Group Prepaid Legal Service Plan

What It Is

The NYSUT Member Benefits Trust-endorsed Group Prepaid Legal Service Plan is only available for purchase by local associations, their benefit funds, and employers. The Group Prepaid Legal Service Plan provides many legal services at no cost to the participant. It offers many of the same benefits as the Group Access Legal Service Plan plus additional benefits.

The law firm of Feldman, Kramer & Monaco, P.C. has been the service provider for the Group Legal Service Plan since 1980 and acts as the Legal Plan’s National Legal Office. Their firm has grown from 5 attorneys to more than 40 attorneys during these past 20 years, and the network of participating referral attorneys now exceeds 500 firms in New York state and several hundred firms in other jurisdictions across America.

The law firm of Feldman, Kramer & Monaco, P.C. has been honored by the largest, oldest and most prestigious law firm rating company, Martindale-Hubbell, which has awarded them the highest possible rating of "A-V". Several major newspapers and television news shows have featured exclusive stories on the firm and its unique delivery of cost-effective legal service plans.

The Group Prepaid Legal Service Plan provided through Feldman, Kramer & Monaco, P.C. is a NYSUT Member Benefits Trust (Member Benefits)-endorsed program. Member Benefits has an expense reimbursement/endorsement arrangement of 15% of annual participation fees received for this program. All such payments to Member Benefits are used solely to defray the costs of administering its various programs and, where appropriate, to enhance them. Member Benefits acts as your advocate; please contact Member Benefits at (800) 626-8101 if you experience a problem with any endorsed program.

Agency fee payers to NYSUT are eligible to participate in NYSUT Member Benefits Trust-endorsed programs.

Eligibility

The NYSUT Member Benefits Trust-endorsed Group Prepaid Legal Service Plan is only available for purchase by local associations, their benefit funds, and employers.

The Prepaid Legal Service Plan covers all group participants, their spouses or domestic partners who are living with the Plan participant, and dependent children under 19. Dependent children to age 25 who are full-time students are eligible for some of the services provided by the Prepaid Plan.

The optional Elder Law Rider covers all group participants and their spouses (or domestic partners), parents, parents-in-law, grandparents and grandparents-in-law.

Features

The Prepaid Plan provides participants with these free legal benefits relating to personal legal matters. Contact is via a toll-free number to the National Legal Office of Feldman, Kramer & Monaco, P.C:

• telephone advice
• 6 half-hour office consultations per year
• a toll-free 24-hour Hotline for emergencies
• legal letters written and phone calls made on participants’ behalf
• document review
• 1 Simple Will per qualified individual per year
• Preventive Law Guide newsletter
• estate planning seminar or Will Day
• 3 real estate transactions in any 5-year period (reimbursement of up to $300 per transaction for attorney’s fees when attorney does not participate in plan)
• legal adoption and guardianship proceedings
• Living Will and Health Care Proxy
• Simple Testamentary Trust or Revocable Living Trust, if appropriate
• traffic matters and DWI (up to 10 hours of attorney time, representation in court available once in a 12-month period)
• Power of Attorney
• Family and marital relations (up to 75 hours of attorney time, but not more than 40 on a single matter)
• legal change of surname
• bankruptcy and foreclosure (up to 20 hours of attorney time)
• consumer protection
• personal injury (no cost to participant unless a recovery is made, when attorneys are entitled to 25% of recovery)
• probate and estate administration (fees are a percentage of the estate’s assets; plan attorneys reduce those fees by 35%).

If any Prepaid Plan benefit allowance is exhausted, the Plan attorney will bill at a reduced hourly rate ($125 an hour) for all time needed to conclude the matter.

If it would be ethically improper to represent the participant, or if the law firm has a conflict of interest, then separate arrangements will be made for an outside counsel to represent the participant and the Plan will pay up to a maximum of $1,000 for outside counsel fees.

All Prepaid Legal Service Plan contributions made by an employer or benefit fund are taxable and must be included on the participant’s W-2 form. This will subject the amount included on the W-2 Form to withholding of income taxes and Social Security taxes. For participants who are not actively employed but are participating in the Group Prepaid Legal Service Plan, any taxable amounts would be reported to them on Form 1099-Miscellaneous. However, it is not necessary to issue a Form 1099-Miscellaneous unless the individual has received legal service contributions or legal service benefits in excess of $600. In most cases, there will be no tax withholdings required in connection with the issuance of a Form 1099-Miscellaneous.

Plan Options

An optional Elder Law Rider can be purchased for the Prepaid Legal Service Plan, which provides access to a national panel of attorneys who specialize in elder and health law, estate planning, wills, trusts, pre-nursing home planning, probate and conservatorship. Participants who use the services of Elder Law attorneys receive a 20% discount off their usual fees. The rider also provides one free Legal Security Package per participant or covered dependent per year. Package includes a Health Care Proxy, Living Will, Power of Attorney and Simple Will.

Cost of Plan

The Group Prepaid Legal Service Plan costs $55 per Plan participant per year.

The cost of the optional Elder Law Rider is an additional $15 per Plan participant per year.

For further information, please contact Member Benefits toll-free at (800)626-8101, weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern Time.

NYSUT Member Benefits Trust-endorsed Group Prepaid Legal Service Plan is provided by Feldman, Kramer & Monaco, P.C. and is administered by NYSUT Member Benefits Trust.

Implement A Plan

Once the decision has been made to purchase the NYSUT Member Benefits Trust-endorsed Prepaid Legal Service Plan on a group basis, here’s what needs to be done to implement this plan:

• Send letter of intent to purchase plan to NYSUT Member Benefits Trust.
• Provide contact name/address/phone number.
• Contact will be mailed a copy of Local Association’s membership list.
• Contact makes additions and deletions to list so that list reflects eligibility for legal plan and returns it to Member Benefits.
• Membership cards and certificates of coverage mailed to either contact person or members’ home addresses.
• Membership presentation.
• Schedule Will Day or Estate Planning Seminar.
• Monthly billing.