Brian E. Barreira

Open for Business
Offers Video Calls
Brian E. Barreira

Specializing in estate planning, elder law, trusts and estates, estate and gift taxation, MassHealth applications and fair hearing appeals, probate, special needs trusts, guardianship/conservatorship, postnuptial agreements. See blog at elderlaw.info

Brian E. Barreira

Brian E. Barreira

Open for Business
Offers Video Calls

Specializing in estate planning, elder law, trusts and estates, estate and gift taxation, MassHealth applications and fair hearing appeals, probate, special needs trusts, guardianship/conservatorship, postnuptial agreements. See blog at elderlaw.info

Firm Overview

Since being established in 1996, the Law Offices of Brian E. Barreira have been aiding families and individuals throughout the South Shore of Massachusetts, as well as surrounding areas, in the areas of estate planning, wills and trusts, probate, probate avoidance, elder law, MassHealth applications and fair hearings, guardianship, conservatorship, estates, trusts, and estate and gift taxation. These issues can be incredibly complex and emotionally draining to deal with. Attorney Barreira is focused on helping you resolve these legal problems in an effective and cost-effective manner.

AV-Rated - Among his many accolades, Attorney Barreira has since 1992 been AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest recognition possible in the legal industry, for his professionalism and ethics.

Massachusetts SuperLawyer - Attorney Barreira is annually recognized by his peers as a Massachusetts SuperLawyer, an honor bestowed on less than 5% of practicing lawyers.

Certified Elder Law Attorney - Although Massachusetts itself does not recognize legal specialties for certification, since 1996 Attorney Barreira has been a Certified Elder Law Attorney. The certification was conducted by the non-profit National Elder Law Foundation, the only national organization accredited by the American Bar Association to certify attorneys in elder law.

Editor and Co-Author of Massachusetts Estate Planning Treatise - Attorney Barreira is the Editor of Estate Planning for the Aging and Incapacitated Client in Massachusetts. Published by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, this 3-volume treatise is over 2,000 pages and is co-written by over 50 Massachusetts lawyers. Attorney Barreira's own chapters are entitled Trusts in the MassHealth Context and Taxation of Trusts.

Legal Writer and Blogger - Attorney Barreira's first major article, An Irrevocable Grantor Trust Can Assure Eligibility for Medicaid, published in the prestigious Estate Planning journal in 1989, was the first article published nationally about how to establish an irrevocable trust that worked for both Medicaid and capital gains tax purposes. Now that blogging makes information more easily accessible, he focuses on placing his thoughts about estate planning and elder law issues directly on the internet, and in recent years, his blogs, which include ElderLaw.info, IrrevocableTrust.info, MassHealth.info and MassHealthAppeals.com, have received well over 650,000 page views.

Masters of Laws in Taxation - In addition to a law degree, Attorney Barreira has an advanced law degree, an LL.M. in Taxation, awarded in 1990, and incorporates all relevant tax issues into his legal advice.

Expert Witness - Attorney Barreira is called upon by other lawyers to serve as an expert witness in his fields of specialization. He is even willing to testify against lawyers if he feels they have not done the right thing.

Main Office

Main Office
118 Long Pond Road, Suite 206
Plymouth, MA 02360

Phone

508-747-8282

Fax

508-746-5746

Fees
Hourly Rates

$280.00-300.00/hour

Office Information
Estate Planning

Specializing in wills, trusts, durable powers of attorney, estate/gift tax planning, MassHealth applications/appeals, special needs trusts, probate avoidance, and postnuptial agreements to prevent disinheritances in blended families.

Attorney Barreira thoroughly analyzes your estate and strategizes the best means of transferring your assets, protecting your family, minimizing taxes, establishing guardianship for your minor children, caring for your pets, and supporting charitable causes. A thorough estate plan, however, involves much more than just a Will, and covers a variety of important issues, such as health care decision-making, privacy issues, inheritance issues, protection from creditors and nursing home costs, minimizing estate and gift taxes, and probate avoidance. An estate plan often consists of some or all of the following legal documents to manage your assets and health while you are living and to distribute your assets according to your wishes after you are gone:

Last Will and Testament - A document, effective only at death, in which you (1) designate who inherits your probate assets, (2) nominate a personal representative (formerly known as executor) to distribute your probate assets after paying debts and taxes, and (3) if you have a minor child, nominate a guardian to be appointed to care for the minor.

