Matthew M Luedke

Matthew Luedke

I am disappointed that this client's son (the reviewer) was dissatisfied as at the time he told me the family was very satisfied with my services. The client asked me to come to her home and meet with her and her children to discuss very sophisticated estate and long term care planning, and come back the following day with the documents ready for execution, which I did. Typically, an estate plan where a client is seeking to protect a home or other assets from future long term care costs might include an irrevocable trust, deed, last will and testament, durable powers of attorney for financial matters, durable powers of attorney for healthcare decision making, and advance healthcare directives. This planning is not, by any means, simple, "straight forward as they come", nor something that form documents will cover. I have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours learning the legal theories behind the planning involved and many many more hours developing my forms which serve these purposes. These forms require very careful consideration and tailoring on a case by case basis and are tailored to each client's circumstances. I NEVER use fill in the blank documents nor any document that is not tailored to my client's specific circumstances and I resent the implication that I charged $800 simply for hitting a print button. In my initial phone contacts with this client's son, we discussed the level of planning for long term care, the general methods of planning and I disclosed my billing practice of a flat fee for the creation of an irrevocable trust and hourly fee for the remaining documents. I charge a flat fee for my trusts primarily because it would be impossible to fairly spread the cost of their creation among all of my clients nor is it practical to bill hourly for their preparation as this may result in a fee much much larger than the flat fee. I tried to explain this concept to the client's son following my representation of his mother, but he insisted that he felt I spent no time in preparing the 34 page trust. Planning for Long Term Care can save clients hundreds of thousands of dollars which this family requested, received, and will very likely, benefit from. This planning, however, requires special expertise and skilled drafting. Had the client only sought a new will to dispose of the home as the client has stated in this review, the fee would have been, appropriately, much smaller or they could have gone to legalzoom.com. This client's son immediately contacted me regarding concerns about his mother's bill. To resolve the matter I wrote off over $800 from the bill at their request and was told the client was satisfied. The client's son even commented that he would encourage his mother to come back to see me in the future should she need to make changes. I strive to provide exceptional service and special expertise in the areas of Elder Law (VA & Medicaid Planning) and Estate planning. I strive for client satisfaction which all other reviewers agree has been nothing short of excellent.