Elder Law Services

Milwaukee Estate Planning & Elder Law Attorneys

As estate planning and elder law attorneys, the success of our practice is built largely on the longstanding relationships and trust we develop with our clients and their families. Accordingly, our clients often look to us for advice and counsel on the selection of a financial planner, a caregiver, or to find other needed services or agencies.

During the past few years, we have received numerous calls from our clients (or their families) asking for our assistance with managing bills and other financial matters. For many of these clients, their need for assistance is great enough that our office becomes actively and extensively involved helping them with many or most aspects of their financial life (including managing their accounts, receiving and paying bills on their behalf, preparing the tax returns, making quarterly estimated tax payments, and overseeing other matters). In these situations, the involvement (and attendant cost) of an attorney is economically justified.

However, there are also occasions where a client wants more limited assistance, such as help reviewing their bills, balancing their checkbook, or (particularly for visually-impaired individuals) reading account statements and writing checks. These clients still want to be actively involved in managing their own finances, but are simply looking for a little help making sure bills do not get misplaced and important documents or issues are not ignored. While these clients often would like our help, it has been difficult for our attorneys to offer this type of assistance in a cost-effective fashion.

In an effort to better serve these clients, our office now has a trained staff member who can meet them at their home or other convenient location to offer this type of assistance. Clients and their families have the added comfort of knowing that this staff assistant is under the supervision of our attorneys.

Our staff member can offer assistance:

• Writing checks and paying bills.
• Balancing checkbooks.
• Organizing important documents.
• Reviewing or helping write correspondence.
• Assisting with other related matters.

Typically, the charge for these services is $35 per hour, with a required minimum one-hour charge for any visit. As in the past, our firm will continue to offer more extensive financial management services. These services would include actually receiving and paying bills and providing clients (or their power of attorney) with a quarterly summary of finances. These more extensive services have more attorney involvement and include other charges.

The estate planning and elder law fields continue to evolve. As these areas change, our office also tries to change to continue to meet our clients’ needs. We hope that providing these additional services will allow us to meet such needs more effectively.