VerifiedLawFirms editorial: Focus and practice areas — Elder law and estate planning sit at the center of the firm's work. Futterman Lanza, LLP is a Long Island law firm, and according to its site it has served families in the…
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About Futterman Lanza
Futterman Lanza, LLP is a law firm on Long Island, New York that focuses on elder law and estate planning. The firm was founded by Aaron E. Futterman and Ronald S. Lanza and, according to its site, has served families in the area for more than two decades.
It works from three offices: Smithtown in Suffolk County, Melville, and Garden City in Nassau County. Clients are represented across Nassau County, Suffolk County, and the wider state of New York.
Its practice covers elder law, estate planning, Medicaid and Medicare planning, trusts and asset preservation, special needs planning, powers of attorney and health care proxies, guardianships, and probate and estate administration. The firm also advises veterans and their families on benefits, and it handles personal injury matters and residential real estate transactions.
Several of its attorneys are also Certified Public Accountants. The firm has an in-house Medicaid department and includes licensed social workers and paralegals on staff. It offers free initial consultations and flat-fee billing for most cases.
Editor's Review
VerifiedLawFirms editorial
Focus and practice areas
Elder law and estate planning sit at the center of the firm's work. Futterman Lanza, LLP is a Long Island law firm, and according to its site it has served families in the area for more than two decades. The work covers the legal questions that come with aging and the transfer of wealth to the next generation.
The practice areas run wider than those two headings suggest. The firm handles Medicaid and Medicare planning, trusts and asset preservation, and special needs planning. It also prepares powers of attorney and health care proxies, takes on guardianships, and manages probate and estate administration.
Around that core, the firm advises veterans and their families on benefits. It handles personal injury matters and residential real estate transactions as well. In my opinion, that range still reads as a firm organized around one client: the older adult and the family planning around them.
How the team is built
Futterman Lanza is built around a group of named attorneys led by its two founders. The founding partners are Aaron E. Futterman and Ronald S. Lanza. The site also names Jaclyn T. Kramer, Barrie E. Bazarsky, Mark R. Blaustein, Wayne R. Carrabus, Robert M. D'Angelillo, Anna Gavrysh, Jamie L. Larkin, Howard J. Atlas, Christine L. McVicker, and Robin S. Messinger.
Several of the attorneys hold a Certified Public Accountant license alongside their law degrees. That accounting background carries weight in this area, where Medicaid eligibility and estate tax turn on numbers as much as on legal drafting. The firm keeps an in-house Medicaid department and has licensed social workers and paralegals on staff.
As a reviewer, I read that mix as a sign the firm keeps the financial and care-planning side of elder law inside its own office. Social workers on a legal team often help families sort out care options and the paperwork that runs alongside the legal filings. That setup can shorten the distance between the legal advice and the practical steps a family has to take.
The founders and their background
Aaron E. Futterman co-founded the firm with Ronald S. Lanza. He earned his J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law and was admitted to the New York bar in 1999. He became a Certified Public Accountant in 1995, ahead of his legal career.
Before starting the firm, Futterman worked for several years at a Long Island elder law and estate planning firm. Earlier, he worked as a CPA at two large public accounting firms. His own practice covers estate planning, tax, elder law, Medicaid planning, and special needs planning.
Ronald S. Lanza is named as the other founding partner. The site carries a fuller biography for Futterman than for the rest of the attorneys, which places the combination of accounting and law at the front of the firm's story. The two names in the firm's title match the two founding partners the site still lists.
The estate planning documents the firm prepares
Estate planning covers the documents that decide what happens to a person's property and care when they can no longer act for themselves. The firm drafts wills, which direct how property passes after death and name the person who will carry out those wishes. It also sets up trusts, which hold assets under set terms and can keep some property out of the probate process.
Powers of attorney and health care proxies sit on the lifetime side of that planning. A power of attorney lets a chosen person handle financial and legal matters if the signer cannot. A health care proxy names someone to make medical decisions when the patient cannot speak for themselves. The firm prepares both as part of its elder law work.
When a person dies, the estate moves through court. Probate and estate administration run through the Surrogate's Court in the county where the person lived. The court confirms the will, if there is one, and oversees the payment of debts and the transfer of what remains. Trusts and asset preservation plans, set up earlier, can narrow what has to pass through that court.
Elder law and Medicaid planning
Medicaid planning is one of the areas the firm names, and it is where the CPA background shows. Long-term care costs push many families toward Medicaid, and eligibility depends on income and asset limits set by federal and state rules. Those rules include a look-back period that examines transfers made in the years before an application.
Planning ahead of that window is why families often come to an elder law firm early. Trusts and asset preservation tools can be part of that work, set up within the legal limits. Special needs planning follows a similar logic for families with a disabled relative, where a trust can hold assets without cutting off benefits.
Guardianship is the step a family reaches when someone can no longer manage their affairs and has no plan in place. A guardianship case goes before a court that reviews whether the person needs a guardian and who that should be. The firm handles these matters alongside the planning work that families use to prepare for such situations.
Offices and getting started
The firm works from three offices across Long Island. Its Smithtown office is in Suffolk County. The Melville and Garden City offices place it in Nassau County as well.
Clients come from Nassau County, Suffolk County, and the wider state of New York. Three locations along the island give families in both counties a place to meet close to home. Elder law often involves clients who cannot travel far, so office reach can shape who a firm can help.
The firm offers free initial consultations and flat-fee billing for most cases. A flat fee gives a family a set figure for a defined piece of work, such as drafting a plan or settling an estate. In my opinion, that pairing suits estate and elder law files, which carry court forms, financial records, and medical documents that all have to line up. Futterman Lanza builds its team around that work, and its founding partner brought both a law degree and a CPA license to the firm from its start.
