Our Team

Joel A. Bernstein,
Attorney and Principal

Joel has over 30 years of industry experience and is currently Principal Attorney of MA Wills and Trusts, a law firm in Lexington, MA. In this role, Joel counsels members of the public on simple and more advanced estate plan designs and execution. He is the author of over 20 national articles on automation and has spoken across the nation on trusts and estate taxation.

Prior to starting the firm in 1993, he worked for the law firms of Kopelman and Paige in Boston and Scheier, Scheier and Graham in Acton, MA. Before that, he was the in-house attorney for Hawk Mountain Corporation in Pittsfield, VT.

Joel received his LL.M. in Taxation from Boston University Law School, her J.D. from Western New England School of Law, and her B.A. from Hobart College. He also holds a MLW in Environmental Law from Vermont Law School.

Massachusetts Wills & Trusts

33 Bedford Street, Suite 13, Lexington, MA 02420
(781) 863-8606 | joel@jbernsteinlaw.com

Wills ∙ Trusts ∙ Power of Attorney ∙ Health Care Proxies

Locations We Serve

Most middle-aged people aren’t ready for their inevitable death. We make estate planning simple, affordable, and quick. So people can live in peace, knowing their affairs are in order.

EXISTING CLIENTS: Amendments/Discussions

"Let me outline in general the process we follow to avoid making inadvertent errors to your existing estate planning:

Find Your Plan: First, we need to find and look at the estate plan documents we made for you before.
Review Your Plan: Check the documents to see what parts you want to change.
List Changes & Trust Review: Think about what's different in your life now or what you want to change in your plan. If a trust is involved, let's discuss the funding of your trust and whether it's adequate to meet your goals.
Discuss Changes: In our meeting, we'll talk about what you want to change, including any adjustments to your trust and its funding.
Make Drafts: We'll write up the changes to your plan.
Check Drafts: You'll look at the drafts and tell us if anything else needs to change.
Sign New Plan: After you're happy with the changes, you'll sign the new documents.
Copy for File: We'll make a copy of the signed documents for our files.
Refile Documents: We'll refile the updated documents with your other important documents.

By following these steps, we ensure careful consideration and precision in updating your estate plan, minimizing the risk of errors and ensuring alignment with your current needs and goals."

The material is provided for educational and informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. This Alert may constitute attorney advertising and is not intended to communicate with anyone in a jurisdiction where such an Alert fails to comply with all laws and ethical rules of the jurisdiction.