Lawyers With Purpose

Lessons From Los Angeles

California is known for being different – a place where stars rise and fall every day, working hard to make a name for themselves, then smearing it all over town.

How does this relate to your VA benefits law practice?

I spent four days in L.A. in an effort to interview a big name who would propel my TV show, "Senior Salute," to new levels. The better the show is, the more it can help a broader audience of caregivers and people who are aging.

I had a date for the interview, but no set time. I spent time and money to be present for the meeting, even hiring a local makeup artist to come to my hotel to dress me up.  The interview didn't happen. So, why was I there for four long days when I could have been with my family or at the office?

My agent strung me along with little to no communication. It wasn't intentional, but it was frustrating nonetheless.

And it raised a question: How often do you string your clients along without communicating?

I arrived on a Tuesday night for a Wednesday interview. No word from my agent until 11:23 a.m. Wednesday saying, "Not today."  At 8:16 p.m., new message received: "Just heard back, we are in for Friday afternoon."  The next day, Thursday, February 27, next message, "Are you here tomorrow? They are getting us in about 3:00." Friday morning, no news. I call for a status and my agent tells me we are still only about a 50/50 chance. By 3:00 I knew there was no interview, but not because my agent told me, because if there had been one I would already have received my special pass. Instead, I used a ticket I got on the Internet to watch from the general audience the live filming of a show that night, featuring my big-name star. No VIP status.

Reading the above, it looks like there was constant communication.  And if I had complained to my agent about not hearing from her, she would have argued that she was doing everything she could and telling me everything she knew.  The problem, from the client perspective, is that she was telling me projections, possibilities and hopeful deliverables. What I wanted were the details of her efforts, the positive and negative conversations between her and her "contacts," so I could set up my own expectations and not feel so duped when the interview didn't take place.

How often and how detailed are you when communicating with your clients? Only when you have good news? Only when you need something from them? Only when they are calling you?

The VA application process can take an uncertain amount of time, sometimes more than nine months. Getting that monthly check to pay for care is the client's only focus, and you are the means of achieving that. It's very much like getting that interview, with my agent being my vessel. Even when there is no new news, clients want to hear that, which is why our office calls the VA each month for a status and then passes the information to our waiting clients. Just showing the details of our efforts is enough to keep them content, if not yet satisfied with the results.

Thus, my lessons from L.A. include:

1. Set and manage client expectations;

2.  Use clear, constant and honest communication;

3. And understand the unspoken gratitude from your clients when they are aware of your efforts.

P.S. While at the show, I even took actions to "do it myself" by approaching the set's floor supervisor to plead my case. One of the worst things that can happen is when clients take matters into their own hands because they have lost confidence in you. It rarely makes a difference in the result. It didn't in mine.

Victoria L. Collier is a Veteran and Certified Elder Law Attorney, Fellow of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Co-Founder of Lawyers With Purpose LLC, and author of “47 Secret Veterans’ Benefits for Seniors—Benefits You Have Earned … but Don’t Know About.”

 

 

 

 

Your Legal Hour - March 24, 2014

Welcome to Your Legal Hour!

This week's topic is The LWP Relationship Management System (RMS).

Questions about the materials presented? Contact us at [email protected]

Supporting Materials from This Session

• 10 Key Focusers Filled Out (PDF)
• RMS Relationship Review Form (PDF)
• Completed Workshop Strategy Worksheet (PDF)
• RMS Chart (PDF)
• RMS My Ten Focuser (PDF)

Supporting Materials from Prior Sessions

• Your Legal Hour Overview
• Week 1 Materials
• Week 2 Materials
• Week 3 Materials
• Week 4 Materials
• Trust Summaries
• Week 5 - Case Study (PDF)
• Week 5 - Medicaid Overview (PowerPoint)
• Who Should Consider Medicaid Planning? Crisis vs. Pre-Planning
• Who Should Consider Medicaid Planning? Relevant Law vs. Plan Design
• Boost Your Closing Rate with the Vision Clarifier - Slides (PDF)
• Boost Your Closing Rate with the Vision Clarifier (Part 2) - Slides (PDF)
• Enhanced Trust Design Template (PDF)

How Inheritance Affects VA Aid & Attendance

Receiving an inheritance can be bittersweet for various reasons. First, you are probably sad the person died. You are also probably happy to be receiving money you need or maybe just want. This windfall, however, can terminate your VA Improved Pension benefits, to include aid and attendance.

