A lot of my clients are caregivers. They are adult children of parents whose health is failing, whose house may be falling apart, whose mind is fading and whose world is dwindling. They are the sibling of a person who has and will be dependent upon someone due to intellectual disabilities or severe mental health… Continue Reading
Author Archives: Leanna
Moving An Out of State Guardianship To Massachusetts
Here is a scenario that happens everyday: Sue Jones lives with her daughter Mary Jones in Georgia. Mary has intellectual disabilities and Sue was appointed as her guardian by a court in Virginia. Sue and Mary move to Massachusetts. Sue visits with an attorney to make sure everything is in order and asks “does my… Continue Reading
Happy Health Care Decisions Day!
April 16th is National Health Care Decisions Day. While some of the seemingly fake holidays can make one roll their eyes, others, like Health Care Decisions Day (and Be Kind To Lawyers Day) are valuable reminders to pause and take care of important business. We are all in charge of our own health care decisions… Continue Reading
When Should I Write My Will? A Lesson from House, M.D.
I was watching a rerun of House, MD last night. One of the main character doctors became severely ill over the span of a couple of days. Finally, in severe pain, he was going to be put into a medically induced coma with the chance he might not survive. At this point he feebly tells… Continue Reading
Plymouth County Tracking For People With Alzheimer’s
There have been several local incidents over the past couple of months of people with Alzheimer’s who have wandered off. While most of them were found unharmed, in one of these cases, the man was found deceased a few days later. Even if the family has someone with the individual at all times, there is… Continue Reading
Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Will
In an utterly predictable fashion, now that the media has calmed down about his overdose, they have turned their attention to Philip Seymour Hoffman’s will. I can just picture the eager little interns running down to the Manhattan Surrogate Court (which we call the Probate Court here in Massachusetts) to get a copy of his… Continue Reading
A Resource for Parents of Children With Special Needs
Parents of children with special needs are often told to write a “letter of intent” for their child’s future care givers or to create a binder with all the information someone would need to know. The prospect of this can be overwhelming, leaving people with little idea of where to start or what to include.… Continue Reading
Nursing Home? Rest Home? Assisted Living? Making Sense of Housing Options
There are several types of housing available to older and frail people in Massachusetts. Sometimes the different names can be confusing. I have outlined below three of the most common types. Nursing Home: A nursing home is licensed by the Department of Public Health. It provides 24 hour care for people – either those receiving… Continue Reading
As Your Family Changes, So Should Your Estate Plan
I have noticed that clients sometimes have difficulty making decisions on their estate plan because they can’t see the future. They get stuff on the “what if…” “We could name our friends out of state as guardians now while our kids are babies, but what if when they are older they don’t want to move?”… Continue Reading
I’m The Executor Of An Estate, Do I Have to Go To Court?
When a client comes to me because they have been appointed the executor of someone’s estate (Massachusetts now refers to executors as “personal representatives”) they often want to know if they will need to go to Court and stand in front of a judge as part of the process. In Massachusetts, in an attempt to… Continue Reading