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AEAaron E. FuttermanFounding Partner
Aaron E. Futterman co-founded Futterman Lanza, LLP with Ronald S. Lanza. Before starting the firm, he worked for several years at a Long Island elder law and estate planning firm. He is a Certified Public Accountant and earlier worked as a CPA at two large public accounting firms. His practice covers estate planning, tax, elder law, Medicaid planning, and special needs planning.
AGAnna Gavrysh
BEBarrie E. Bazarsky
Barrie E. Bazarsky earned a B.S., cum laude, from the State University of New York at Buffalo and a law degree from St. John's University School of Law. She is a Senior Associate at Futterman Lanza, LLP in Smithtown, New York, where she focuses on personal injury law. Her practice includes motor vehicle, motorcycle, and bicycle accidents, fall-related injuries, wrongful death cases, and matters involving older adults. Before joining the firm, she served as Managing Attorney for Jacoby & Meyers' Long Island Personal Injury Unit, handling cases in Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk Counties.
Christine L. McVicker
Christine L. McVicker is an Of Counsel attorney at Futterman Lanza, LLP, which she joined in 2017. Her practice focuses on residential real estate, estate planning, Medicaid, probate, and administration proceedings. Before joining the firm, she managed her own law firm for more than eleven years and worked as an associate attorney handling estate planning, probate, trust administration, Medicaid planning, and commercial transactions. She earned her Juris Doctor from Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Management from St. Joseph's College.
CRChristine R. Shiebler
Christine R. Shiebler is an attorney at Futterman Lanza, LLP in Smithtown, New York. She earned a B.A. from Colgate University and a J.D. from Boston University School of Law. Her practice focuses on elder law, estate planning, probate, and estate and trust litigation. She is a member of the Suffolk County Bar Association and the Suffolk County Women's Bar Association.
Howard J. Atlas
Howard J. Atlas is an attorney at Futterman Lanza, LLP in Melville, New York, where he practices Elder Law and Estate Planning and Probate. He completed his legal studies at Albany Law School with the class of 1986. Before joining Futterman Lanza, he was Principal of the Atlas Law Group for over 25 years, after which the practice merged with the firm and he became a partner. He is certified as an Elder Law Attorney by the National Elder Law Foundation and has served in leadership roles within the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, including Secretary, Vice President, and Board Member.
Jaclyn T. Kramer
Jaclyn T. Kramer is a partner at Futterman Lanza, LLP in Smithtown, New York, where she focuses on elder law and estate planning. She joined the firm in 2013. Her work includes estate planning, Medicaid asset protection, special needs planning, probate, and estate administration. She earned her Juris Doctor from the University of Minnesota Law School and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan.
Jamie L. Larkin
Jamie L. Larkin is an Associate Attorney at Futterman Lanza, LLP, based primarily in the firm's Smithtown office. Larkin's practice focuses on trust and estate administration, estate planning, and residential real estate transactions such as contracts, closings, and negotiations. Before joining Futterman Lanza, Larkin directed the trust and estate department at an elder law and estate planning firm, handling probate and trust administration matters along with estate and business transactions including entity formations, asset sales, and commercial leases. Larkin earned a Juris Doctor from Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from St. Joseph's University.
Jennifer S. Raguso
Jennifer S. Raguso is an attorney at Futterman Lanza, LLP in Smithtown, New York, which she joined in 2023. She earned her J.D. from Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center and graduated from Binghamton University. Her practice focuses on elder law, estate planning, Medicaid planning, special needs planning, trusts, and probate and estate administration. She serves as Vice Chair of the Client and Consumer Issues Committee within the New York State Bar Association's Elder Law and Special Needs Section.
Katie H. Reilly
Katie H. Reilly focuses her practice on elder law, Medicaid and asset protection planning, estate planning, and special needs planning. Before joining Futterman Lanza, LLP, she was an attorney at Atlas Law Group, which merged with Futterman Lanza. She earned her Juris Doctor from Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center in 2015 and a bachelor's degree from Adelphi University in 2011. During law school she externed for the Suffolk County Federal Court under Judge Wexler.
Kimberly Mosscrop
Mark R. Blaustein
Mark R. Blaustein is both an attorney and a Certified Public Accountant. He serves as Of Counsel at Futterman Lanza, LLP, where he focuses on estate planning, tax planning and controversies, probate and estate administration, corporate transactions, and real estate matters. Prior to joining the firm, he was the founder and managing partner of his own law firm in Garden City, New York, and previously a partner in Blaustein & Weinick, Esqs., after beginning his career at Katz and Bernstein, Esqs. He has also served as an Adjunct Professor of Business Law at Adelphi University.
Robert M. D’Angelillo
Robert M. D'Angelillo is an attorney at Futterman Lanza, LLP whose practice focuses on estate planning, estate administration, long-term care planning, and elder law matters. He assists individuals and families with wills, trusts, and guardianships for children or adults with special needs, and counsels clients on Medicaid eligibility and nursing home planning. Before joining Futterman Lanza, he led the Elder Law Division of a Suffolk County firm and served as Principal Law Clerk to the Honorable Nicholas Figueroa in the New York State Supreme Court, New York County. He works primarily from the firm's Garden City office and also meets with clients in its Smithtown and Bay Shore offices.
Robin S. Messinger
Robin S. Messinger is a New York lawyer with 30 years of experience. Messinger completed a legal education at New York Law School. Messinger is associated with Atlas Law Group in Melville, New York, and offers services in English.
RSRonald S. LanzaFounding Partner
Ronald S. Lanza co-founded Futterman Lanza, LLP with Aaron E. Futterman.
Sara M. Meyer
Wayne R. Carrabus
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