What is the name of your state: PA?
I have a Special Needs Trust. 100% Disabled. The Lawyer came with a very high "Best Of" in Elder Law and Trust.
My situation consisted of my mother going onto medicaid and my trust. The lawyer was in a large firm and on our second appointment I discovered that she was asked to leave
Seems that she wanted partnership in an all male firm ... anyways we continued to work but I noticed, too late probably, that without the firm things bogged down!
I have a copy of a fax that I sent the lawyer asking her to start all this ASAP so that the cash paid to the nursing home is a minimum. Dated July 29, 2012.
I signed a Fee Agreement in Nov 2012. She did a great job getting the Trust out for review to SSI and Welfare but never heard back from them. On my nudging she contacting them in Feb 2013. We FINALLY got letters from both depts in June 2013.
A date in front of the Judge was July 31st, 2013. The lawyer actually seemed a bit shocked when he approved everything without any questions???
It was not until, if I am reading everything correctly - and I believe I am, that the lawyer finally submitted all the documents to Medicaid for my mother on August 1, 2013. Thus forcing us to pay over a year out of pocket for the nursing home!
It seemed that I had to call this lawyer to remind her or ask her if anything had to be done! My health is pretty bad, thus the 100% disability, lol, and stress really triggers a lot of issues! She seemed to always forget this! ... anyways ...
It was another real mess just setting up the bank account! My trustee was given the check to deposit. Told to go to one branch where they were waiting for him. When he got there the manager told him that she really hated doing these things for this lawyer! Manager said that the lawyer thinks that the bankers are lawyers but they have no idea what she wants them to do!
Of course they really messed up the account and kept my trustee waiting over an hour! My trustee had to go to our usual branch to fix things *the other branch put the trustees family accounts into my trust account!!!
So, the Judge OKed the Special Needs Trust on July 31, 2013 it is now the end of Dec 2014 and I do not have a way to spend the money in the Trust! There is so little money in the Trust I just want to be done with it. I can use part of the money in the trust to hire someone as a manager, make a will, etc. I am thinking of hiring another lawyer and go over all the above and see what he says. He just so happens to be the Assistant Attorney General (or something like that)... and word is going around that my lawyer has been messing up all over town = she is just overwhelmed and making a mess, not taking care of things in a timely manner, etc.
I do not know if it will be possible to show that due to her slow responses a lot of money that could have been in the trust is NOT but it is also an issue about the stress she has put me thru! and I still do not have anything to show for it.
I have a lot of documents showing a timeline, unanswered emails. As well as my trustee who has experienced just awful treatment with the lawyers office.
Is this usual for a disability lawyer/Special Needs Trust story? I am sure every case is different but OMG, it was probably 2 years since our first meeting and the cash amount went from about $150,000 to $7,000!
Is the idea I had about using some of the money to hire a manager = the new lawyer = discuss all this with him, the best plan?
Thanks for reading all this! Any suggestions would be so grateful. If I can do more research from any other sources before meeting with the "new lawyer"/manager... that would be fantastic.
frank
I have a Special Needs Trust. 100% Disabled. The Lawyer came with a very high "Best Of" in Elder Law and Trust.
My situation consisted of my mother going onto medicaid and my trust. The lawyer was in a large firm and on our second appointment I discovered that she was asked to leave
Seems that she wanted partnership in an all male firm ... anyways we continued to work but I noticed, too late probably, that without the firm things bogged down!I have a copy of a fax that I sent the lawyer asking her to start all this ASAP so that the cash paid to the nursing home is a minimum. Dated July 29, 2012.
I signed a Fee Agreement in Nov 2012. She did a great job getting the Trust out for review to SSI and Welfare but never heard back from them. On my nudging she contacting them in Feb 2013. We FINALLY got letters from both depts in June 2013.
A date in front of the Judge was July 31st, 2013. The lawyer actually seemed a bit shocked when he approved everything without any questions???
It was not until, if I am reading everything correctly - and I believe I am, that the lawyer finally submitted all the documents to Medicaid for my mother on August 1, 2013. Thus forcing us to pay over a year out of pocket for the nursing home!
It seemed that I had to call this lawyer to remind her or ask her if anything had to be done! My health is pretty bad, thus the 100% disability, lol, and stress really triggers a lot of issues! She seemed to always forget this! ... anyways ...
It was another real mess just setting up the bank account! My trustee was given the check to deposit. Told to go to one branch where they were waiting for him. When he got there the manager told him that she really hated doing these things for this lawyer! Manager said that the lawyer thinks that the bankers are lawyers but they have no idea what she wants them to do!
Of course they really messed up the account and kept my trustee waiting over an hour! My trustee had to go to our usual branch to fix things *the other branch put the trustees family accounts into my trust account!!!
So, the Judge OKed the Special Needs Trust on July 31, 2013 it is now the end of Dec 2014 and I do not have a way to spend the money in the Trust! There is so little money in the Trust I just want to be done with it. I can use part of the money in the trust to hire someone as a manager, make a will, etc. I am thinking of hiring another lawyer and go over all the above and see what he says. He just so happens to be the Assistant Attorney General (or something like that)... and word is going around that my lawyer has been messing up all over town = she is just overwhelmed and making a mess, not taking care of things in a timely manner, etc.
I do not know if it will be possible to show that due to her slow responses a lot of money that could have been in the trust is NOT but it is also an issue about the stress she has put me thru! and I still do not have anything to show for it.
I have a lot of documents showing a timeline, unanswered emails. As well as my trustee who has experienced just awful treatment with the lawyers office.
Is this usual for a disability lawyer/Special Needs Trust story? I am sure every case is different but OMG, it was probably 2 years since our first meeting and the cash amount went from about $150,000 to $7,000!
Is the idea I had about using some of the money to hire a manager = the new lawyer = discuss all this with him, the best plan?
Thanks for reading all this! Any suggestions would be so grateful. If I can do more research from any other sources before meeting with the "new lawyer"/manager... that would be fantastic.
frank