Durable Power of Attorney - This document allows you to appoint a person or bank to handle all of your financial affairs until your death. When a durable power of attorney only becomes effective upon incapacity, it is often referred to as a springing durable power of attorney. A durable power of attorney will help avoid the need for conservatorship proceedings in Probate Court, which would involve the need for court permission on many financial transactions. The powers given to the person you appoint in a durable power of attorney must be specifically authorized, so a durable power of attorney must be tailored to your wishes.

Health Care Proxy - This document designates who will make medical decisions for you in the event you are unconscious or mentally impaired, either temporarily or long-term. This document can usually help avoid the need for guardianship proceedings in Probate Court, and can contain a written expression of your preferences for end-of-life care.

HIPAA Authorization This document, which cannot legally be contained within another document, is needed to enable persons of your choice to access your Personal Health Information in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Declaration of Homestead - This is a recordable document that can protect the first $500,000.00 of your home's equity from lawsuits (but we often recommend that purchasing an umbrella policy is a better move).

Trust - A trust can be utilized for differing reasons, including: (1) to avoid probate; (2) to allow somebody of your choosing to manage your assets for you if you become incompetent, and avoid the need for conservatorship proceedings in Probate Court; (3) to provide for the protection of assets for minor or disabled children; (4) to minimize estate taxes for yourself or you and your spouse; (5) to preserve assets in case of a long-term nursing home stay; and (6) to take care of pets. There are many varieties of trusts that can hold assets for the benefit of you and other persons, and trusts can be revocable (completely amendable), irrevocable (mostly or completely unchangeable), or testamentary (included as a part of your Last Will and Testament).

Prenuptial or Postnuptial Agreement - This document can be limited to protecting the inheritance rights of your children from a prior marriage or relationship. In our office, we often refer to it as an Estate Planning Agreement.

What distinguishes your law firm from others?

Attorney Brian E. Barreira handles all new matters the same way. In his experience, sometimes clients know all of the important laws that impact them and their decisions, but often clients do not, so he does not get on the telephone with prospective clients and discuss issues in a piecemeal manner. Instead, an initial consultation, which is billable, is scheduled to discuss the client's legal issue(s). A questionnaire is sent to the client to be completed and brought to the initial consultation, thereby allowing the attorney-client team to get right to work on making appropriate decisions. By the end of the initial consultation, which often runs 50-75 minutes, an overall plan is outlined, with Attorney Barreira's usual recommendations focused on creating a simple, practical plan where you handle portions of your legal matters to help keep the overall costs down.

Where some lawyers may offer a free initial consultation, why should a prospective client feel comfortable paying for an initial consultation? We can answer that question with a question: do you really want your lawyer to be on commission? The lawyers who offer a free initial consultation are often gathering information that could have been accomplished by the use of a questionnaire, and are then in the position of having to recommend something billable to recoup the unbilled time. Armed with your completed questionnaire, Attorney Barreira gets right to work offering practical advice at the initial consultation free of any financial bias.

Do you sell any financial products? No. Some lawyers incorporate commission-based annuity sales into their practices. Attorney Barreira does not sell annuities (which often contain undisclosed commissions), and is available for a second opinion for prospective clients whose proposed plans from other sources may include annuities.

Who is involved in the initial consultation? In order to establish the attorney-client relationship, Attorney Barreira meets alone with the client to discuss the client's wishes regarding health care and assets. The client is the person whose assets and health care are being discussed, except when there is proof that the person is mentally incapacitated. Meeting alone with the client is especially important because there is no attorney-client privilege during any time where anybody else attends the meeting, and also because there is no easy way for a lawyer to be able to defend whatever is decided upon and done against later claims of undue influences if other persons were involved in the planning discussions.

Is your firm willing to coach clients who want to represent themselves?

We do not coach clients who wants to draft their own estate planning documents, but for clients who are in fiduciary roles (Personal Representative or Executor of an estate, Trustee of a trust, Guardian or Conservator for an incapacitated person, Agent or Attorney-in-fact under a durable power of attorney), we explain to the client what the client should do and let the client handle as much of the case on his/her own as he/she wants. We also guide clients and their families through the process of applying for governmental benefits, including MassHealth and VA Aid & Attendance.

