South Carolina has one of the highest shares of older residents in the region, with close to one in five people now 65 or older. Families in Columbia, Charleston, Greenville and the Myrtle Beach area are going to need attorneys who genuinely understand Medicaid planning, guardianship and long term care, not attorneys who added elder law to their practice as an afterthought. The Elder Law Coach gives South Carolina attorneys that depth through one on one elder law coaching with Todd Whatley, delivered entirely by phone and video.
Elder law rarely gets real attention in law school, which leaves attorneys who choose the field to work out Healthy Connections eligibility rules and spend down strategies mostly on their own. Elder law coaching exists to close that gap with a mentor who has already lived through it.
Todd has spent more than 25 years building and eventually selling his own elder law practice, and he built his coaching program around real fact patterns rather than lecture theory. Whether you practice solo outside Greenville or inside a larger Charleston or Columbia firm, the same question follows every attorney in this field: how do you guide a family through a long term care crisis with confidence, while building a practice that can sustain that work?
Todd is a Certified Elder Law Attorney (CELA) who has personally built and sold four law practices. He has sat with more than 15,000 clients, trained close to a dozen attorneys who went on to earn CELA certification themselves, and spoken at more than 100 events on elder law and practice growth.
In his words: “I’ve spent years honing my career as a nationally recognized elder law attorney, mentoring younger lawyers along the way. Now I want to bring that experience to attorneys across the country, including South Carolina, who want to grow a confident, thriving elder law practice.”
That combination of legal depth and hands on business experience is what separates his coaching from a typical CLE course.
Coaching happens entirely by phone and video, so an attorney near Myrtle Beach or in the upstate near Greenville gets the same direct access as someone practicing near Todd’s own office.
Premium Coaching pairs a full library of forms, slide decks and training content with two or more one on one calls each month, plus direct access to Todd’s cell phone. Elite Coaching adds weekly calls and scheduled in office visits, built for South Carolina attorneys ready to transform an existing practice.
Elder law attorney training with Todd covers Medicaid planning, VA benefits, guardianship, trust work and the practical side of running a firm built around aging clients. South Carolina runs its program as Healthy Connections Medicaid through the South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, and coaching includes help applying Todd’s core planning strategies to the rules South Carolina attorneys actually work under.
This is also where Todd steps in as an elder law consultant. Some attorneys call about one tough Healthy Connections fact pattern. Others stay in ongoing coaching for years, treating every new case as a reason to check in.
Legal knowledge is only half the picture. Todd also works as an attorney business coach, helping South Carolina attorneys with marketing, intake, staffing and the everyday decisions that decide whether a young elder law practice grows or stalls.
If you are trying to figure out how to grow an elder law practice in South Carolina, this business side is exactly what most training leaves out. Todd built and sold four practices himself, so his advice comes from someone who ran the business, not someone who studied it from the outside. Attorneys chasing elder law business mastery coaching, not just legal instruction, tend to land in Elite Coaching, where Todd works alongside you more like an of counsel partner than a distant instructor.
A CLE seminar teaches you the law as it stands today. Elder law mentorship helps you apply it case after case, as the rules and your practice both evolve. That ongoing relationship, not a single day of instruction, is the real difference between The Elder Law Coach and a weekend course.
Attorneys who complete Todd’s programs come away sharper on Medicaid fact patterns, steadier with worried families, and clearer on how to run a practice that can support that work for years.
No. Coaching runs entirely by phone and video, so South Carolina attorneys from Charleston to a small upstate practice can join without leaving their desk.
No. Premium Coaching fits attorneys transitioning into elder law for the first time, while Elite Coaching serves established South Carolina practices looking to expand.
CLE courses teach the law. Coaching applies it to real client situations and helps you build the business behind it, backed by ongoing access to Todd rather than a single seminar day.
Todd’s coaching is built around core Medicaid and elder law planning principles that apply nationwide, then helps you layer in the rules specific to South Carolina, including how Healthy Connections and the Department of Health and Human Services handle eligibility and long term care benefits.
If you are ready to stop wondering how to grow an elder law practice and start building one, book a free consultation. Todd will talk through where your South Carolina practice stands today and which coaching level fits where you want to take it.