Wartime veterans are entitled to receive Improved Pension benefits if they are disabled (with non-service-connected disabilities), if they served at least 90 days on active duty, with one of those days during a period of war, and if they have limited income and assets.

An inheritance is considered “income” when received. The income is then annualized over twelve months.  For example, an inheritance of $100,000 is received on February 25, 2014.  The income is considered as income for VA purposes from that date through February 24, 2015. How does this affect the pension with aid and attendance?

Assume that the wartime veteran, who is 80 years old and living in an assisted living facility because he needs assistance with at least two activities of daily living, is receiving the maximum VA Improved Pension award for an unmarried veteran of $21,107 per year ($1,758 per month).  Because the VA pension program is a means-tested benefit, the veteran’s income cannot exceed the maximum annual pension rate, which is $21,107 per year.  Thus, the receipt of $100,000 of inheritance, when treated as income, exceeds the $21,107 per year and may cause the benefits to be terminated.

Is there a way to maintain the VA benefit even when receiving an inheritance? Yes, but only if the veteran’s annual income, to include the inherited funds, is reduced based on deductible medical expenses. When considering income for VA purposes, the VA must deduct all recurring, out-of-pocket medical expenses from the gross income received.

To stick with the example above, the 80-year-old veteran receives annual Social Security of $13,200 and no other income. Adding $13,200 to the $100,000 inheritance would total income equaling $113,200 for a twelve month period. During that same period, the veteran pays $7,500 per month for assisted living costs and another $2,000 per month for home health care because he is a fall risk and wanders at night.  Thus, his monthly recurring, deductible medical expenses are $9,500 per month, which equals $114,000 per year.  When subtracting the medical expenses from income, $113,200 (income) minus $114,000 (medical expenses), the veteran has negative annual income, and thus would continue to receive his VA pension with aid and attendance at the maximum rate.

Therefore, when a client receives an inheritance, know that it does not automatically disqualify him for the pension, but it may require offsetting medical deductions.

Lastly, if the inheritance will cause termination or reduction of benefits, can the veteran disclaim the inheritance so that it passes to someone else?  For VA Improved Pension purposes, the answer is NO.  Even if the veteran disclaims the inheritance, the veteran has the duty to notify the VA of his right to receive the inheritance. The VA will count the “expected” inheritance as income even if the veteran never personally receives the money or asset. Thus, disclaiming is not a viable option.

Victoria L. Collier is a Veteran and Certified Elder Law Attorney, Fellow of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Co-Founder of Lawyers With Purpose LLC, and author of “47 Secret Veterans’ Benefits for Seniors—Benefits You Have Earned … but Don’t Know About.”

Medicaid Planning: The Ins & Outs of MMMNA - Part One

Part of planning for a married Medicaid applicant is figuring the minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance, which is the minimum income allowance for the community (or well) spouse.  Medicaid law says that the income of the Medicaid applicant in excess of the limits must be used toward the cost of care. But if the applicant has a spouse, Medicaid, through the concept of the minimum monthly maintenance needs allowance (“MMMNA”), allows the community spouse to keep some or all of their income. 

Medicaid considers the gross income of the community spouse.  If the community spouse’s income is in excess of the MMMNA, then under the federal rules, 25% of the community spouse’s income must be used for cost of care. While New York is currently the only state that enforces that provision, we must be aware of the federal rules because it is probably only a matter of time before other states are assessing the 25%.

Now if the community spouse’s income is less than the MMMNA, then income from the applicant will be diverted to the community spouse to try to get the community spouse’s income up to the MMMNA.  If the community spouse’s income is still below the MMMNA, then assets needed to generate sufficient interest to fill the income up to the MMMNA are exempt. This is what we call the assets to income rule.