Brian E. Barreira
Brian E. Barreira

Since 1996, the law offices of Brian E. Barreira has provided legal services to individuals, married couples, senior citizens, business owners, disabled persons and their families in the areas of estate planning (including wills, trusts, durable powers of attorney, health care proxies, buy-sell agreements and prenuptial/postnuptial agreements), long-term care planning (including MassHealth), governmental benefits planning (including SSI), estate and gift tax matters and Probate Court issues (including estates, trusts, will contests, conservatorships and guardianships).

Brian is the Editor of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education's 3-volume, 2000+-page Estate Planning for the Aging or Incapacitated Client in Massachusetts, where he is the author of the "Trusts in the MassHealth Context" and "Taxation of Trusts" chapters. He is listed in the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Registry of Preeminent Lawyers in the fields of "Elder Law" and "Trusts and Estates, Wills and Probate," and has been annually selected as a Massachusetts SuperLawyer during 2009-2021.

An early leader in the development of elder law as a legal specialty, Brian served during 1990-1996 as the first Chair of the Elder Law Committee of the American Bar Association's General Practice Section. He has also served as President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Attorneys, and as Chair of the Committee on Long-Term Health Care Issues of the American Bar Association's Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section. After certification of elder law attorneys became available through the National Elder Law Foundation, Brian served on its Examination and Grading Committees.

Among Brian's diverse experiences, he has served as a background source on elder financial abuse reports for the Boston Globe Spotlight Team and 60 Minutes; as an undercover informant for the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office in shutting down an organization that was fraudulently selling trusts to senior citizens; as an expert witness in a recent case opposing the fees of two lawyers who attempted to charge over $500,000 for an 83-day temporary guardianship; and as lead counsel in the successful 2017 case of Daley v. Executive Office of Health and Human Services, which protected the rights of citizens to place their homes in irrevocable trusts.

Brian has been published nationally and in Massachusetts numerous times, and has updated many of those articles and posted them at his main blog, ElderLaw.info.

Prior to opening his own law office in 1996, Brian worked for 11+ years settling complex estates at State Street Bank and Trust Company in Boston, Massachusetts and practicing estate planning, probate and elder law for law firms in Boston and Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Brian E. Barreira
Brian E. Barreira

Since 1996, the law offices of Brian E. Barreira has provided legal services to individuals, married couples, senior citizens, business owners, disabled persons and their families in the areas of estate planning (including wills, trusts, durable powers of attorney, health care proxies, buy-sell agreements and prenuptial/postnuptial agreements), long-term care planning (including MassHealth), governmental benefits planning (including SSI), estate and gift tax matters and Probate Court issues (including estates, trusts, will contests, conservatorships and guardianships).

Brian is the Editor of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education's 3-volume, 2000+-page Estate Planning for the Aging or Incapacitated Client in Massachusetts, where he is the author of the "Trusts in the MassHealth Context" and "Taxation of Trusts" chapters. He is listed in the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Registry of Preeminent Lawyers in the fields of "Elder Law" and "Trusts and Estates, Wills and Probate," and has been annually selected as a Massachusetts SuperLawyer during 2009-2021.

An early leader in the development of elder law as a legal specialty, Brian served during 1990-1996 as the first Chair of the Elder Law Committee of the American Bar Association's General Practice Section. He has also served as President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Attorneys, and as Chair of the Committee on Long-Term Health Care Issues of the American Bar Association's Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section. After certification of elder law attorneys became available through the National Elder Law Foundation, Brian served on its Examination and Grading Committees.

Among Brian's diverse experiences, he has served as a background source on elder financial abuse reports for the Boston Globe Spotlight Team and 60 Minutes; as an undercover informant for the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office in shutting down an organization that was fraudulently selling trusts to senior citizens; as an expert witness in a recent case opposing the fees of two lawyers who attempted to charge over $500,000 for an 83-day temporary guardianship; and as lead counsel in the successful 2017 case of Daley v. Executive Office of Health and Human Services, which protected the rights of citizens to place their homes in irrevocable trusts.

