For well over 40 years of private practice now, I have devoted my focus almost exclusively to living trusts, wills and basic estate planning for wonderful “salt of the earth” “Middle America” people…hard working people, perhaps, not “wealthy” by common standards, but family loving people… who desire and deserve better than marginal and mediocre or even “cookie cutter” treatment that is all too commonly the “product” people receive with so many wills and trusts. I find that most wills and trusts DO NOT PRESERVE AND PROTECT what so many have worked a lifetime to accumulate and pass on to the ones they care so much about.
I believe my clients have come to appreciate my relational approach, reasonable fees and commitment to remain on the journey with them and their family members.
I now feel a bit like the old family doctor who is still delivering babies to a 3rd generation of family members!!
My work on estate planning has been featured in FORTUNE and MEDICAL ECONOMICS magazines.
My clients believe we live in a culture in free fall where few are spared the pain of loss to events like divorce, lawsuits, creditor problems, scams or even bankruptcies.
Most lawyers write trusts that don’t address these realities at all. They might talk about avoiding probate and taxes, and getting the estate to children when they are old enough. But that’s where the trust stops.
The problem is that if anything happens to children or grandchildren after “mom and dad” are gone, the trust mom and dad wrote and the money they spent for the Trust, end up worthless in the face of life events to keep inheritances safe from loss. I call those trusts “D.O.A.”…dead on arrival. Nobody really wants a “living trust” to be DEAD ON ARRIVAL…but most trusts I see are exactly that!
My clients appreciate my commitment to write their trusts designed to outlast their spouses and children, and survive divorces, lawsuits, creditor problems and such. The result is a well founded optimism and empowerment that when they walk out my door, they have a trust that can allow the ones they love to rebuild their lives with their inheritances because “mom and dad” were thinking that far ahead.
I love the thought that I can help clients be empowered to have trusts at least aiming to protect their assets 40,50,60 or more years after they are gone.
I believe that if you are going to be spending time and money on a trust, you instinctively desire, and are justified in hoping you can gain a well founded sense of peace of mind, instead of an illusion of readiness common to so many trusts I see.
I would count it an honor to partner with you in your securing that kind of peace of mind in delivering such an outcome to you.
I hope you’ll grant me that privilege.