But there's a little more to it than that. The federal law says there’s a minimum and there’s a maximum MMMNA.  The states are allowed to set the MMMNA for the community spouse.  But the federal government says the states can’t set a MMMNA below $1938.75 (we will call it $1,939 to keep the math easy) or above $2,931. So your state’s MMMNA will be somewhere between those two numbers.

States vary in how they set the MMMNA.  About half of the states are what we call “max states.” They set the MMMNA at the maximum end of the range and say that the community spouse can keep up to $2,931 in gross monthly income.   Other states are “range states.”  That is the MMMNA can fall somewhere between both the maximum and minimum range the feds allow for the MMMNA.  In a range state, if the community spouse's income is less than $1,939, then the community spouse can take the institutionalized spouse’s income up to that minimum. And what happens if the community spouse’s income was more than the minimum but less than the maximum? Then the income of the community spouse would be the MMMNA. 

Let’s consider the following examples to show you what I mean.

I had a community spouse who had $1,000 of income. The applicant, the husband, was the predominant income earner, and the community spouse had $1,000 of income. In a max state, the law says the community spouse could keep the first $2,931, regardless of whom it came from. So if the wife had $1,000 of income, she would be able to keep the first $1,931 of the income of the husband, who’s in the nursing home. And if the husband didn’t have $1,931, then the assets to income rule would come into play. That means the law would say that, if the total income between the institutionalized spouse and the community spouse does not equal the MMMNA, then the community spouse can exempt additional assets needed to generate the income to get the community spouse up to the MMMNA. So again, if this is a max state, the threshold is $2,931. If the community spouse had $1,000 and the husband had $3,000 of income, the community spouse would be able to keep $1,931 of the applicant’s income.

In a range state, the community spouse is allowed to keep the minimum, but if the income is below $1,939, then the community spouse gets to take income from the institutionalized spouse to get to the $1,939 limit. For instance, if a community spouse’s income was $1,000, she could take $939 from the husband’s income. If she had income of $2,500, then her MMMNA would be $2,500 because her income is below the maximum and above the minimum MMMNA. And if a community spouse earns more than the maximum MMMNA, then 25% of that amount in excess would have to be contributed toward the cost of care. Those are the federal rules. But remember, as of now only New York applies the 25% rule. Most states allow the community spouse to keep any income in excess of the MMMNA.

We will continue to delve into MMMNA in future posts on this blog, to help you understand the nuances and work through the complexities of this issue.

David J. Zumpano, Esq, CPA, Co-founder Lawyers With Purpose, Founder and Senior Partner of Estate Planning Law Center

Financial Abuse of Elders & Other At Risk Adults - Part 9

Remedies For Elder Financial Abuse: State Criminal Prosecution

Although the Adult Protective Services (“APS”) statutes and programs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia recognize elder financial abuse as a reportable action, not all states specifically recognize elder financial abuse or exploitation as a distinct crime.  In those states, however, basic criminal laws against theft, fraud, deception, larceny, forgery, and embezzlement can be invoked to prosecute elder financial abuse and seek restitution for the elder.  The burden of proof for a conviction under such statutes is typically “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Frequently, however, prosecutors refuse to pursue elder financial abuse actions for a variety of reasons, including (i) insufficient support of APS investigations by law enforcement personnel; (ii) limited budget resources; (iii) the effect of the incapacity or death of the victim on the ability to marshal sufficient probative evidence; and (iv) the refusal of the victim to cooperate with the development of the case.

Specially trained multi-disciplinary teams of criminal justice and social service professionals are increasingly being trained and deployed to enhance state efforts to prosecute elder financial abuse.  Collaboration between and among the following disciplines promises to increase the effectiveness of state efforts to convict and punish the perpetrators of elder financial abuse: (i) APS,State Units on Aging, and Long-term Care Ombudsman Offices (“LTCO”); (ii) state and local law enforcement agencies; (iii) policy makers; (iv) financial and banking industries; (v) legal; (vi) social services agencies and social workers; (vii) medical and mental health care providers; (viii) public health officials; (ix) medical examiners and coroners; (x) state insurance, banking, and securities regulators; (xi) district Attorneys and state Attorneys General; and (xii) consumer protection agencies.

