A legal note from Marshal Willick about our new QDRO Masters service, how lawyers can get family law questions answered, and an invitation to our second free music open house.

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This firm receives many requests for information and assistance on a large number of topics, involving family law, retirement benefits, and otherwise. This legal note details the new service we have created to draft retirement benefit orders and assist with all aspects of retirement and pension cases. It also announces a way that family law attorneys can obtain free assistance on questions from lawyers throughout the State, and what services are available from this firm for other questions as needed.

Finally, we invite all recipients of these notes to our next open house and musical performance on April 21 at 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

 

I. ANNOUNCING QDRO MASTERS (a shameless commercial message)

For over 20 years, I’ve been teaching retirement and pension law, and assisting lawyers in Nevada (and elsewhere) with pension-related problems, including drafting orders for division of retirement benefits. A few years ago, we started drafting retirement orders for other firms upon request – a service that grew out of the large number of requests we received to “fix” retirement benefits orders that had been screwed up by mail order services, feral paralegals, and other non-attorney order drafters.

We’ve been asked by several attorneys to make our resources available to lawyers needing properly calculated, and properly-worded, retirement benefit orders, and otherwise be available to help in such cases. I’ve decided to make those services available as a division of the Willick Law Group, named “QDRO Masters.” Its primary service is the drafting of accurate and legally correct retirement benefit division orders for a flat fee – for private retirement QDROs under ERISA, Civil Service retirements under FERS and CSRS, military retirement benefits, and Nevada PERS retirements.

Additionally, QDRO Masters provides expert work via oral testimony, opinion letters, and consultations for attorneys, or attorneys with their clients, regarding any ofthose retirement systems, to assist with divorce planning or ongoing litigation. We also evaluate proposed orders drafted by others.

We’ve rolled out a specialized web site to describe the services offered that can be accessed by clicking this button. It’s a work in progress; comments and suggestions are welcome.

 Issues such as survivor benefits, cost of living adjustments, early retirement subsidies, etc., can be intricate, and it is easy for lawyers who do not deal with them on a regular basis to miss the details or get them wrong. The financial consequences for the client – and sometimes for the lawyer – can be enormous. It is my hope that the services we offer reduce such losses by getting pension matters handled quickly, efficiently, and economically. If you have a retirement order to draft, or other pension-related problem, feel free to call or write us to discuss it, and we’ll see if we can assist.

 

II. NEVADA FAMILY LAW LIST-SERV

It’s been many years in coming, but the Nevada State Bar Family Law Section has finally launched its own on-line list-serv. It is free to all members of the Nevada Bar Family Law Section. Anyone wanting information about it can access it at http://lists.nvbar.org/listmanager/listinfo/nvfamilylaw.

The list is a great way for family law practitioners to ask questions, share knowledge, and communicate family law ideas. I urge lawyers who might otherwise shoot an e-mail to me or others
asking for assistance to use the list developed for that purpose – you might be pleasantly surprised at the responses you receive.

 

III. REQUESTS FOR ANSWERS OR ASSISTANCE BY ME OR THIS FIRM

There is a huge repository of information posted on our firm website which contains the answers to many family law questions – it holds decades of CLE materials, case summaries, checklists, forms, flowcharts, and other information. Thank you in advance for using the posted information, and the Family Law List-serv, before contacting us with questions.

If more particularized assistance is desired, we are available at our standard hourly rates for consultations with lawyers, or lawyers and their clients, or other work. Our fee schedule is in our retainer agreement which you can find by clicking the following button.

If you think you might want to hire this firm, please contact Seth Willick, our Firm Administrator, to make specific arrangements.

I apologize if this is off-putting in any way, but hope you will appreciate why it was a necessary business decision.

 

IV. INVITATION TO A MUSICAL PERFORMANCE AND OPEN HOUSE: The Willick Law

Group, and Bob Cerceo, Esq., of The Abrams Law Firm, are pleased to provide an evening performance by Richard Smith and Julie Adams, in concert – a guitar and cello extravaganza. The combination of his world-renowned fingerstyle guitar and her warm tone and lyrical style will melt your heartstrings and set your toes to tapping. At the Willick Law Center, 3591 East Bonanza, on Thursday, April 21, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Soft drinks, wine, beer, and light snacks provided, and CDs will be available.

 

V. QUOTES OF THE ISSUE

“To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.”
– Henry David Thoreau.

“Part of ERISA’s power is its mind-fatiguing complexity, like a potent toxin that glazes the eyes and dulls the brain.”
– “ERISA: The Law that Ate Health Care Reform,” California Lawyer, May 1993, at 40.

“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.”
– Samuel Johnson.

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This legal note is from Marshal S. Willick, Esq., 3591 E. Bonanza Road, Ste 200, Las Vegas, NV 89110. If you are receiving these legal notes, and do not wish to do so, let me know by emailing this back to me with “Leave Me Alone” in the subject line. Please identify the email address at which you got the email. Your State would be helpful too. In the mean time, you could add this to your email blocked list. And, of course, if you want to tell me anything else, you can put anything you want to in the subject line. Thanks.

Marshal S. Willick