Divorce is so sad and unpleasant, but each party hiring an attorney to go at it is not the answer. The only ones to make out in that situation are the lawyers. If you do that, you will spend a lot of money and time unnecessarily. Contact me, if you want to get an inexpensive, relatively amicable divorce. I can help you do all the paperwork required, reach a reasonable agreement and move forward. Divorce doesn’t have to be expensive or extremely contentious.

For some people, probating an estate can be a waste of time and money. Probating an estate means you died owning property that didn’t automatically pass to someone on your death. It means that you have to file a bunch of paperwork, pay filing fees, legal fees and publication fees to prove the Will and/or heirs and beneficiaries to properly pass your assets to those that are entitled to them under your Will or by law. Some people don’t realize that there is nothing to probate if all your assets are jointly held, in Trust or otherwise have beneficiaries. Sometimes, a Will is merely your backup plan. It is imperative to look at every asset you have and ask what will happen to that asset upon your death. If you have a joint owner, unless it is an account of convenience, the assets automatically pass to the joint owner. If you have an IRA, the beneficiaries automatically inherit the IRA. You can also designate who should receive certain accounts upon your death. For some people, the best estate when you die, is having no “estate” per se.

Empower me
to be a bold participant,
rather than a timid saint in waiting,
in the difficult ordinariness of now;
to exercise the authority of honesty,
rather than to defer to power,
or deceive to get it;
to influence someone for justice,
rather than impress anyone for gain;
and, by grace, to find treasures
of joy, of friendship, of peace
hidden in the fields of the daily
you give me to plow

Ted Loder

Historically, June 30 is the busiest closing day of the year!
Cybercriminals love Fridays and this one will be especially tempting for two reasons!
1. You’re busy! Will you stop to thoroughly review an email/fax with a change in wiring instructions?
2. Due to the holiday weekend, any misdirected wires sent today may go unnoticed until July 5 – providing criminals additional time to move funds.
Be aware of any last-minute wire changes! Call your customers first to confirm the change. If you’re not sure what to do, call us before wiring!
Please forward this alert to anyone that you think may benefit from this information.

News from the Berkshire Eagle February, 2017:

Mount Washington

STATUS: The town is proceeding on schedule to build a fiber-to-the-home municipally owned network. Late in 2016, NextGen Telecom Services Group began to put underground wires in conduits for the network. The company will finish that work in the spring. National Grid and Verizon have given the town bills for expected makeready work on poles. Verizon expects to finish that work in May. CURRENT INTERNET OPTIONS: Satellite (Hughes Net or Exede), fixed wireless ( WiSpring)CONSTRUCTION ALLOCATION: $230,000POPULATION: 167 WHAT BORROWING APPROVED, IF ANY:

Up to $450,000

QUOTE: “My only goal was to keep the budget down and not spend unnecessarily,” said Gail Garrett, selectwoman and town clerk.

CLOSER LOOK: Mount Washington is building a broadband network to call its own — and not a moment too soon.

“We have no bodies. I can’t emphasize that enough,” said Garrett. “Realtors are telling me that if they tell somebody they don’t have high-speed internet in a home, they’re not buying it.”

NextGen has up to three months to complete the system after National Grid and Verizon finish make-ready on the poles to accommodate the network. The town will manage the network through the Select Board. The town will utilize MBI construction grant funding and its own borrowing — up to $450,000 — to pay for the network, which will only extend toward those homes that have opted into the network, although the network could be expanded to accommodate new users in the future. Garrett anticipates the town will need to borrow only about $270,000.

Garrett set the monthly price for both internet and phone service — $119.95, based on the funds needed to maintain the system. Garrett said she hopes the network will be up and running in May.

“It was years and years of dial-up and this and that,” she said.

I hate having to market myself, but I know I have to make people aware that I am here, what I do, how well I do it and how reasonable my rates are.  I also have to combat  my nature as an introvert.  I asked a client recently to write a review of my service on Yelp.  Well, that apparently isn’t as easy as it sounds.  My client appeared to be on Yelp, that is why I asked.  He wrote a review, but it didn’t appear on my profile.  I thanked him for his effort.  Frustration caused him to give it another try.  He thought he needed a Yelp account to post a review, so he set one up.  He posted again.  Still no review on my profile.  Well, after some research, apparently Yelp didn’t feel my client’s recent experience using my service should be used.  Apparently their program weeded it out.  Well, the effort was a waste for the most part, which is unfortunate.  My client wasted his time, his opinion was ignored; I was denied evidence of my reliability and efficiency, and probably because my client isn’t one of those people out there constantly posting and building his own Yelp page.

Well, it wasn’t good enough for Yelp, but I reproduce it here for anyone wanting an opinion from another person using my service:

“We recently chose to sell our vacation house near Great Barrington and were referred to Ms. Garrett to serve as our lawyer throughout the process. I can only say that she made this both as easy and profitable as we could have imagined. She named a most reasonable fee at the outset and despite the many unanticipated hitches that inevitably arise in such a transaction, she never complained or asked for more money. Also, a frequent complaint about lawyers is that they never are available or accessible, but Ms. Garrett was always quick to respond–by e-mail or phone–to all our queries and concerns. She even forwarded any relevant e-mails between herself and the buyers and their lawyer so that we always knew what was going on. So yes, we can most heartily and sincerely recommend Gail Garrett as a lawyer.”

It is great to be appreciated for good work….here is a recent comment from a client:

Gail, You have been terrific, thanks very much. Tim mentioned you run the most efficient and friction-free real estate legal services in the area, and we believe it!

My only regret is that due to distances and efficiency we didn’t get to say hello in person for old times’ sake.

Have a wonderful holiday!