An example of a successful multi-disciplinary team established by the Georgia Department of Human Services Division of Aging Services, Forensic Special Investigations Unit, is the “At-Risk Adult Crime Tactics” (“ACT”) Specialist Program.  Over 800 ACT specialists are working in Georgia, with promising results at the local, state and federal levels to combat and prosecute the abuse, neglect and exploitation (“ANE”) of at-risk adults.  An ANE work group comprised of representatives of local agencies (e.g. county and city police departments, county District Attorney’s Offices), state agencies (e.g. the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, APS, LTCO, Medicaid, Inspector General, Georgia Association of Chiefs of Police, Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council), and federal agencies (e.g. the FBI; the Offices of Inspector General of the Social Security Administration, HHS, FDA, VA; and the United States Attorney’s Office) meets bi-annually to identify and address obstacles to preventing and prosecuting crimes against at-risk adults.  Recommended solutions include the following.

(a) Increased public education and awareness of ANE of at-risk adults.

(b) Mandatory training of criminal justice personnel at all levels (e.g. law enforcement, prosecutors, judges) on ANE of at-risk adults.

(c) Expedited investigation and prosecution of crimes against at-risk adults.

(d) Development and codification of evidence preservation procedures designed to enhance prosecution of ANE crimes against at-risk adults.

(e) Development of multi-disciplinary cooperation and collaboration between law enforcement and non-law enforcement government agencies to ensure equal protection for at-risk adult victims.

(f) Facilitation of information sharing between and among government agencies to support investigations and enforcement.

(g) Statutory changes to enable law enforcement to obtain financial records related to abuse and exploitation in a no-cost or low-cost manner.

(h) Development of funding resources to implement the foregoing recommendations.

The activities of the Georgia Department of Human Services Division of Aging Services to combat the societal plague of ANE of at-risk adults is documented in a recent public television production Elder Abuse: Hiding in Plain Sight (available at http://www.gpb.org/elder-abuse).

Part 10 of this series will explore the challenges of prosecuting interstate and international elder financial abuse schemes.

Kristen M. Lewis, Esq., Member of the Special Needs Alliance and Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.

 

Playing "The Price Is Right!"

Our tri-annual retreat sparked a lot of discussion and creative thinking about the issues faced by many law firms, and one area that clearly causes a lot of heartburn is, simply, "How much?" What do you charge for your services, and which approach to pricing lends fair value to the firm and the customer alike?

Obviously, you first must make sure your fees are ethical.  Whatever that means in your jurisdiction; you want to make sure that you can justify your fees ethically. Yet this is a very broad guideline, and not a particularly helpful way to set your prices. Here are a few of the common methods, along with some of the pros and cons.

Finger in the wind method –  This is basing your pricing on what other people are doing in your area.  It is not a bad idea to do that research, just so you can see what other people are doing and know that your prices are not way out of line.  And if you are charging what everybody else is, if you are going with the herd, you’re going to be comfortable with the pricing. The downside is that, in your clients' minds, it is basic commodity pricing.  In other words, they could go to you or the attorney down the street and the client will pretty much get the same thing.  It is important to know what everybody else charges, but it is not a good idea to follow their lead.

Flat fee – This is a great way to charge clients, but if you base your fee on how much time you will take, then you could still run into problems.  For example, let’s say you have a job that will take you three hours, and if you multiple your billing rate of, say, $250.00/hour by three hours, you decide you’re going to charge $750.00 for your service.  Now, that will make you comfortable with the price because it’s based on an hourly rate and the amount of time that you estimate.  The downside is, if you underestimate how much time the job will take, you will be underpaying yourself. And if you overestimate too many times, that can also be a problem, because you'll feel like you're overcharging your client, and that will eventually cost you clients.  Another issue is that there are only so many hours in the day, and by using this approach you are not taking full advantage of flat fee billing and limiting your revenue based on the number of hours you work a case.  One way to correct this is to estimate what it normally takes you to do a job, then build in a buffer to cover the times it might take longer.  For example, you would start out estimating that a job will take you three hours, but you know what sometimes it takes you four or five, so you might average the time that it would take thus what the cost will be. 

