Wills, Trusts & Estates

We prefer clients who desire a relationship with a law firm with respect to services in estate planning, guardianship, Medicaid planning, trust administration, and probate.

• Drafting Trusts
• Drafting Wills
• Estate Administration
• Estate Planning
• Living Trusts
• Living Wills
• Probate
• Asset Protection
• Guardianship
• Power of Attorney
• Business Succession Planning
• Special Needs Trust
• Supplemental Needs Trust
• Revocable Trust & Irrevocable Trust

FL, Aug 1994
Bar Number: 0004073

Elder Law.

All Florida Courts, including the Florida Supreme Court.

National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys; Florida Association of Elder Law Attorneys; Florida Bar; Elder Law Section.

I have made presentations at a National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) seminar on Reverse Mortgages, have lectured on Elder Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation at the Elder Law Section Certification Review, and have made many community presentations on various subjects in Elder Law. I attend many Elder Law seminars annually, including seminars on Social Security Disability and always exceed the required number of continuing education hours.

Article on Reverse Mortgages published in the Law Review of Stetson College of Law.

We are assisting a client whose wife is in a nursing home in Medicaid planning, guardianship and estate planning. He now has a revocable living trust which will provide for his young grandson. The Qualified Special Needs Trust under his will ensures that in the event he passes away first, his wife will not lose her Medicaid benefits and there will be funds available for the supplemental care of his wife, with the remainder after her death to pass to his children. A guardianship was established in order to access her funds for Medicaid planning and assets were positioned according to Medicaid rules with court approval. Finally, an application was prepared and submitted to obtain Medicaid nursing home benefits for the client's wife. This case combined our expertise in estate planning, guardianship, probate, trust administration and Medicaid planning.

4

Florida

We focus on planning for life's challenges to our ability to manage our property and our health care independently by developing legal strategies and documents tailored to each client's needs, resources, and wishes. The planning begins with a detailed analysis of the client's circumstances. Options are developed for consideration. Preservation of goals and assets, minimization of costs are discussed with an emphasis on clarity and understandability. A member of the support staff as well as an attorney is assigned to each case in order to ensure that clients receive attention and responsiveness.

The idea of the firm began when my husband, Tom, and I started law school at Stetson College of Law in our 50s after very successful careers in Radiation Oncology. The change from medicine to law was challenging but energizing. We were older than most of our teachers. After graduation, we chose Elder Law because we were at the right age and the right stage in life to feel very comfortable with elderly clients and their families. The nurturing character of Elder Law also had much in common with former careers in Radiation Oncology. The sense of family in the firm was strengthened when our daughter, Cary L. Moss, joined us in the practice after her graduation from Stetson College of Law in 1998. That gave my husband Tom the freedom to go part time on his own and indulge his interest in ceramics. In 2001, Cary's husband, Thomas P. Moss, also a graduate from Stetson College of Law, joined the firm to cover for her while Cary was on maternity leave. We persuaded him to join our firm after the first of their two sons was born. Jessica Lillesand, a graduate of the University of Florida College of Law, joined us last year. She has a special interest in Social Security Disability and Special Needs Trusts for the disabled.

After graduation with a Master of Science degree from Rollins College, I became chief radiation physicist at Orlando Regional Medical Center in the Radiation Oncology Center. After that, I became the Technical manager of the private radiation established by Central Florida Radiation Therapy Associates for 15 years. I became certified in Therapeutic Radiological Physics by the American Board of Radiology in 1982. I left the practice in 1990 and began law school a year later.

I have served as Chair or Co-chair for the Elder Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation Committee for the Florida Elder Law Section for the last four years. I became board certified in Elder Law in 2003.

Mary Brooks.

(407) 909-1992

Monday through Friday
9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

No

We have several different ways of pricing our services. We generally do not quote fees until we have conducted a discussion of a client's needs to be sure we are able to help the client.

$275 per hour for myself, $175 to $250 for other attorneys in the firm, $110 per hour for our paralegals.

No, I do not. However, I do like to get acquainted with a potential client through a brief telephone interview at no cost to be sure we can meet the needs of the client.

It varies.