Improving Your Case With Allied Partners

Attorney Samuel V. Butcher, Esq., RPh, CELA, considers it of utmost importance to work with well-qualified allied professionals who share his values in accomplishing the goals of our clients. He defines allied professionals as those who participate in clients’ lives in a way that impacts their estate plans. Those who meet this definition include accountants, bankers, financial advisers, insurance advisers, geriatric care managers, and health care providers, among others.

At Butcher Elder Law, Sam considers coordinating his work with these professionals so important that he encourages his clients to waive client confidentiality to allow him to share all the information he receives with the allied professionals with whom his clients choose to work. Anything less would endanger or diminish the success of any estate plan established.

He also recognizes that often allied professionals have a well-established relationship with clients and can help him get “up to speed” more quickly. His estate planning process ensures that there has been a proper identification of all clients’ assets and that the personal and financial goals of his clients are fully integrated. The share of information among the allied professionals for input and solutions helps us achieve that ultimate goal. He understands that working together is in the best interests of the client, and he considers doing so to be essential.

What Reliable Allies Bring To The Table

Before Sam chooses a professional to help him in his work, he looks for these three qualities to determine if they are the right choice for his law firm:

• Client First. It is absolutely essential that Sam always does what is best for his clients, not for his own personal immediate needs.

• Educate To Motivate. Many marketing strategies encourage scaring clients into acting. He believes a properly educated client will act. They will do it out of knowledge and empowerment, rather than fear, which will enhance the client relationship.

• Third-Party Credibility. It is likewise essential in all of our relationships with allied professionals that we support each other. This is essential for the client. If ever you feel that we are not meeting the client’s objective properly, or he’s concerned that you may not be doing so. In that case, he must be able to discuss any issue privately, and in a professional manner, and come to a conclusion prior to subjecting the client to our difference of opinion.

Sam enjoys working with allied professionals and has found in many circumstances that the combination of his legal strategies with the financial, tax and/or other strategic options available often create a greater result than either professional can achieve on their own. He looks forward to working with you to help your clients and ours accomplish their personal and financial objectives.

Health Care Professionals

Many of Mr. Butcher’s elder law clients seek his help in facing the challenges that come with growing older. These challenges often include a decline in health. Since he endeavors to take a holistic approach to serving his clients, failing to address their health care needs is not an option. While attorney Sam Butcher has a degree in pharmacy, which gives him a unique perspective and understanding of the health care problems of many of our firm’s clients, he also recognizes that he is not otherwise trained as a medical professional nor actively engaged as medical care providers.

Therefore, he considers working with health care professionals imperative to creating order out of what is sometimes chaos and bringing peace of mind to client families. Sam works very closely with geriatric care managers who can help create a “game plan” for meeting the health care needs of seniors experiencing declining health. When remaining at home is no longer practical and an option, these aging life care specialists can help client families make the right choice of a long-term-care facility (LTCF) to maximize the client’s independence while providing adequate supervision and care.

Sam works with physicians, nurses, LTCF administrators, home health care companies, and others to coordinate and integrate the care required by the client with the strategies we employ to help them qualify for any benefits to which they may be entitled to pay that care, protect what the law allows, and transition what they can protect to those to whom they wish to leave a legacy.

Certified Public Accountants

Attorney Butcher values his relationships with CPAs and works with them according to the needs of his clients. He helps identify strategic tax issues from estate planning, income tax, estate tax, gift tax and generation-skipping tax areas.

CPAs play a critical role in working with Sam’s clients to help guide them in making the proper long-term tax decisions. He especially enjoys updating CPA relationships on the unique tax treatment of irrevocable pure grantor trusts. These unique trusts, although irrevocable, are tax neutral, and provide great benefits for business owners and those wanting to protect their assets from predators and nursing homes without giving up control. He looks forward to working with you to assist our clients with their tax needs

Bankers

Bankers share a special relationship with their clients. Sam Butcher enjoys working with bankers to help take that relationship to a whole new level. He can help you with your clients to develop deeper relationships with them and extend those to other family members just by utilizing his process. Often, Sam’s systems and processes also support you and minimize the amount of work you have in relation to your clients.

Other Attorneys

In the old days, the general practitioner was able to handle the many needs of his or her clients. Today it’s not possible. As a lawyer who focuses exclusively on estate planning, elder law issues and special needs, Sam works tirelessly to keep up with the many laws and exceptions relative to this area of law. It is impossible for general practitioners or those who practice in other specific areas of the law to have a comprehensive, competent knowledge base to serve clients.

Sam enjoys working with general practitioners and those attorneys that practice in specific areas other than estate planning. He has a simple process to help you identify when his help will be needed or if he can guide you to assist a client directly. He really appreciates his relationship with lawyers as he serves as a model law firm for several hundred law firms across the country and understands the inner working and demands of lawyers in today’s economy. Contact Butcher Elder Law to identify how he can support you and your clients and help make you part of the client’s solution.

Workshops

Butcher Elder Law is available to schedule joint workshops with allied professionals on a wide range of topics. Call the firm at 440-783-7293 or contact Sam online for more information or to schedule a private workshop for your organization or group.