Value-base billing – What is the value of what you’re doing for the client?  Let’s say you are saving a client $650,000 of their assets.  Are you really only going to charge what everybody else is charging when they may not be able to get even close to the same result?  If the attorney down the street is doing $2,000 for a trust, but you can do a trust a little bit differently and save $650,000, you are doing a huge service for the client, a service that the client could not get elsewhere, but doing a huge disservice to self by not charging enough.  The great advantage of value-base billing is that you are giving a higher value to the clients; therefore, you can charge higher prices But if you are uncomfortable with the process and the different options available, then it will show. And your clients will not be willing to pay higher prices because your client is not not going to trust you.

Fee schedule – Whichever pricing model you choose, a fee schedule is important because it helps you avoid emotion-based pricing.  Sometimes when we are talking with people, we hear a sad story or we see that the client doesn’t have a lot of assets, and we start to feel like social workers.  We want to help as many people as possible, but the fee schedule will help you stick to the pricing.  If you’ve done your fee schedule right and you're confident in your fees, it will help you reduce the feeling of needing to cut your fees, because you have built your fee schedule in such a way that you know the price is fair.  You know that the price is worth what you’re doing. And also remember that, even though the client has a sob story or you feel sorry for them for one reason or another, you still have to do the work, and the work won't be any less because you feel sorry for the client.

On the LWP members web site, you can find our founder's estate planning fee schedule. You can use that as a guide, not necessarily for the amount that you might charge, but it’ll let you know the various services that his firm provides. That can help you decide whether or not you want to offer those or other services, and it’ll get you thinking about what you might be able to charge in your area.

Finally, you don’t want to miss our retreats.  At our last retreat, we had a discussion about what happens if the client has a negative reaction to the fee – maybe doesn't want to pay that price or even tries to negotiate with you. After a great discussion, the consensus among our members was, bottom line, the price is the price.  If you are confident in your price but the client resists, then you probably have a marketing problem.  Bring in more people who are better able to see the value of what you are offering them.  Adjust your marketing and bring in better prospects.

Aaron Miller, Legal Technical Trainer, Lawyers With Purupose

Can Veterans or Widows Receiving Service-Connected Disability Get Aid & Attendance?

There are two different veterans benefits programs that provide tax-free income to veterans or their widow(er)s.  Each of those programs can include a supplemental payment called Aid and Attendance. The question is, which one is your client eligible for and why does it matter?

When veterans have been injured while serving on active duty or have a resulting injury or disease because of their service (i.e. exposure to agent orange, post-traumatic stress disorder), they may be paid  “compensation” for their loss.  This is similar to payments in the private sector under Worker’s Compensation.  The payment is determined based on the rating the veteran is awarded, which will be from 0% to 100% in increments of 10.  The higher the rating, the more money the veteran receives. If the veteran has a rating of 100% or has been determined to be unemployable due to the service-connected injury, the veteran may receive additional income from the VA if the veteran is in need of regular assistance with activities of daily living (dressing, bathing, toileting, transferring, and eating). The additional money is called Special Monthly Compensation for Aid and Attendance.  This is available to widows of veterans who are receiving, or could be eligible to receive, Death Indemnity Compensation (DIC).

Veterans who do not have service-connected disabilities may also receive tax-free income from the VA if they meet certain military, disability, and financial criteria.  If the veteran served at least 90 days on active duty, one day of which came during a wartime period, and received a discharge greater than dishonorable, then the veteran is considered a “veteran” for the Improved Pension Program. In addition to the military requirements, the veteran must be disabled to receive Improved Pension, but the disability is due to factors not related to military service (i.e. a car accident, stroke, Alzheimer’s Disease, age).  The VA defines “disabled” as being age 65 or above. Lastly, the veteran’s income and assets (to exclude a home, vehicles and personal property) must be under certain limits. Assuming the veteran qualifies under all standards, the VA will grant the veteran a monthly amount to bring the veteran’s income up to the VA’s definition of the poverty level (i.e. $12,652 per year for a single veteran or $16,569 for a veteran with one dependent, like a spouse).  If the veteran needs the regular assistance of another person to help with activities of daily living, then the veteran can receive the Special Monthly Pension with Aid and Attendance, to increase the monthly amount paid by the VA (i.e. $21,107 per year for a single veteran and $25,022 for a veteran with one dependent).  This benefit is available to widows of veterans as well, but the annual amounts payable are less. 

