Guest guest Posted June 23, 2011 Report Share Posted June 23, 2011 Great having additional resources in our community. I think, once we get more established it might be useful to have him come talk to our group...maybe we can get some pro bono work from him if we help him promote his practice Got to work the system, ladies...good job !!! Thanks for letting us know about him. Ellen Ellen Garber Bronfeld egskb@... Lawyer Recommendation Hi everyone, We just finished revising our wills and special needs trust for our son . We worked with a fabulous lawyer. He was very knowledgeable, easy to work with and very $ reasonable. I would highly recommend him! HIs name is: Damon W. Doucet 3223 Lake Avenue Wilmette, IL 60091 847-920-1485 – office dwdoucet@... Let me know if you have any questions about Damon. He would be happy to talk to a group of people about these legal issues. Roseth 847-940-8725 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 23, 2011 Report Share Posted June 23, 2011 For ANY special needs attorney, I always ask the following questions:   1)    How many Illinois special needs trusts have you done? 15.1? D4a/OBRA 93?   2) Do you keep up with the rule changes?  If yes, how?   3)   Do you let your clients know when their trust needs updating?   4)   Has your trust been denied by SSI or Medicaid? If yes, why?   5)   If mine gets denied, will you file the appeal and will the appeal cost me more money?   6)   Has your trust been submitted with an actual case for someone    applying for SSI and/or Medicaid or have they mostly been prepared         for younger clients?   7)   Has your trust been pre-approved by SSI? By Medicaid?  8)   Is your trust compliant with the clarified POMS 1/1/09 and 2010?  9) Is it a flat fee or hourly fee for your services?  10) Do you charge for questions- after the trust work is done? From: ELLEN BRONFELD <egskb@...> Subject: Re: Lawyer Recommendation " Roseth " <nancyroseth@...>, IPADDUnite , " teri steinberg " <teri_steinberg@...>, " Carleen Emde " <carleen.emde@...>, " Emde " <chrisemde@...>, " Dana Pinsel " <Dpinsel@...>, " Laurie " <thesoapboxshop@...>, " nn Schaider " <mgs1118@...>, " Robynn Medansky " <rmedansky@...>, " Shari Coe " <scoecoe@...>, " e " <luckybren3@...>, " Betty Korey " <bettykorey1@...>, " Whitefield " <lisawhitefield61@...>, " Eissman " <lseissman@...>, " Barb Cabin " <barbcabin@...>, " Debbie Rudin " <KLDL22@...>, " Geri Brown " <gerilynmb@...>, " Ester Stein " <esterstein@...>, " Carol Rapaport " <mudflapgirl@...>, " Janice Kavanaugh " <janicegreg309@...>, " Janice Weinstein " <jmomart@...>, " Needleman " <tneedlman@...>, " Randi Heichman " <randisheichman@...>, " Cardoso Krasne " <leticiakrasne@...>, " Gail Gordon " <gjgordon2@...> Date: Thursday, June 23, 2011, 8:55 AM Great having additional resources in our community. I think, once we get more established it might be useful to have him come talk to our group...maybe we can get some pro bono work from him if we help him promote his practice Got to work the system, ladies...good job !!! Thanks for letting us know about him. Ellen Ellen Garber Bronfeld egskb@...  Lawyer Recommendation  Hi everyone,  We just finished revising our wills and special needs trust for our son . We worked with a fabulous lawyer. He was very knowledgeable, easy to work with and very $ reasonable. I would highly recommend him!  HIs name is:  Damon W. Doucet  3223 Lake Avenue  Wilmette, IL 60091  847-920-1485 – office  dwdoucet@...  Let me know if you have any questions about Damon. He would be happy to talk to a group of people about these legal issues.  Roseth  847-940-8725 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 24, 2011 Report Share Posted June 24, 2011 Thanks, Sherri. I will save this very extensive list of questions for attorneys who set up special needs trusts. This is really valuable information. Thanks! Ellen Ellen Garber Bronfeld egskb@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 24, 2011 Report Share Posted June 24, 2011 I'd add one more question to ask and that is if the attorney is a member of NAELA, ASNP or SNA. These are the 3 professional organizations that concentrate on special needs issues. I've been in this field for over 40 years and I can't imagine how I'd stat current in this field without membership in 1 or more. This is a dynamic area of law and requires more than just having a good trust template where you fill in the blanks. A lawyer who fills in the blanks isn't necessarily going to know how to advise trustees in the long term management of the trust. We just had to clean up a situation where attorney did a proper SNT. The parent forgot to