Brian E Barreira

Since 1996, the law offices of Brian E. Barreira have provided legal services to individuals, married couples, senior citizens, business owners, disabled persons and their families in the areas of estate planning, long-term care planning (including Medicare, Medicaid and MassHealth), governmental benefits planning (including SSI), estate and gift tax matters and Probate Court issues (including estates, trusts, guardianships and conservatorships). Brian is dedicated to providing the highest level of legal expertise to clients while attempting to keep matters as simple as possible to hold clients’ overall costs down.

Brian received his law degree from Boston University School of Law in 1984. Later, while practicing law, he enrolled part-time in the Graduate Tax Program at Boston University School of Law, where he attained a Master of Laws in Taxation in 1990.

An early leader in the development of elder law as a specialty, Brian served for 6 years as the first Chair of the Elder Law Committee of the American Bar Association’s General Practice Section. He has also served as President, Treasurer and Director of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Attorneys, and as Chair of the Committee on Long-Term Health Care Issues of the American Bar Association’s Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section. 

Rated AV by Martindale-Hubbell, Brian is listed in the Martindale-Hubbell Bar Registry of Preeminent Lawyers in the fields of "Elder Law" and "Trusts & Estates, Wills & Probate." He has been selected as a Massachusetts SuperLawyer during 2009-2016.

Among Brian’s diverse experiences, he has served as a background source on elder financial abuse reports for the Boston Globe Spotlight Team and 60 Minutes; as an undercover informant for the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office in shutting down an organization that was fraudulently selling trusts to senior citizens; and as an expert witness in a recent case opposing the fees of two Massachusetts lawyers who attempted to charge over $500,000 for an 83-day temporary guardianship.

Brian has been published nationally numerous times in such legal journals as Estate Planning, Probate & Property, NAELA Quarterly and The Practical Lawyer, and in Massachusetts for several Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education and Massachusetts Bar Association publications on the topics of estate planning, probate, estate and gift taxation, Medicaid and elder law. Brian has updated several of those articles and has been posting them at his blog, . His other blogs include  and .

Brian has spoken nationally at American Bar Association Annual Meetings in Orlando, Florida and San Francisco, California, at Elder Law Symposia in San Diego, California, Orlando, Florida, Atlanta, Georgia and New York City, New York, at Elder Law Institutes in Colorado Springs, Colorado and St. Louis, Missouri, and at the Advanced Estate Planning Institute of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Coronado, California. In Massachusetts, Brian has spoken for the Massachusetts Bar Association’s Probate Law Section, the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, the Advanced Legal Studies Program of Suffolk Law School, the Cape Cod Estate Planning Council, the Bristol County Estate Planning Council, the Plymouth County Bar Association, the Plymouth District Bar Association and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education.

Prior to opening his own law office in 1996, Brian worked for 11+ years settling complex estates at State Street Bank and Trust Company in Boston, Massachusetts and practicing estate planning, probate and elder law for law firms in Boston and Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Brian continues to speak to numerous professional and civic groups about all aspects of estate planning, probate and elder law, and is available to groups seeking speakers or information about these topics.