When a client contacts you seeking the Aid and Attendance program, always ask if the client is receiving VA benefits for a service-connected disability.  If so, and if the rating is 100%, unemployable, or the need for aid and attendance is related to the service-connected injury, then the veteran should seek aid and attendance under the service-connected compensation program.  The payment will be higher than that of the Improved Pension program. Moreover, there are no income or asset limitations under the service-connected compensation program, which is usually the limiting factor of non-service-connected wartime veterans from being eligible for the Improved Pension with Aid and Attendance.

The Compensation and Improved Pension Programs are mutually exclusive. The claimant must choose one program or the other, or submit a claim for both and let the VA decide which would be more advantageous for the claimant. As the attorney, you can assist in speeding up the claims process by guiding the client in knowing which program would be best based on type of disability (service-connected or not), level of disability (100% or less), and income and asset levels.

The key to remember is that, whether the veteran or widow is eligible for either compensation or pension, both programs have a supplemental income benefit called Aid and Attendance. The claimant would decide under which program to apply for the supplemental payment.   

Attorneys cannot charge to assist with a service-connected claim to increase benefits that would include aid and attendance because there has, presumably, been no adverse action. However, for pension claims, attorneys may assist and charge for fees related to estate planning and asset preservation that, by a result, creates financial eligibility for the Improved Pension Program.  The lawyer cannot, however, charge to assist with preparation, presentation or prosecution of the application for benefits. 

For more information on the VA Improved Pension Program, visit www.va.gov.

Victoria L. Collier is a Veteran and Certified Elder Law Attorney, Fellow of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, Co-Founder of Lawyers With Purpose LLC, and author of “47 Secret Veterans’ Benefits for Seniors—Benefits You Have Earned … but Don’t Know About.”

The Estate Plan Audit

At Lawyers With Purpose, we put a tremendous amount of time and expertise into developing tools for estate planning attorneys to help them day in and day out, in their practice and with their clients. One tool for example is the "Estate Plan Audit."

The Estate Plan Audit is a checklist of 15 questions to tap into the client’s needs.  The goal of the Audit is to find out where they are currently, and where they want to be. And we can do that by asking them just 15 very important questions that address what their estate planning goals are. Then ask them to rate them each, on a scale of 1 to 10, one being not very important and ten being very important.  What they’re really doing is showing us what's important in their world.

When you use the Estate Plan Audit, the best part about it is, that it becomes a non-sales process. This completely focuses on the client, without the attorney pushing any particular agenda. We’re not pushing any particular trust or plan on the client.  They’re really looking at where they are now, what their needs are and what they might want. 

If your an LWP members you can review our 2012 Enhancement Retreat, where members Jeff Bellomo and Susan Hunter discuss in much greater detail the Estate Plan Audit, how to connect it to the workshop and the stories told in The 7 Threats Workshop.  All you've got to do is log into the members website and hover over the “LWP Process” tab, choose the “LWP Program Modules Folder,“ then scroll all the way down to a folder titled "2012 Annual Enhancement Retreat."  You’re looking for the November 14, 2012, Day 1, Video 4.  Start listening right about the 27 minute mark!

We hope you put the Estate Plan Audit to good use. It's a great tool for distilling all of the pieces of an estate plan into what really matters to the client, in a way that won't feel like a sales job.  If you aren't a Lawyers With Purpose member, contact Molly Hall at [email protected] for more information.

David J. Zumpano, Esq, CPA, Co-founder Lawyers With Purpose, Founder and Senior Partner of Estate Planning Law Center

Financial Abuse of Elders & Other At Risk Adults - Part Eight

Parts 6 and 7 of this series addressed the roles of Adult Protective Services and the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Programs in investigating and redressing alleged elder financial abuse.  There are several other resources available to handle the myriad legal issues raised by this crime.

