Why We're Different

The Traditional Experience

To understand how we’re really different requires an explanation of what the “traditional” experience with a lawyer is like. During the traditional experience, you’ll meet with a lawyer who will oftentimes make things seem very complicated and confusing. You’ll have a good idea that the lawyer is smart and seems to know what he’s doing, so you’ll nod and answer questions as if you understand everything. Because you want to do the right thing for your family, you’ll have the lawyer prepare documents for you and you’ll sign the documents, feeling relieved that you’ve gotten that taken care of.

You’ll take your fancy planning binder home, stick it on a shelf or in a drawer, mark estate planning off on your checklist as DONE, and never think about it again.

You might remember your lawyer said something about moving your bank accounts into the trust. So, you’ll go to the bank, forget what you were supposed to do, call your lawyer’s office, get a voicemail, have to leave the bank, and wait for a call back (which takes several hours at least and sometimes days), and by that time, you’ll have gotten busy with other things and never get around to moving that bank account.

A few weeks later, you’ll get a bill in the mail for $120 for 15 minutes of your lawyer’s time for answering a couple of questions. You’ll make a mental note—don’t call lawyer ever again.

Several years later, you’ll refinance your house or sell it and buy a new one and forget that you were supposed to let your lawyer know about the action or make sure you kept the title in the name of the trust. Your children will get older, making your guardianship choices outdated, but you don’t want to call your lawyer because you know you’ll get a bill in the mail two weeks later.

You’ll hear something about a change in the tax law, but you’ll figure that if something affects you, you’ll surely get a letter in the mail from your lawyer. And you’d have to dig through boxes to find your trust documents so you could remember your lawyer’s name and find her contact information. Who has time for that?

It’s not until you become incapacitated or die and your family finds the binder you stuck up on a shelf several years before and never looked at again, that they’ll realize your plan is so outdated that it has nothing to do with your life, your assets, and the law.

Your family is at a loss. Family members don’t know where to turn or what to do, so they contact the same lawyer you used to prepare the documents, who is as happy as can be to probate your assets, which never made it into the trust.

How Do I Know All This?

Because not too long ago, it happened to my family and I swore it would never happen to my clients when I created my own firm. And since then, I have seen countless clients come in to see me who have had that “traditional” lawyer experience in the past.

Unfortunately, what I discovered is the estate planning industry wasn’t designed to serve growing families who experience lots of change on their way to success.

Our Firm Helps You Be Prepared for Life

You want to know you’ve made the best decisions for your family and that your estate planning will work when your loved ones need it most. You want to make sure that if anything happens to you, your children would be taken care of in the best way possible and would be prepared to receive your wealth.

That’s our focus as well. We encourage communication with our clients. In fact, we’ve thrown out the time clocks so you never have to be afraid to call with a quick question. Everything we do is billed on a flat-fee basis, so there are never any surprises.

And we ensure the most important details of your planning are followed through on and your plan continues to work throughout your lifetime.

While it’s easy to procrastinate when it comes to estate planning and MassHealth planning—DON’T. It’s important to have a plan in place to protect your assets and heirs, communicate your health care wishes, and position yourself to be able to afford long-term care BEFORE you need any of it. At The Heritage Law Center, we can help you create the best plan for your needs.

We look forward to seeing you and caring for your family soon!

P.S. If you think this all sounds expensive, you’re right and you’re wrong. The truth is that planning would be substantially less costly than it would be for your family if you died with a plan that didn’t work or if you didn’t have a plan in place at all. And I’ve never had a family who believed in this kind of planning and wanted to put it in place for their loved ones, leave my office because they couldn’t afford it. We’ve made creative financing available to our clients because we know that this planning is one of the most important things someone can do for their family.