Since 1996, the Law Offices of Brian E. Barreira in Plymouth and Hingham, Massachusetts have provided specialized legal services in the areas of estate planning (including wills, trusts, gifts, durable powers of attorney and prenuptial/postnuptial agreements), long-term care planning (including MassHealth), governmental benefits planning (including Veterans benefits and SSI), estate and gift tax matters and Probate Court issues (including estates, trusts, guardianships and conservatorships). Brian is dedicated to providing the highest level of legal expertise to clients while attempting to keep matters as simple as possible to hold clients' overall costs down.
Among other accolades, Brian has been voted a Massachusetts SuperLawyer® during 2009-2021; is listed in The Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers in the fields of "Elder Law" and "Trusts and Estates, Wills and Probate"; and has been certified as an Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation since 1996 (NELF is a private organization, whose standards for certification are approved by the American Bar Association but not regulated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts). He is the Editor of Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education's 3-volume, 2000+-page Estate Planning for the Aging or Incapacitated Client in Massachusetts, where he is the author of the "Trusts in the MassHealth Context" and "Taxation of Trusts" chapters.
Among Brian's diverse experiences, he has served as a background source on elder financial abuse reports for the Boston Globe Spotlight Team and for 60 Minutes; as an undercover informant for the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office in shutting down an organization that was fraudulently selling trusts to senior citizens; and as an expert witness in a recent case opposing the fees of two lawyers who attempted to charge over $500,000 for an 83-day temporary guardianship; and as lead counsel in Daley v. Secretary of Executive Office of Health and Human Services, 477 Mass. 188 (2017), which protected the rights of citizens to create irrevocable trusts for their homes.
An early leader in the development of elder law as a specialty, Brian served for 6 years as the first Chair of the Elder Law Committee of the American Bar Association's General Practice Section. He has also served as President, Treasurer and Director of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Attorneys, and as Chair of the Committee on Long-Term Health Care Issues of the American Bar Association's Real Property, Probate & Trust Law Section.
Brian has been published nationally numerous times in such legal journals as Estate Planning, Probate & Property, NAELA Quarterly and The Practical Lawyer, and in Massachusetts for several Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education and Massachusetts Bar Association publications on the topics of estate planning, probate, estate and gift taxation, Medicaid and elder law. Brian has spoken nationally at American Bar Association Annual Meetings in Orlando, Florida and San Francisco, California, at Elder Law Symposia in San Diego, California, Orlando, Florida, Atlanta, Georgia and New York City, New York, at Elder Law Institutes in Colorado Springs, Colorado and St. Louis, Missouri, and at the Advanced Estate Planning Institute of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants in Coronado, California. In Massachusetts, Brian has spoken for the Massachusetts Bar Association's Probate Law Section, the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Academy of Elder law Attorneys, the Advanced Legal Studies Program of Suffolk Law School, the Cape Cod Estate Planning Council, the Bristol County Estate Planning Council, the Plymouth County Bar Association, the Plymouth District Bar Association and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education.
Brian received his law degree from Boston University School of Law in 1984. Later, while practicing law, he enrolled in the Graduate Tax Program at Boston University School of Law, where he attained a Master of Laws in Taxation in 1990. Prior to opening his own law office in 1996, Brian worked for 11+ years settling complex estates at State Street Bank and Trust Company in Boston, Massachusetts and practicing estate planning, probate and elder law for law firms in Boston and Plymouth, Massachusetts.
For a series of articles on various topics on estate planning, probate, taxation, long-term care, disability and elder law, please visit Brian's blog at http://elderlaw.info.
Brian continues to speak to numerous professional and civic groups about all aspects of estate planning, probate and elder law, and is available to groups seeking speakers or information about these topics.
