Farewell, Lynna

For the last eight years, Lynna Pallas Henderson has been my sidekick, my confidant, my conscience, my mind-reader, my confessor and my general  “right-hand woman”.  She has been the sunny voice on the other end of the phone line when you called, the happy face at the door when you came for our meeting, the one I could count on to make anything happen, and the glue that held so many things together.    And now, the time has come for her to move on to the next adventure in her life.  Lynna and her husband are relocating to Maine, where she will enjoy long-earned and much-deserved “retirement” at the family estate on the beautiful shores of the Atlantic.  It’s hard to imagine life at the office without her, and I will miss her terribly, but I am so excited for her to begin the next chapter in her life.  Lynna, my life has been immeasurably changed for the better for having had you in it.  So in a nod to our mutual love of musical theatre, I turn to Stephen Schwartz with my farewell to you:

“I’ve heard it said that people come into our lives for a reason

bringing something we must learn, and we are led to those who help us most to grow, if we let them, and we help them in return . .

. . . So much of me is made of what I learned from you. 

You’ll be with me like a handprint on my heart . . .

Because I knew you, I have been changed for good.”

Mortgage Broker Rule Changes

Interesting article on changes to the rules regarding mortgage brokers and their fees . . . all part of a massive effort to better protect consumers in the mortgage industry.  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/20/realestate/20mort.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

My Facebook Page and Relevant News Articles

I am kind of a news junkie... and in connection with my reading a whole lot of newspapers and online sources, I regularly post links to articles of interest on my Facebook page.  Here are a couple of links to interesting articles in today's New York Times, one about calculating the APR in comparing mortgage products: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/realestate/mortgages/13mortgages.html?emc=tnt&tntemail1=y
and another about the new estate and gift tax laws:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/business/yourtaxes/13estate.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y.
 
And of course, the link, once again, to the Facebook page itself: http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Law-Offices-of-Judith-R-Pike/118159531528358

Titling of Assets Matters!

Having a Will and a even a Trust is not all you need to do for proper administration and disposition of your estate.  The way you hold title to your assets will also play a large part in determining who receives your assets upon death.  Here is a link to an excellent and very comprehensive article in today's New York Times on this important topic:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/10/business/10ESTATE.html?pagewanted=1&tntemail1=y&_r=1&emc=tnt

Estate Planning: Trusts for Your Pets

Massachusetts has become the 44th state to permit residents to create legally enforceable trusts to provide for their pets’ care in the event of the owner’s death or disability.

The new law, which goes into effect in April, allows pet owners to create and fund a trust for the care of their animals after their owners have died. The trust appoints a trustee, selected by the owner, to care for the pet and disburse trust funds accordingly. The trust remains valid until a date specified by the owner or until the animal dies. Trustees are specifically prohibited from using any of the funds for purposes other than the care of a pet.

You can read the full text of the law here: http://www.mass.gov/legis/bills/house/186/ht01pdf/ht01467.pdf

Equal Rights for Hospital Visitation

On Tuesday, January 18, 2011, new regulations concerning hospital visitation go into effect.   These new regulations require all hospitals participating in Medicaid and Medicare programs – virtually every hospital in the country – to permit patients to designate visitors of their choosing and prohibit discrimination in visitation based on a number of factors, including sexual orientation and gender identity.  These Regulations were promulgated at the urging of President Obama after learning of a tragic situation in which an LGBT family was kept apart as one of  the couple lay dying in a hospital bed.  As a result of these regulations, for the first time, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and their families across the country will have federal protections for a simple, yet immeasurably important right – to be able to be together when illness strikes.  For more information, click here http://www.hrc.org/issues/15206.htm to go to the Human Rights Campaign’s Hospital Visitation Guide.

While this is a great victory, it should be noted that a number of health care issues related to LGBT individuals aren’t covered by the new regulations.   It remains crucial to have the proper legal documents in place that will, among other things, permit  one domestic partner to make health care decisions on behalf of the other. 

A Little Promotion

I received a wonderful and completely unsolicited email today from a client offering a testimonial that he invited me to share publicly on my websites. It may be bad form to be so self-promoting, but since he offered, I'll re-print it here, with many thanks to Steve Kelley (who was himself a fantastic client to work with):

2010: Judy Pike has provided exceptional legal services for our family real estate management company. In a recent transaction involving a complicated refinance of a commercial note, she did a great job balancing our own interests with the interests of our bank, making sure the deal got done. She is a hard-working attorney, timely, an most importantly, she and her staff kept their word in every step of the transaction. We also engaged her to rewrite our lease templates for commercial and residential accounts: Results - another terrific job and money well spent. Feel free to call me with questions about her company.




Sincerely,


Steve Kelley, President
KC Real Estate, LLC
http://www.kcrem.com/