About Spalding Law
Jennifer M. Spalding
Attorney Jennifer M. Spalding focuses her practice on helping families enhance their lives today and secure their futures tomorrow. She excels in guiding her clients through the often confusing process of financial and legal decisions to create plans that ensure the well-being of their families and the accomplishment of cherished family goals. Whether you are married or single, with a traditional or blended family, just starting out or looking back on a life well-lived, Jennifer will help you craft a plan that achieves your goals for your loved ones today and for years to come.
In addition to estate planning, Jennifer M. Spalding works closely with seniors and their families to plan for the transition to an assisted living or nursing home facility. A move such as this often involves a strategic discussion about protecting and spending down assets and applying for Medical Assistance (Medicaid). Jennifer is well-versed in this government program and welcomes the opportunity to counsel families through this challenging time.
Jennifer was born and raised in Minnesota. She attended the University of St. Thomas where she majored in Political Science. Following college, she attended William Mitchell College of Law where she graduated in 2003. Jennifer is admitted to the State of Minnesota, the United States District Court for the State of Minnesota, and the United States Supreme Court. Jennifer is a member of the Minnesota State Bar Association and the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) where she serves on the Board of Directors for the Minnesota Chapter.
Most importantly, Jennifer M. Spalding is married and has two teenage boys, Dylan and Ryan. When she is not counseling clients on the importance of planning, you will find her on the sidelines cheering Dylan on at cross-country meets and Ryan on at soccer games. If it is wintertime, she is bundled up at the rink cheering them on at hockey, admittedly her favorite sport to watch.
Attorney Jennifer M. Spalding focuses her practice on helping families enhance their lives today and secure their futures tomorrow. She excels in guiding her clients through the often confusing process of financial and legal decisions to create plans that ensure the well-being of their families and the accomplishment of cherished family goals. Whether you are married or single, with a traditional or blended family, just starting out or looking back on a life well-lived, Jennifer will help you craft a plan that achieves your goals for your loved ones today and for years to come.
In addition to estate planning, Jennifer works closely with seniors and their families to plan for the transition to an assisted living or nursing home facility. A move such as this often involves a strategic discussion about protecting and spending down assets and applying for Medical Assistance (Medicaid). Jennifer is well-versed in this government program and welcomes the opportunity to counsel families through this challenging time.
Jennifer was born and raised in Minnesota. She attended the University of St. Thomas where she majored in Political Science. Following college, she attended William Mitchell College of Law where she graduated in 2003. Jennifer is admitted to the State of Minnesota, the United States District Court for the State of Minnesota, and the United States Supreme Court. Jennifer is a member of the Minnesota State Bar Association and the National Association of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) where she serves on the Board of Directors for the Minnesota Chapter.
Most importantly, Jennifer is married and has two teenage boys, Dylan and Ryan. When she is not counseling clients on the importance of planning, you will find her on the sidelines cheering Dylan on at cross-country meets and Ryan on at soccer games. If it is wintertime, she is bundled up at the rink cheering them on at hockey, admittedly her favorite sport to watch.
How Spalding Law Office is Different?
Explaining to you how our firm is different requires an explanation of what the “traditional” experience with an estate planning attorney is like. During the traditional experience, you’ll go in and meet with a lawyer who will ask you a series of questions. You’ll nod and answer these questions as if you understand everything. Because you want to do the right thing for your family, you hire that lawyer to prepare a set of estate planning documents. The lawyer prepares the documents for you and you sign them, feeling relieved that you’ve got that taken care of.
You’ll take your documents home, stick them on a shelf or in a drawer, mark estate planning off on your checklist as DONE, and never think about it again. Over the years, you may buy, sell or refinance your house or even purchase real estate outside of Minnesota. You may acquire new assets and investments. Your children will get older, making your guardianship choices outdated and eventually obsolete as they reach adulthood. Despite these changes over time, you never follow up with your lawyer and you never hear from him or her again.
It’s not until you become incapacitated or die and your family finds the documents you stuck up on a shelf years earlier and never looked at again, that they’ll realize your plan is so outdated that it does nothing to help them now that you are incapacitated or gone. Your family is at a loss. They don’t know where to turn or what to do, so they contact the same lawyer you used to prepare the documents, who is as happy as can be to probate your assets and generate $4,000 – $6,000 or more in fees.
How do I know this?
Because I see it every day in my estate administration (probate) practice. Clients come in with the will or trust of a loved one who has recently passed away. The estate planning documents are 5, 10, 15+ years old and do very little to help the loved ones they have left behind. It often creates conflict in the family and results in costly and lengthy court proceedings.
We are with you every step of the way.
What makes our firm different is that we are not just here to create a set of documents that you will likely never update or look at again, we are here to build a relationship with you and your family and to educate and empower you to make the best decisions for your loved ones. And we will be here to ensure your loved ones have someone to turn to when you are no longer here.
We understand you are BUSY, you desire a life of prosperity and you value ease, convenience and efficiency. You want to know you’ve made the best decisions for your family during your lifetime and you want your family to know that you love them so much that you prepared them for the possibility of your incapacity and eventual passing in the best way possible. Because let’s face it, you are not planning for yourself as much as you are planning for the people you love the most.
To that end, we have a system in place that allows you to complete your planning from start to finish as efficiently as possible. This system starts by getting you more financially organized than you have ever been before. And once your planning is complete, we ensure the most important details of your planning are followed through on and help you make sure your plan continues to work throughout your lifetime.
We also understand that for many families, minor children are at the forefront of your planning. You want to make sure your children will be taken care of and that they will be properly prepared to receive your assets, when it is time. That’s our focus too. But we don’t stop there. We also prepare a comprehensive plan for the short term if something should happen to you.
When we discuss family wealth at our firm, we are talking about so much more than financial wealth. We believe family wealth encompasses everything you care about even more than money, your values, insights, stories, experience — your intellectual, spiritual and human assets. We will give you the guidance you need to consider and plan for these most often lost assets. It’s part of every plan.
Finally, we encourage communication with our clients. In fact, we’ve thrown out the time clocks, so you never have to be afraid to call with a quick question (or even a not so quick question). All our estate planning work is billed on a flat-fee basis, agreed to in advance, so there are never any surprises.
I look forward to seeing you and caring for your family soon!
Jennifer M. Spalding
