Ms. Fortenberry is one of the area’s only crisis Medicaid planning attorneys, she saw a need for a firm focused on asset protection, estate planning, and Medicaid eligibility. Ms. Fortenberry founded Fortified Elder Law with expert strategies, know-how, and the experience of helping families become Medicaid eligible. Becoming an elder law attorney has allowed her to find her life’s work: helping clients preserve their life savings. Her greatest joy as an attorney has been to help keep a spouse from losing everything just because they can no longer keep their loved one at home. Oftentimes, her clients have been neglecting themselves and their own health because of the mistaken belief that they cannot afford to place their spouse in a nursing home. Others have spent almost every dime to keep someone at home. These are the clients that she loves to help. Ms. Fortenberry earned her B.A. degree from Missouri State University and her J.D. degree from Case Western Reserve University.

Ms. Kincaid earned a number accolades in the area of estate planning and elder law including being named by the Springfield Business Journal as a Trusted Adviser and being selected as one of five attorneys in the nation by the American Bar Association for a two year Trust & Estate Fellowship. She currently serves as the American Bar Association Long Term Care Committee Vice Chair and recently published an article in the national Probate & Property magazine on recent changes to Missouri’s guardianship statutes. Ms. Kincaid is a member of the Greene County Estate Planning Council, National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Community Foundation of the Ozarks Professional Advisors Council, the Southern Missouri Women Lawyers, the Springfield Metropolitan Bar Association, and the Missouri Bar Association. She was also a member of the 2014-2015 Missouri Bar Association Leadership Academy, a recipient of the 2017 Missouri Lawyers Weekly Up & Coming Award, a recipient of the 2016 Springfield Business Journal’s 40 Under 40 award, and a recipient of the 2019 Springfield Business Journal’s Trusted Advisers award. Ms. Kincaid graduated cum laude from Creighton University School of Law, where she served as President of the Student Bar Association, a member of the editorial staff of the Creighton Law Review, and was a founding editor of the Creighton International and Comparative Law Journal. Prior to attending law school, She obtained a bachelor’s degree in Criminology and a master’s degree in Business Administration, both from (Southwest) Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri.

Mr. Nolan established his law firm in 1991 and his areas of practice include Wills, Probate and Estate Planning, Workers Compensation, Personal Injury and DWI & Alcohol related offenses. The firm serves the entire Metropolitan St. Louis area (including St. Louis County, St. Louis City, St. Charles County, Jefferson County, Franklin County and Madison and St. Clair Counties in Illinois). He earned his B.S and J.D. degrees from Southern Illinois University.

Ms. Overton has more than 17 years of experience advocating for those with special needs and navigating the state and federal agencies formed to help the disabled and elderly. At Paths Law Firm, her practice focuses on helping the elderly qualify for nursing home Medicaid, creating estate plans to protect beneficiaries, as well as a lot of time planning and forming businesses. Ms. Overton also enjoys helping clients form non-profit organizations and obtain 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. After attending law school at the University of Oklahoma, She began representing clients before the Social Security Administration. Eventually, her practice switched to federal court appeals and she spent years representing clients before the Eastern and Western District of Missouri, the District of Kansas, and the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Ms. Overton has since focused her practice on estate planning and elder law after watching clients struggle to find ways to financially care for loved ones with special needs or aging parents.

Ms. Schuster has practiced Elder and Disability law since 1999, having practiced health law since 1991. Her practice focuses on elder law issues, a growing area of law with few experienced practitioners. Ms. Schuster works with and advises social workers, geriatric and care managers, financial planners and accountants, psychiatrists and geriatric physicians about incapacity issues and financial exploitation. Her practice focuses on multi-disciplinary collaboration with these professionals to address the complex, myriad age and disability issues her clients face. Ms. Schuster personal experience with her mother and grandfather, both of whom had dementia, has given her insight into the stresses that caregivers and families endure when caring for a loved one with dementia, which led her to become a certified Elder and Adult Mediator. She assists families with facilitated conversation about difficult end-of-life issues when someone should stop driving, move to assisted living or a skilled nursing facility, delegate financial matters to someone else to high conflict matters involving contested guardianship, financial exploitation and the removal of appointees under Durable Powers of Attorney and trustees. Ms. Schuster is passionate about volunteering in the community. She is past president of the Breakthrough Coalition, a multidisciplinary group of senior care and disability community providers. Ms. Schuster is the past Vice President of Operations for Memory Care Home Solutions, past Board member for Brith Shalom Kneseth Israel, was the Co-chairperson of the BAMSL Elder Law Committee. She was a finalist as “Best Lawyer of the Year” in 2016 by St. Louis Magazine and is the “Face of Elder Law” in the June 2017 issue of St. Louis Magazine. Since 2014, Ms. Schuster has been the chairperson of an ad hoc committee of the Missouri Bar Association that has authored proposed legislation for the passage of the Designated Healthcare Decisionmaker Act.

After a successful career in the corporate realm, Mr. Smith decided to begin his own practice centered on serving people. He specializes in elder law, estate planning, special needs planning, mediation, and long-term care planning. Mr. Smith genuinely enjoys people and it shows – he listens to each person’s story and situation to help them develop a plan which best fits their family’s circumstances, financial position and life’s values. As a husband, father to five, and grandfather to a growing number, he understands the confusion that can sometimes occur in certain seasons of life. Mr. Smith believes each person is a masterpiece created to thrive in this life! Active in the legal and public community, He is a member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Academy of Special Needs Planners, and Elder Counsel. Mr. Smith is an accredited attorney by the Veterans Administration, which allows him to advise clients and families on benefits available to veterans. He enjoys active participation in local groups aimed in serving people in the Kansas City area as they age including Northland Professionals in Aging, Northland Shepherd’s Center (Board of Directors), and Good Samaritan Center of Excelsior Springs (Board of Directors). Mr. Smith earned his Masters in Divinity at the Nazarene Theological Seminary and his Juris Doctorate at the University of Memphis – Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law.