Lawrence Robert Lanctot

Mr. Lanctot was hired by my parents to design a living trust. It is disputed whether he adequately explained the long term financial ramifications of having a bank assigned as my mother's trustee (we maintain he did not - he maintains that he did) What is indisputable is that the bank HE chose provid...es a fee list of their outrageous nickel and dime charges which was not offered to nor explained to my parents until after the fact when it was too late to make any changes. I feel that it is worth noting that my parents immigrated to this country, and spoke English as a 4th language. One would think that such a situation would prompt a lengthy detailed explanation of a 100+ page binding legal document. When questioned (after the fact) about the bank fees, Mr. Lanctot referred to them as industry standard practices. All well and good when someone is intimately acquainted with an industry, not particularly helpful to someone with a rudimentary command of the English language who worked a minimum wage + tips job. A meeting with a bank representative was requested through Mr. Lanctot, with an express stipulation that they be prepared to answer specific questions regarding the estate. The representative came to the meeting totally unprepared, with gift bags and coffee mugs, not even having reviewed the documents in question. Mr. Lanctot was more than happy to bill for this useless waste of our time. He spoke of my father after his passing as if they were best friends, when in fact the only time they spent together was 2 hours and phone consultation (both billed, of course) I found this nauseatingly obsequious. During a particularly heated discussion in his offices, he was extremely rude and raised his voice, something I was not expecting when being charged $380 an hour for someone's services. Numerous written requests for clarification of his billing practices were not directly addressed. I cannot speak to Mr. Lactot's competence - his http://Martindale.com rating is high. I will however say that I despise him as a person, I despise what he did to my family and the effect it had on my elderly mother, and I would never personally choose to utilize his services. UPDATE: My now almost 86 year old mom has sent Mr. Lanctot no less than 3 polite, respectful, hand written requests to clarify his "final" bill (which came months after this matter should have been settled) It has been over a year, and he has not had the common courtesy to reply to her or explain from whence this mysterious last bill has originated. I think this speaks VOLUMES about his personal character. (keep in mind she promptly paid all bills prior, even those including charges to correct his office's paperwork errors, the screaming match meeting, and an hour wasted with the fat cow from Bank of the West and her $6000 coffee mugs)