For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be an attorney. I wanted to work with families and, more specifically, with children. I started out practicing matrimonial and family law because I wanted my representation to have a direct impact on my clients; I didn’t want to be a transactional attorney who just drafted documents. After practicing for 15 years in this area, I became frustrated.  I was frustrated that the court system didn’t seem to care about solving cases quickly and that adversaries only focused on billable hours and fees they could collect. It seemed to me as though you needed to have no soul to survive being a divorce attorney.

The traditional ways of estate planning seemed completely impersonal to me. Everything was done quickly and for the sake of getting important matters out of the way rather than making sure clients felt safe and comfortable with their legal plans. Clients were afraid to call me with questions and information about changes in their lives because they were unsure how much it would cost them. This resulted in many of my clients being left with outdated estate plans that would ultimately fail them down the road. I was unable to be as responsive to my clients as I wanted to because I did not have a team of people supporting me. My clients were completely dependent on me and the one partner I worked with. I cared so much about my clients that their cases kept me up at night, ultimately damaging my own quality of life. It was at this point in my career that I switched practice areas to tax resolution work.

Many of my divorce clients were left with tax issues that I felt I could help them with. I resolved their liabilities and was able to help them plan for a better financial future. Once their financials were in order, it was only natural that I would use my tax expertise to help them protect their assets for future generations.

Over the course of my life, both personal and professional, I have seen far too many cases of families struggling to put their estate and other legal affairs in order after the death of a family member who never took the time to establish an estate plan or living will. There is so much time, energy and frustration that can be saved by adequately planning for the future of your family. Being a victim of the legal system myself, I wanted nothing more than to help others out of tax and estate planning-related minefields that I am all too familiar with. I believe that no child should ever have to completely lose a parent; by establishing an estate plan and naming legal guardians, parents are granted the peace of mind that, should something happen to them, their children will be taken care of and have access to continual parental guidance throughout their lives by preserving family values, stories, spiritual guidance and the hopes and dreams they have for their children.

In one particular case I worked on, a young mother of 26 died unexpectedly, leaving behind her 3-year-old daughter and absolutely nothing in the way of a legal plan. Her failure to establish an estate plan, write a will, or name a legal guardian for her daughter sparked the beginning of a fierce legal battle between family members on both sides, each looking to gain custody of her daughter. The child’s father had no role in her life, but this did not stop his side of the family from claiming that they were fit and deserved to raise the child. How much better could this little girl’s life have been had her mother named a guardian and left behind a lifetime of guidance for her daughter? To me, this mother’s case became a perfect exemplification of how and why the old way of estate planning does not work. Had she felt as though we were more accessible to her, perhaps she would have scheduled a meeting to establish a legal plan and name a guardian for her daughter. Had we been doing things differently, perhaps her daughter’s life would have turned out better.

Estate planning became important in my personal life because I have three daughters from two different marriages. I knew that the appointment of guardians was going to be challenging, and I wanted to ensure the best possible future for each of my girls. Two of my children have the same father, making it so that, if I predeceased him, he would be the one to take custody of my daughters. My other daughter would stay with her father, separate from her two sisters. However, if both my ex-husband and current husband predeceased me, I would have a different guardian appointed for all three girls. I knew from my own experience in establishing an estate plan that this was something I wanted to help guide other families through, something that I could make easier and less frustrating, and something to which I could devote my legal expertise. I’ve always been a trusted legal advisor to my clients and have developed long-term relationships with all of them. Being that type of trusted legal advisor is most important when handling estate planning. Your estate plan is not a “one and done” affair. Just as your life changes as the years go by, so should your estate plan; if it doesn’t, it will fail when you need it the most.

As a mom, my children have made me aware of the fact that planning is something you do for the people you love the most. You won’t be the one to benefit from the plan we are going to design for you today— the people who will benefit are your loved ones who will be dealing with things after you’re gone. So, before we get started talking about you and the people you love, do you have any questions about me, the firm or anything else that I said or didn’t say? Contact me…