Brian has been published nationally and in Massachusetts numerous times, and has updated many of those articles and posted them at his main blog, ElderLaw.info.

Prior to opening his own law office in 1996, Brian worked for 11+ years settling complex estates at State Street Bank and Trust Company in Boston, Massachusetts and practicing estate planning, probate and elder law for law firms in Boston and Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Firm Overview

Since being established in 1996, the Law Offices of Brian E. Barreira have been aiding families and individuals throughout the South Shore of Massachusetts, as well as surrounding areas, in the areas of estate planning, wills and trusts, probate, probate avoidance, elder law, MassHealth applications and fair hearings, guardianship, conservatorship, estates, trusts, and estate and gift taxation. These issues can be incredibly complex and emotionally draining to deal with. Attorney Barreira is focused on helping you resolve these legal problems in an effective and cost-effective manner.

AV-Rated - Among his many accolades, Attorney Barreira has since 1992 been AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest recognition possible in the legal industry, for his professionalism and ethics.

Massachusetts SuperLawyer - Attorney Barreira is annually recognized by his peers as a Massachusetts SuperLawyer, an honor bestowed on less than 5% of practicing lawyers.

Certified Elder Law Attorney - Although Massachusetts itself does not recognize legal specialties for certification, since 1996 Attorney Barreira has been a Certified Elder Law Attorney. The certification was conducted by the non-profit National Elder Law Foundation, the only national organization accredited by the American Bar Association to certify attorneys in elder law.

Editor and Co-Author of Massachusetts Estate Planning Treatise - Attorney Barreira is the Editor of Estate Planning for the Aging and Incapacitated Client in Massachusetts. Published by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, this 3-volume treatise is over 2,000 pages and is co-written by over 50 Massachusetts lawyers. Attorney Barreira's own chapters are entitled Trusts in the MassHealth Context and Taxation of Trusts.

Legal Writer and Blogger - Attorney Barreira's first major article, An Irrevocable Grantor Trust Can Assure Eligibility for Medicaid, published in the prestigious Estate Planning journal in 1989, was the first article published nationally about how to establish an irrevocable trust that worked for both Medicaid and capital gains tax purposes. Now that blogging makes information more easily accessible, he focuses on placing his thoughts about estate planning and elder law issues directly on the internet, and in recent years, his blogs, which include ElderLaw.info, IrrevocableTrust.info, MassHealth.info and MassHealthAppeals.com, have received well over 650,000 page views.

Masters of Laws in Taxation - In addition to a law degree, Attorney Barreira has an advanced law degree, an LL.M. in Taxation, awarded in 1990, and incorporates all relevant tax issues into his legal advice.

Expert Witness - Attorney Barreira is called upon by other lawyers to serve as an expert witness in his fields of specialization. He is even willing to testify against lawyers if he feels they have not done the right thing.

Main Office

Main Office
118 Long Pond Road, Suite 206
Plymouth, MA 02360

Phone

508-747-8282

Fax

508-746-5746

Fees
Hourly Rates

$280.00-300.00/hour

Office Information
Estate Planning

Specializing in wills, trusts, durable powers of attorney, estate/gift tax planning, MassHealth applications/appeals, special needs trusts, probate avoidance, and postnuptial agreements to prevent disinheritances in blended families.

Attorney Barreira thoroughly analyzes your estate and strategizes the best means of transferring your assets, protecting your family, minimizing taxes, establishing guardianship for your minor children, caring for your pets, and supporting charitable causes. A thorough estate plan, however, involves much more than just a Will, and covers a variety of important issues, such as health care decision-making, privacy issues, inheritance issues, protection from creditors and nursing home costs, minimizing estate and gift taxes, and probate avoidance. An estate plan often consists of some or all of the following legal documents to manage your assets and health while you are living and to distribute your assets according to your wishes after you are gone:

Last Will and Testament - A document, effective only at death, in which you (1) designate who inherits your probate assets, (2) nominate a personal representative (formerly known as executor) to distribute your probate assets after paying debts and taxes, and (3) if you have a minor child, nominate a guardian to be appointed to care for the minor.