The Older Americans Act provides funding for state legal services programs designed to address the needs of elders.  In the context of elder financial abuse, such programs can provide no-cost access to the justice system by offering advocacy, advice and legal representation to persons 60 years of age or older, including access to an attorney.  Due to limited budgetary resources, these legal services programs accept only a small percentage of the cases referred to them.  The staff of these programs also routinely present community education programs addressing topics of interest to elders, including consumer fraud and financial exploitation.  This type of community education often helps prevent elder financial abuse from occurring.

Some states also maintain a “Senior Legal Hotline,” which provides brief telephone assistance and advice on civil legal matters to, and on behalf of, persons 60 years of age and older.  Attorneys are available to answer legal questions during regular business hours.  Additional resources are sometimes available by collaborating with APS programs if the case involves elder abuse and neglect, adult guardianship or conservatorship matters, or elder financial exploitation. 

Increasingly, private law firms are offering pro bono legal services to the victims of elder financial abuse.  Holland and Knight, which represented Mickey Rooney in a well-publicized civil lawsuit for financial abuse against his step-son, Christopher Aber, has created “The Mickey Rooney Elder Abuse Pro Bono Project.”  Private attorneys agree to pursue elder abuse cases that otherwise would not be pursued.  The initiative is reportedly being replicated in law firms across the country.

Kristen M. Lewis, Esq., Member of the Special Needs Alliance and Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel.

 

Can This Wait?

We are all humans, so human things will occur.  And sometimes our knee-jerk reaction is to run and tell someone.  We try to solve it, or get it off of us, right then and there.

For example, we get a client complaint or emergency – when the attorney is getting ready to do a workshop presentation.  What do you do?  Do you hit the attorney with the problem, right then and there?  Preempting the hurried restroom break before the workshop? 

There is an ideal time and place for front-stage and back-stage activities.  And this is one of those situations where we need to have a back-stage conversation with the attorney AFTER the workshop.  Doing anything less is dumping on someone who needs to have a front-stage presence – cool, calm, confident and collected – when they can’t do anything with the information you dumped on them anyway. It sucks the life out of them before the lights are on them and they are presenting.

Throughout our day, things come to us that are time-sensitive and important.  But is it necessary to have the conversation right then?  A lot of times, when we have the opportunity to have a conversation, we always hit what is most important for US.  Here are some questions to ask the mirror when you're wondering, “Can this wait?”

(1)  Does the person need to know this information RIGHT NOW?

(2)  Does their livelihood depend on the information?

(3)  What can they do with the information?

(4)  Is their house on fire?  Has there been an accident?  Are the kids OK?  Are you canceling the workshop because of the news/information?

As team, the greatest role we have is to protect our attorney's confidence.  It's one of the “Confidence Builders”.  Attorneys are in back-to-back meetings most of the time.  The weight of the world is on them as entrepreneurs.  We see their calendars, and many times they don’t take time to eat – on their best day.  And many times our only opportunity is to communicate in a hallway conversation, so we're tempted to lunge at the chance even when the issue is not crucial.  If we feel it is very important for the attorney to know, we need to stop and ask “What can they do with this information right now” before we proceed.

Using the “Confidence Builders,” it may not be so important to let them know at that very moment that we got fired by a client. Although this information needs attention, we can talk about it more effectively in our team meeting later, and address “what worked / what didn’t work.” Hold anything that needs to be addressed until our next meeting or daily huddle.

Ultimately, when running a small boutique business it becomes more necessary to protect those responsible for generating revenue.  And we do that by protecting their confidence and being mindful of what they are walking into.  It’s not always about them protecting us.  It can go both ways – which we will blog about later – but we don’t have to be on the front stage as much as they do. It is our job to protect them when they need to be ON.

Molly L. Hall, Co-Founder, Lawyers with Purpose, LLC, and author of Don’t Be a Yes Chick: How to Stop Babysitting Your Boss, Transform Your Job and Work with a Dream Team Without Losing Your Sanity or Your Spirit in the Process.