change the beneficiary designation to child's trust so when parent died the insurance proceeds went directly to the child. The attorney naively and wrongly advised the trustee to deposit the insurance trust into the SNT. This sabotaged the otherwise properly written SNT. You can't commingle money that belongs to beneficiary with a 3rd party SNT. While the lawyer could fill in the blanks for a properly worded trust, he didn't have the ability to properly advise the ttee how to manage the trust. A special needs attorney must be able to do both. I spent a great deal of time trying to train attorneys but most are not willing to invest time to stay on top of the complex distribution rules Often the attorneys come to my trainings looking for a sample form but don't want to invest the time and money to stay on top of this area of law That's why I recommend asking if atty is a member of one or more of the above professional groups. Terrie Sent from my iPhone On Jun 24, 2011, at 7:36 AM, " ELLEN BRONFELD " <egskb@...> wrote: > Thanks, Sherri. > I will save this very extensive list of questions for attorneys who set up special needs trusts. This is really valuable information. > Thanks! > Ellen > Ellen Garber Bronfeld > egskb@... > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 24, 2011 Report Share Posted June 24, 2011 I couldn't agree more with Terrie. I would add that a " special needs attorney " should also have the ability to be able to assist the family in navigating the Illinois maze of services from EI to Children's Waiver to Adult Services through DHS DDD and DHS DRS. Sent from my iPhone Rubin @...<mailto:@...> office 847.279.7999 toll free 866.to.rubin fax 847.279.0090 www.SNFP.net<http://www.SNFP.net> On Jun 24, 2011, at 8:00 AM, " Terrie Varnet " <tvarnet@...<mailto:tvarnet@...>> wrote: I'd add one more question to ask and that is if the attorney is a member of NAELA, ASNP or SNA. These are the 3 professional organizations that concentrate on special needs issues. I've been in this field for over 40 years and I can't imagine how I'd stat current in this field without membership in 1 or more. This is a dynamic area of law and requires more than just having a good trust template where you fill in the blanks. A lawyer who fills in the blanks isn't necessarily going to know how to advise trustees in the long term management of the trust. We just had to clean up a situation where attorney did a proper SNT. The parent forgot to change the beneficiary designation to child's trust so when parent died the insurance proceeds went directly to the child. The attorney naively and wrongly advised the trustee to deposit the insurance trust into the SNT. This sabotaged the otherwise properly written SNT. You can't commingle money that belongs to beneficiary with a 3rd party SNT. While the lawyer could fill in the blanks for a properly worded trust, he didn't have the ability to properly advise the ttee how to manage the trust. A special needs attorney must be able to do both. I spent a great deal of time trying to train attorneys but most are not willing to invest time to stay on top of the complex distribution rules Often the attorneys come to my trainings looking for a sample form but don't want to invest the time and money to stay on top of this area of law That's why I recommend asking if atty is a member of one or more of the above professional groups. Terrie Sent from my iPhone On Jun 24, 2011, at 7:36 AM, " ELLEN BRONFELD " <<mailto:egskb%40sbcglobal.net>egskb@...<mailto:egskb@...>> wrote: > Thanks, Sherri. > I will save this very extensive list of questions for attorneys who set up special needs trusts. This is really valuable information. > Thanks! > Ellen > Ellen Garber Bronfeld > <mailto:egskb%40sbcglobal.net> egskb@...<mailto:egskb@...> > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 25, 2011 Report Share Posted June 25, 2011 Thanks, Teri: I will spend some time putting all of Sherri's and your questions into a document that I will put in the IPADDU files for future reference. This is very useful information. ELlen Ellen Garber Bronfeld egskb@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 26, 2011 Report Share Posted June 26, 2011 You are always welcome. From: ELLEN BRONFELD <egskb@...> Subject: Re: Lawyer Recommendation IPADDUnite Date: Friday, June 24, 2011, 7:36 AM Â Thanks, Sherri. I will save this very extensive list of questions for attorneys who set up special needs trusts. This is really valuable information. Thanks! Ellen Ellen Garber Bronfeld egskb@... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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