Durable Power of Attorney - This document allows you to appoint a person or bank to handle all of your financial affairs until your death. When a durable power of attorney only becomes effective upon incapacity, it is often referred to as a springing durable power of attorney. A durable power of attorney will help avoid the need for conservatorship proceedings in Probate Court, which would involve the need for court permission on many financial transactions. The powers given to the person you appoint in a durable power of attorney must be specifically authorized, so a durable power of attorney must be tailored to your wishes.

Health Care Proxy - This document designates who will make medical decisions for you in the event you are unconscious or mentally impaired, either temporarily or long-term. This document can usually help avoid the need for guardianship proceedings in Probate Court, and can contain a written expression of your preferences for end-of-life care.

HIPAA Authorization This document, which cannot legally be contained within another document, is needed to enable persons of your choice to access your Personal Health Information in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.

Declaration of Homestead - This is a recordable document that can protect the first $500,000.00 of your home's equity from lawsuits (but we often recommend that purchasing an umbrella policy is a better move).

Trust - A trust can be utilized for differing reasons, including: (1) to avoid probate; (2) to allow somebody of your choosing to manage your assets for you if you become incompetent, and avoid the need for conservatorship proceedings in Probate Court; (3) to provide for the protection of assets for minor or disabled children; (4) to minimize estate taxes for yourself or you and your spouse; (5) to preserve assets in case of a long-term nursing home stay; and (6) to take care of pets. There are many varieties of trusts that can hold assets for the benefit of you and other persons, and trusts can be revocable (completely amendable), irrevocable (mostly or completely unchangeable), or testamentary (included as a part of your Last Will and Testament).

Prenuptial or Postnuptial Agreement - This document can be limited to protecting the inheritance rights of your children from a prior marriage or relationship. In our office, we often refer to it as an Estate Planning Agreement.

What distinguishes your law firm from others?

Attorney Brian E. Barreira handles all new matters the same way. In his experience, sometimes clients know all of the important laws that impact them and their decisions, but often clients do not, so he does not get on the telephone with prospective clients and discuss issues in a piecemeal manner. Instead, an initial consultation, which is billable, is scheduled to discuss the client's legal issue(s). A questionnaire is sent to the client to be completed and brought to the initial consultation, thereby allowing the attorney-client team to get right to work on making appropriate decisions. By the end of the initial consultation, which often runs 50-75 minutes, an overall plan is outlined, with Attorney Barreira's usual recommendations focused on creating a simple, practical plan where you handle portions of your legal matters to help keep the overall costs down.

Where some lawyers may offer a free initial consultation, why should a prospective client feel comfortable paying for an initial consultation? We can answer that question with a question: do you really want your lawyer to be on commission? The lawyers who offer a free initial consultation are often gathering information that could have been accomplished by the use of a questionnaire, and are then in the position of having to recommend something billable to recoup the unbilled time. Armed with your completed questionnaire, Attorney Barreira gets right to work offering practical advice at the initial consultation free of any financial bias.

Do you sell any financial products? No. Some lawyers incorporate commission-based annuity sales into their practices. Attorney Barreira does not sell annuities (which often contain undisclosed commissions), and is available for a second opinion for prospective clients whose proposed plans from other sources may include annuities.

Who is involved in the initial consultation? In order to establish the attorney-client relationship, Attorney Barreira meets alone with the client to discuss the client's wishes regarding health care and assets. The client is the person whose assets and health care are being discussed, except when there is proof that the person is mentally incapacitated. Meeting alone with the client is especially important because there is no attorney-client privilege during any time where anybody else attends the meeting, and also because there is no easy way for a lawyer to be able to defend whatever is decided upon and done against later claims of undue influences if other persons were involved in the planning discussions.

Is your firm willing to coach clients who want to represent themselves?

We do not coach clients who wants to draft their own estate planning documents, but for clients who are in fiduciary roles (Personal Representative or Executor of an estate, Trustee of a trust, Guardian or Conservator for an incapacitated person, Agent or Attorney-in-fact under a durable power of attorney), we explain to the client what the client should do and let the client handle as much of the case on his/her own as he/she wants. We also guide clients and their families through the process of applying for governmental benefits, including MassHealth and VA Aid & Attendance.

