Are you a Mom looking for a new job or heading back to work? Do you enjoy meeting and helping families? Do you love solving puzzles? Do you find you have certain habits and ways of accomplishing certain tasks each and every time? Do you dread the idea of doing the same thing day in and day out? If so, you might be THE ONE we are looking for. Ultra-successful, outside the box, growing rapidly law office with a nutty entrepreneur as its owner is looking for a sharp (PLEASE be realistic here) office assistant and file clerk.

We’re looking for someone to become an important part of our intense, but fun group. You WILL learn an incredible amount about business, entrepreneurship and marketing, if you are interested. If this sounds exciting to you, you might be THE ONE.

This is a part-time job to start. The hard part will probably be resisting the urge to move in and sleep at the office until you can get some systems in place. Our office is located in a renovated house in Southborough, a few doors off of Route 9. We are open typical business hours, and you will be expected to work the bulk of your hours within that time frame, although we are super flexible with working hours.

You MUST be able to handle working with several different databases of information and one of your most critical and immediate jobs will be to help us get a handle on all of our critical data. Of course, proficiency with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Adobe is expected. You must be comfortable learning other software programs.

You will need to know how to figure things out on your own and be able to creatively problem solve situations. And, if you are above making a pot of coffee or answering phones, this is NOT the job for you. Part of this job includes greeting our clients, making coffee, running errands and manning the reception desk. The other part of this job, though, involves staying in touch with our clients, and helping with our marketing efforts. Obviously, multi-tasking is an absolute must.

You must be able to think on your feet and make smart decisions. If you aren’t please don’t apply because like The Donald, I hire slow and fire fast. Now, you don’t need to walk around on eggshells (in fact, if you do, we won’t get along too well), but if you can’t stand the heat, you will be asked to leave the kitchen – immediately. We are very busy and need you to be straightforward and direct.

Positive people ONLY need apply. Attitudes are contagious and we don’t want to catch yours if it’s toxic or negative, which includes whining, complaining or being a victim. You will definitely not fit in if you even THINK you may be in one of those categories. If you lose stuff, aren’t organized, and get distracted easily, do NOT apply.

Is this an easy job? No. It might be the biggest challenge of your life. But, I believe that anything really great is worth working for and our greatest growth comes from the biggest challenges. And, if you are THE ONE, we’ll take more of an interest in the development and growth of your career and your future than any employer you’ve ever met.

If you are THE ONE, please email us at persfamlawyer@gmail.com with your resume, salary requirements and a cover letter that clearly conveys WHY we should hire you and what you bring to the table. Tell us what you’re looking for in a job and why you think you’d be a good fit. Oh, and make sure to put “I’m THE ONE” in the subject line. Any emails without the correct subject line won’t even be opened.

I am often asked about the many software products on the market and internet. These products include Suze Orman’s Will & Trust Kit, Quicken WillMaker, LegalZoom.com Parents often think that they can utilize these tools to get the legal protections they need to safeguard their children. Sadly, we never know what we don’t know until it’s too late.

I like the analogy made by Alexis Martin Neely: “It’s kind of like if you built your own house during the summer when the weather was really good and you thought you knew what you were doing, but unknowingly overlooked a key element like putting waterproof felt between the sheeting and the shingles (who would know that, I thought you’d just put the shingles right on the wood). You might not find out right away that you had overlooked this important item, but a couple years later the sheeting would start to rot away and by the third winter you’d have rain and snow in your house and by the time you figured out what you had done wrong, it’d be too late to do anything about it.”

I personally tested several legal document preparation tools. In every case there was a detail overlooked, or a situation that wasn’t considered, that resulted in significantly compromised documents. Translation: in a crisis your family might have no protection.

Read the rest of this entry »

Jorge Ramos has won eight Emmy Awards and has been the anchor for Univision News for the last twenty-one years. He has appeared on NBC’s Today, CNN’s Talk Back Live, ABC’s Nightline, and Fox News’s The O’Reilly Factor, among others, and is the bestselling author of No Borders: A Journalist’s Search for Home and Dying to Cross. In his career he has been in many dangerous places.

Recently, Jorge was on the CBS’s Early Show to talk about his new book. He told about how one sunny morning he was driving to his dentist’s office when suddenly a van almost hit him head on and killed him. That shock, more than all the horrors he had witnessed as a journalist, brought him face to face with his own mortality.

He realized that he had almost lost the opportunity to tell his story to his children. His response was to write another book, The Gift of Time: Letters from a Father. In it, according to Barnes & Noble, he “reflects upon the world we live in and shares his love for his children in a series of letters that touch on everything from love and divorce to soccer and e-mail.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Clients ask me all the time whether or not they should have long-term care insurance. The answer isn’t always so cut and dry. The important thing is that if people are going to consider it as part of their retirement planning, they need to make a thorough assessment. In the May 2008 edition of Smart Money, Peter Keating makes the argument in favor of long-term care insurance. Take (Long-Term) Care, Smart Money, May 2008.

The most valuable benefit of long-term care insurance is that it gives you options. No one wants to be in a nursing home. “Americans 65 and over have a 40% chance of entering a nursing home at some point in their lives, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.” Sadly, there are many people currently living in nursing homes who might thrive in less restrictive settings if they could afford them. Unfortunately at-home care and assisted living usually require private payment. There are very few public assistance programs, and most have strict income or asset rules. As Peter Keating points out, it’s clear that depending upon Medicaid to pay for long-term care costs isn’t a wise choice, unless it’s the only choice.

Read the rest of this entry »

I was lucky enough to go to the Red Sox game last night. Jon Lester was the pitcher. Many of you may remember him as the young pitcher who in 2006 was diagnosed with lymphoma. Jon pitched the game of his career last night. In 7 innings he threw close to 100 pitches allowing only 1 hit. He did everything he could to guarantee a great outcome. In the end, though, even though the Red Sox won, Jon is not listed as the winning pitcher of record. The Red Sox scored their single run which ultimately won the game after relief pitcher Jon Papelbon came into the game. This one detail kept Lester’s fantastic work and great effort from being recorded in the “win” column.

I was reminded of a client who did everything right in working with his attorney to develop and put in place a trust as part of an estate plan. He thoughtfully considered his personal wishes, family needs and tax considerations. By all accounts, his new trust was a “win”.

Tragically, just like Jon Lester, one detail prevented success of this estate plan. The client never made sure his trust was funded, or that change of beneficiary forms were completed to flow retirement and insurance assets through the trust. In his case, nothing in his trust was implemented. His wishes were not honored, his plans were not carried out and to add insult to injury, a big tax bill became due.

The moral of the story is to make sure that all the details of funding are tended to while you’re still “on the mound”. Some clients take direction from their attorneys but complete the details upon themselves. Others recognize the benefit to paying their attorney to do it for them - it can save time, hold someone accountable and guarantee that the job gets done. Whatever your choice, don’t assume that the work is done when the documents are signed. There are almost always ‘i’s to dot and ‘t’s to cross to complete the work and “win” the game.