of Public Welfare. A member of the bar of the United States
Su-preme Court, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and the courts of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Mr. Dietrich serves as an arbitration chairperson appointed in both the Delaware County and Montgomery County Courts of Common Pleas. He has been appointed by the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas as a special master and has successfully litigated arbitration matters before the American Arbitration Association. Mr. Dietrich is a member of the Delaware and Montgomery County Bar Associations and the Penn-sylvania Bar Association. He has served as president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer of the Delaware County Bar Association Young Lawyers Division and was honored in 1997 with the Delaware County Bar Association’s Nicholas D. Vadino Award. Mr. Dietrich graduated from Germantown Academy in 1980, received a bachelor of arts degree from Ursinus College in 1985, and graduated from the University of Richmond, T.C. Williams School of Law, in 1989, with a juris doctorate degree.
Martin J. Hagan, Esq.
Mr. Hagan is an independent attorney in Pittsburgh, where he practices in the areas of estate planning, estate and gift taxation, elder law, estate and trust administration, and probate and trust litigation. Mr. Hagan is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and a member of the Probate, Trust, and Real Property Sections of the American, Pennsylvania, and Allegheny County Bar Associations. He is currently a member of the Probate and Trust Council of the Allegheny County Bar Association, and is past chair of its Continuing Legal Education Committee. He is also a member of the Allegheny County Court Rules Committee and the Legis-lative Committee of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Probate and Trust Law Committee. Mr. Hagan is a frequent speaker on topics dealing with long-term care planning and family-wealth transfers, and has published on estate planning topics in Trusts & Estates. Mr. Hagan received his A.B. and J.D. degrees from the University of Notre Dame, where he served as a member of the editorial board of the Notre Dame Law Review.
Marielle F. Hazen, Esq.
Ms. Hazen is the founder of Hazen Elder Law, a firm dedicated to the practice of elder and ability law, estate planning, tax planning, and estate administration. She has earned the dis-tinction of being a Certified Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation, as au-thorized by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. She is the immediate past president and one of the founding members of the Pennsylvania Association of Elder Law Attorneys (PAELA), and is a past chair of the Elder Law Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. Ms. Hazen is secre-tary of the board of directors of the Special Needs Alliance, a national nonprofit organization of attorneys dedicated to disability and public benefits law, and participates on the Grassroots Ad-vocacy Committee of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA). She is actively in-volved in the legislative advocacy activities of PAELA, the PBA Elder Law Section, the Special Needs Alliance, and NAELA. Ms. Hazen serves on the Elder Abuse Task Force for Dauphin County. At the request of the Pennsylvania Department of Aging, Ms. Hazen has taught the Ap-prise Coordinators regarding long-term care legal issues and was appointed as a delegate to Pennsylvania’s Quality at End of Life Symposium. She frequently serves on the faculty for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, providing continuing legal education for attorneys. She has also been a guest lecturer for the Temple University graduate program in Social Work, the Penn State graduate program in Public Health Administration, the Penn State Dickinson School of Law, the Widener University School of Law, the Harrisburg Area Community College, and ALI/ ABA. In 2010, Ms. Hazen was presented with the Excellence in Elder Law Award from the El-der Law Section of the Pennsylvania Bar Association. This award was given in recognition and
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appreciation of her superior professional efforts in the field of elder law, her significant contri-butions to the legal profession and her noteworthy service to the elderly. In 2009, Ms. Hazen re-ceived an Outstanding Achievement award from the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys. Ms. Hazen has been selected by her peers as a “Super Lawyer” in the field of Elder Law and as one of the Top 50 Women Lawyers in Pennsylvania, as featured in Law and Politics magazine. She has also been selected as one of the Best Lawyers in America, and Hazen Elder Law has been recognized by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top law firms in the country. Jennifer A. Kosteva, Esq.
Ms. Kosteva is an associate with the West Conshohocken and Philadelphia firm of Heckscher, Teillon, Terrill and Sager, P.C. She received her B.S. in accountancy, summa cum laude, and M.S. in accountancy (taxation), magna cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana, and her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, Virginia. Ms. Kosteva focuses her practice on estate planning, trust and estate administration, and estate and gift taxation. She is admitted to practice in Pennsylvania and Virginia, and is a member of the Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, and Montgomery County Bar Associations. She is also a member of the Philadelphia and Montgomery County Estate Planning Councils.
David R. Lipka, Esq.
Mr. Lipka is a private practitioner at the Law Office of David R. Lipka in Plymouth, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. For the last 30 years, he has specialized in estate and Medicaid plan-ning, estate probate and administration, special needs trusts, and the preparation of documents such as wills, financial powers of attorney, health-care powers of attorney, living wills, and plications for medical assistance benefits. Mr. Lipka has lectured extensively at seminars ap-proved for continuing education for attorneys, accountants, and financial advisors in his areas of specialization. In his practice, he provides advice and helps to implement strategies to protect assets from being depleted by long-term nursing home care. Mr. Lipka is a certified elder law at-torney (CELA) through the National Elder Law Foundation and is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA), the Academy of Special Needs Planners (ASNP), and the elder law section of the Wilkes-Barre Law and Library Association. He received his un-dergraduate degree from Kings College in Wilkes-Barre and his juris doctorate from Temple University School of Law in Philadelphia.