Brian E. Barreira
Brian E. Barreira

Since 1996, the law offices of Brian E. Barreira has provided legal services to individuals, married couples, senior citizens, business owners, disabled persons and their families in the areas of estate planning (including wills, trusts, durable powers of attorney, health care proxies, buy-sell agreements and prenuptial/postnuptial agreements), long-term care planning (including MassHealth), governmental benefits planning (including SSI), estate and gift tax matters and Probate Court issues (including estates, trusts, will contests, conservatorships and guardianships).

Brian is the Editor of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education's 3-volume, 2000+-page Estate Planning for the Aging or Incapacitated Client in Massachusetts, where he is the author of the "Trusts in the MassHealth Context" and "Taxation of Trusts" chapters. He is listed in the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Registry of Preeminent Lawyers in the fields of "Elder Law" and "Trusts and Estates, Wills and Probate," and has been annually selected as a Massachusetts SuperLawyer during 2009-2021.

An early leader in the development of elder law as a legal specialty, Brian served during 1990-1996 as the first Chair of the Elder Law Committee of the American Bar Association's General Practice Section. He has also served as President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Attorneys, and as Chair of the Committee on Long-Term Health Care Issues of the American Bar Association's Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section. After certification of elder law attorneys became available through the National Elder Law Foundation, Brian served on its Examination and Grading Committees.

Among Brian's diverse experiences, he has served as a background source on elder financial abuse reports for the Boston Globe Spotlight Team and 60 Minutes; as an undercover informant for the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office in shutting down an organization that was fraudulently selling trusts to senior citizens; as an expert witness in a recent case opposing the fees of two lawyers who attempted to charge over $500,000 for an 83-day temporary guardianship; and as lead counsel in the successful 2017 case of Daley v. Executive Office of Health and Human Services, which protected the rights of citizens to place their homes in irrevocable trusts.

Brian has been published nationally and in Massachusetts numerous times, and has updated many of those articles and posted them at his main blog, ElderLaw.info.

Prior to opening his own law office in 1996, Brian worked for 11+ years settling complex estates at State Street Bank and Trust Company in Boston, Massachusetts and practicing estate planning, probate and elder law for law firms in Boston and Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Brian E. Barreira
Brian E. Barreira

Since 1996, the law offices of Brian E. Barreira has provided legal services to individuals, married couples, senior citizens, business owners, disabled persons and their families in the areas of estate planning (including wills, trusts, durable powers of attorney, health care proxies, buy-sell agreements and prenuptial/postnuptial agreements), long-term care planning (including MassHealth), governmental benefits planning (including SSI), estate and gift tax matters and Probate Court issues (including estates, trusts, will contests, conservatorships and guardianships).

Brian is the Editor of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education's 3-volume, 2000+-page Estate Planning for the Aging or Incapacitated Client in Massachusetts, where he is the author of the "Trusts in the MassHealth Context" and "Taxation of Trusts" chapters. He is listed in the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Registry of Preeminent Lawyers in the fields of "Elder Law" and "Trusts and Estates, Wills and Probate," and has been annually selected as a Massachusetts SuperLawyer during 2009-2021.

An early leader in the development of elder law as a legal specialty, Brian served during 1990-1996 as the first Chair of the Elder Law Committee of the American Bar Association's General Practice Section. He has also served as President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Attorneys, and as Chair of the Committee on Long-Term Health Care Issues of the American Bar Association's Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section. After certification of elder law attorneys became available through the National Elder Law Foundation, Brian served on its Examination and Grading Committees.

Among Brian's diverse experiences, he has served as a background source on elder financial abuse reports for the Boston Globe Spotlight Team and 60 Minutes; as an undercover informant for the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office in shutting down an organization that was fraudulently selling trusts to senior citizens; as an expert witness in a recent case opposing the fees of two lawyers who attempted to charge over $500,000 for an 83-day temporary guardianship; and as lead counsel in the successful 2017 case of Daley v. Executive Office of Health and Human Services, which protected the rights of citizens to place their homes in irrevocable trusts.

Brian has been published nationally and in Massachusetts numerous times, and has updated many of those articles and posted them at his main blog, ElderLaw.info.

Prior to opening his own law office in 1996, Brian worked for 11+ years settling complex estates at State Street Bank and Trust Company in Boston, Massachusetts and practicing estate planning, probate and elder law for law firms in Boston and Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Contact Us