The NYSUT Member Benefits Trust-endorsed Group Prepaid Legal Service Plan is only available for purchase by local associations, their benefit funds and employers. This plan is not available to individual NYSUT members, who can click here to learn more about our endorsed voluntary Legal Service Plan.
The Group Prepaid Legal Service Plan provides a variety of legal services at no cost to the participant. It offers many of the same benefits as the Group Access Legal Service Plan along with 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 five attorneys to more than 40 attorneys since that time, and the network of participating referral attorneys now exceeds 500 firms in New York State and several hundred firms in other jurisdictions across the U.S.
ELIGIBILITY & COST OF PLAN:
This plan is only available for purchase by local associations, their benefit funds and employers. The Group Prepaid Legal Service Plan covers all group participants, their spouses or domestic partners who are living with the Plan participant, unmarried dependent children under the age of 19 (or under 25 if the child is dependent upon the Plan participant and enrolled as a full-time student), and dependent parents.
The Group Prepaid Legal Service Plan costs $72 per plan participant per year.
Learn more about purchasing this program through your local association.
For more information, contact Member Benefits at 800-626-8101 weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (EST).
PLAN FEATURES:
The Group Prepaid Legal Service Plan provides participants with a variety of 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 with the National Legal Office
- Three (3) one-hour office consultations per year
- A toll-free 24-hour Hotline for emergencies
- Legal letters written & phone calls made on participants’ behalf
- Document review
- Two (2) sets of legal documents per year, including a Simple Will, Living Will, Health Care Proxy & Power of Attorney
- Estate planning seminar or Will Day
- Two real estate transactions in any five-year period (reimbursement of up to $300 per transaction for attorney’s fees when attorney does not participate in plan)
- Legal adoption & guardianship proceedings
- Simple Testamentary Trust or Revocable Living Trust, if appropriate
- Traffic matters & DWI (up to 10 hours of attorney time, representation in court available once in a 12-month period)
- Family & marital relations (up to 55 hours of attorney time, but not more than 20 hours on a single matter)
- Legal change of surname
- Bankruptcy & foreclosure (up to 20 hours of attorney time)
- Consumer protection
- Personal injury (no cost to participant unless a recovery is made; attorneys are then entitled to 25% of recovery)
- Probate & estate administration (fees are a percentage of the estate’s assets; plan attorneys reduce those fees by 35%)
- Elder law services
If any Group Prepaid Legal Service Plan benefit allowance is exhausted, the plan attorney will bill at a reduced hourly rate ($285 an hour) for all time needed to conclude the matter. If it would be ethically improper to represent the participant or the law firm has a conflict of interest, separate arrangements will be made for an outside counsel to represent the participant and the plan will pay up to a maximum of $3,000 for outside counsel fees.
All Group 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.
HOW TO IMPLEMENT A PLAN:
Once the decision has been made to purchase the NYSUT Member Benefits Trust-endorsed Group Prepaid Legal Service Plan on a group basis, you can follow the steps below to assist with implementing the plan:
- Contact NYSUT Member Benefits at 800-626-8101.
- 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.
The NYSUT Member Benefits Trust-endorsed Group Prepaid Legal Service Plan is provided by Feldman, Kramer & Monaco, P.C. and is administered by the NYSUT Member Benefits Trust.
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 endorsement arrangement of 13% 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.