Jeffrey A. Marshall, Esq.
Mr. Marshall is the founder of and currently serves of counsel with Marshall, Parker & Weber LLC, which has offices in Williamsport, Wilkes-Barre, Jersey Shore, and Scranton. His princi-pal area of practice is elder law, including estate planning, long-term care planning, care man-agement, and estate administration. Mr. Marshall has written and lectured extensively on elder law and elder care planning. In addition to authoring several editions of Elder Law in
Pennsyl-vania, he has been a contributing author for editions of PBI’s Estate Planning in Pennsylvania
and Fee Agreements in Pennsylvania. His articles have appeared in numerous newspapers, mag-azines, newsletters, and legal journals, and on his blog, Marshall Elder and Estate Planning
Blog. He has been quoted on elder law issues by the Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, Kiplinger’s Retirement Report, and the Chicago Tribune. He can also be followed on Twitter:
@ElderLawGuy. Mr. Marshall was the 2008 recipient of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Ex-cellence in Elder Law Award. In 2011, he was the recipient of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys’ Outstanding State Chapter Member Award. He has been listed for many years in Best Lawyers in America and as a Super Lawyer in the field of elder law. In 2014, he was
se-lected by US News Best Lawyers® as the Lawyer of the Year in elder law for the Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania, metropolitan region. Mr. Marshall has served on the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Bar Institute, the Pennsylvania Alzheimer’s Association Public Policy Coalition, and numerous local organizations. He is past president of the Pennsylvania Association of Elder Law Attorneys and past chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Elder Law Committee. He currently serves on the Council of the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Elder Law Section. A na-tive of Lock Haven, Mr. Marshall received his B.A. from Wesleyan University in 1967 and his law degree from Stanford University in 1972.
Dionysios C. Pappas, Esq.
Mr. Pappas is an attorney with the law firm of Vasiliadis and Associates in Bethlehem, Pennsyl-vania, where he practices in the areas of elder law, trust and estate planning, trust and estate administration, and veterans’ pension benefits planning. Mr. Pappas is admitted to practice law in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. A graduate of the Temple University Beasley School of Law (J.D., 2004), Mr. Pappas received his undergraduate degree in political science from Temple University (B.A., 2001, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Sigma Alpha) with a specializa-tion in political economy and minors in history (Phi Alpha Theta) and economics. He is a VA ac-credited attorney for the preparation, presentation, and prosecution of claims for veterans’ ben-efits before the Department of Veterans Affairs. He frequently lectures and contributes articles to professional and community organizations on issues concerning elder law, trust and estate planning, trust and estate administration, and veterans’ pension benefits planning. Mr. Pappas has been selected as a Pennsylvania Rising Star every year since 2010
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Sanford L. Pfeffer, Esq.
Mr. Pfeffer is the general counsel of Philadelphia Corporation for Aging (PCA), the area agency on aging in the city and county of Philadelphia. In addition to advising the agency on a range of corporate matters, he represents the agency in common pleas and orphans’ court proceedings arising under the Older Adults Protective Services Act involving elder abuse and exploitation. Mr. Pfeffer has been associated with Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen and has been a mem-ber of the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where he taught in the psychiatry and bioethics programs. He has also been a member of the Subcommittee on Aging of the Philadelphia County Medical Society and the Attorney General’s Task Force for the Protec-tion of Older Pennsylvanians. Mr. Pfeffer received both his B.A. and J.D. degrees from the Uni-versity of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the board of directors of the eastern Pennsylvania Geriatrics Society and regularly serves as a course planner and faculty member for the Ameri-can Society on Aging and the Pennsylvania Bar Institute. He is a 2005 recipient of an academic research grant from the Borchard Foundation Center on Law and Aging.
Margaret E.W. Sager, Esq.
