Basic Information
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Company
Martin Heller Potempa & Sheppard -
Phone
615-800-6812 -
Mobile phone
615-400-8320 -
Email
dheller@mhpslaw.com -
What is your "why"? Why do you do what you do?
We do estate planning differently from other attorneys. Our passion and focus is on "family wealth preservation". When I first started practicing we would see families lose some or all of their wealth even though they had a "plan". It turned out that the plan was nothing more than paper and did little or nothing to help the family keep the wealth they worked hard to acquire. Time and time again we saw: (1) one spouse dies and the survivor remarries, then changes the will to give some or all of the family wealth to the new spouse and little or nothing to the children; (2) parents die and pass inheritance to child who later gets divorced and ex-spouse ends up with up to 1/2 the inheritance; (3) child receives inheritance, gives to his/her spouse at child's death, and then spouse remarries and family wealth ends up with in-law's new spouse and nothing to the grandchildren; (4) creditors reaching the family wealth; (5) payment of tax that could have been avoided. We develop Family Wealth Preservation plans so that the family wealth stays with the people who are supposed to have it and prevent "outsiders" cannot take away it away. -
About me
Prior to going back to law school I was a math/comp-sci person working mostly for a company that designed hospital computer systems. After law school I did an extra year and received an LLM (a masters law degree) in tax. From there, I have worked exclusively in the area of estates, estate planning, and probate. -
Title
Member -
Hobbies and interest
Reading, various sports -
Website
www.mhpslaw.com
Education
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College / University
BS-Carnegie Mellon University / JD-Widener Univ. School of Law / LL.M-Tax-Georgetown Univ School of Law -
Graduation Year
1984 / 1994 / 1995 -
Qualifying Questions: What are three questions we can ask clients to help pave the way for a referral? List them here.
1. Does the referral have a well designed plan? If the response is "I have Will." Then the answer is probably not. Yes, they have a Will, but they don't have a plan.
2. For a married couple: (a) "Are either of you OK if after the first of you dies and the survivor remarries, the survivor changes the Will leaving your family assets to the new spouse and leaving nothing to the children?" and (b) "Did you know that in Tennessee a spouse cannot be disinherited unless there is a prenuptial agreement or a trust?" This is called the "Spousal Elective Share".
3. For someone with children: "Are you OK if your child gets divorced after you die and loses 1/2 the inheritance to the ex-in-law?" -
Describe How You Would Like To Be Introduced Via Email
If you are looking to make an introduction/referral to me by email of a potential client email, please DO NOT tell the client I will call them and then pass his/her contact information to me. That could look like I am making an unsolicited call to someone who is not a client and as an attorney, we have ethical rules against "soliciting/cold calling" or the appearance of it.
If you want to make an Introduction/referral to me by email of a potential client, please send an email to both the potential client and me that is something like this, "Joe - I want to introduce you to David Heller. He's the estate planning attorney I mentioned to you when we last met. I've included him on this email so the two of you can communicate directly." From this I can reply to the email and begin the communication with the potential client.