Ms. Sager is a shareholder of the Philadelphia and West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, firm of Heckscher, Teillon, Terrill and Sager, P.C., a law firm with a practice devoted to estate and trust law, including fiduciary litigation and related dispute resolution, guardianships, estate planning, estate and trust administration, creditor planning, and charitable giving. She re-ceived her B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Richmond in 1982, and her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1985. Ms. Sager was chair of the Probate and Trust Law Section of the Philadelphia Bar Association in 2000, and served for many years as chair of the section’s Rules and Practice Committee and as a member of the Executive Committee. She is a fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC), a regent, a member of
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the ACTEC Fiduciary Litigation Committee (which she chaired from 2009–2011) and the Pro-fessional Responsibility Committee, and is a director of the ACTEC Foundation. She previously served for several years as a member of ACTEC’s Arbitration Task Force. She has completed ACTEC’s Effective Probate Mediation Training program and serves as a mediator in fiduciary litigation matters. Ms. Sager is a frequent speaker on a variety of topics involving estates and trusts, including, for instance, the modification and change of situs of trusts, fiduciary litigation and dispute resolution, the compensation of attorneys and fiduciaries, donor charitable intent, and guardianships of incapacitated persons. Ms. Sager teaches periodically at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania for the Executive Education program. She is also a fre-quent co-presenter for Cannon Financial Institute’s estate planning teleconference series. Ms. Sager was selected by Worth magazine as among the “Top 100 Attorneys” nationwide practicing in the fields of trusts and estates, philanthropy, elder care, and other private practice areas, and for a number of years has been named a “Pennsylvania Super Lawyer” by Philadelphia maga-zine, including recognition in its category of “Top 50 Women Pennsylvania Super Lawyers.” Ms. Sager was named by Best Lawyers as the 2014 Lawyer of the Year in Philadelphia for trusts and estates litigation. In addition, her firm has been ranked Tier 1 in Philadelphia for trusts and es-tates law, including fiduciary litigation, and by Best Lawyers as one of its 2014 “Best Law Firms.”
Sally L. Schoffstall, Esq.
Ms. Schoffstall is the founder of Schoffstall Elder Law, where she has developed a number of sub-specialties within the general fields of estate planning, estate administration law, and plan-ning for individuals with special needs. In particular, she has extensive experience in the area of elder law. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Oberlin College, where she double-majored in English and economics (Honors). She received her juris doctorate degree from The Cornell Law School. Ms. Schoffstall is a past chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Elder Law Section and currently serves on the section’s council. She serves as treasurer of the Pennsylvania Chap-ter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and is a member of the Special Needs Alli-ance. In 2011, the Elder Law section presented her with the Excellence in Elder Law Award, and she was presented in 2013 with PAELA’s Outstanding Member Award. Ms. Schoffstall is a frequent speaker to professional and educational groups on topics related to estate planning, in-capacity, and aging. She has served, since 1998, as a course planner and speaker for the annual Elder Law Institute sponsored by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute.
Dennis C. Vondran, Jr., Esq.
Mr. Vondran practices with the Law Office of Brian Scott Dietrich, P.C., and is a member of the courts of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the Montgomery County Bar Association. He graduated summa cum laude, with honors, from Ursinus College with a B.A. in politics and a mi-nor in international relations. While at Ursinus College, Mr. Vondran was selected as a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Sigma Alpha (political science honors society), and Pi Gamma Mu (interna-tional honor society in social science). He earned his juris doctorate, cum laude, from Widener Law School in 2009. At Widener Law School, Mr. Vondran was a member of the Widener Law Review, served as an articles editor for the 2008–2009 volume, and was selected as the 2007–2008 Out-standing Staff Member. Mr. Vondran concentrates his practice on civil litigation, including the representation of medical and long-term care providers in obtaining payor sources for services. His practice includes handling appeals before the Department of Public Welfare, Bureau of Hearings and Appeals, regarding Medical Assistance (Medicaid) benefits. Mr. Vondran litigates contractual
disputes in all levels of the court system throughout Pennsylvania, and has experience handling general corporate, estate planning, and municipal matters.
Elizabeth A. White, Esq.
Ms. White is an attorney with the law firm of Marshall, Parker & Weber LLC in their Williams-port office. She concentrates her practice in the areas of estate and trust planning, elder law, and estate administration. She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 2010, earning her J.D. and a CAS in intellectual property and technology law. Ms. White at-tended Syracuse University, graduating with a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 2007. She is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and the Pennsylvania Association of Elder Law Attorneys. Ms. White is a member of the Lycoming County Law Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Association, as well as the Elder Law Section for both the Lycoming County Law Association and the Pennsylvania Bar Association. She serves on the board of the North-Central Pennsylvania Estate Planner’s Council. She is a Veterans Affairs accredited attorney for the preparation, presentation, and prosecution of claims for veterans benefits. She has spo-ken on the topic of Medicaid eligibility at a course on elder law conducted by the Pennsylvania Bar Institute and also frequently speaks in her community on the subjects of elder law and es-tate planning.
Joshua R. Wilkins, Esq.
Mr. Wilkins joined Anderson Elder Law as an associate attorney after three years of experience at an elder law firm in central Pennsylvania, where he specialized in estate and long-term care planning. He is an accredited attorney with the United States Department of Veterans Adminis-tration. Mr. Wilkins graduated with a B.A. in sociology from Temple University. He attended Penn State Dickinson School of Law, where he was named to the Woolsack Society for outstand-ing academic achievement. As a law student, he served as the online editor of the Penn State
Law Review. As a student intern, he worked as the clinical fellow at Dickinson Law School’s
El-der Protection Clinic. He received an award from the National Academy of ElEl-der Law Attorneys (NAELA) for his paper, Consumer Directed Negotiated Risk Agreements, which addressed prob-lems that older adults confront when trying to maintain autonomy in an assisted living setting. This paper was selected for publication in the NAELA student journal. Additionally, his work has been published in the Pennsylvania Bar Association Quarterly.
